Gorham High School Principal Brian Jandreau is flanked by assistant principals Ryan Watts and the newly hired Christina Cifelli.

GORHAM — A new administrative team in the front office at the high school is being billed as the “Dream Team.”

Brian Jandreau is principal with Ryan Watts and Christina Cifelli as the two assistant principals. The team is preparing to greet freshmen on Monday, Aug. 28, and all other high school students when classes start for them Tuesday, Aug. 29.

Jandreau, 39, and Watts, 40, filled the posts on an interim basis when school opened last year have been named permanently as principal and assistant principal. Cifelli, 34, is a recent hire, succeeding Kimberly Slipp who retired.

“To be honest, not that we haven’t had this in the past, but I believe we will be continuing a long history at GHS of having a “Dream Team” at the helm,” Superintendent Heather Perry said in a recent email to the American Journal.

The trio agrees on the importance of connecting and building strong relationships with their students. While youthful, they have plenty of experience to put toward those goals.

Jandreau worked as an English teacher at South Portland High School and as an assistant principal at Massabesic Middle School in Waterboro before becoming an assistant high school principal here for three years.

Watts was a school counselor at Oxford Hills Middle School and became a high school counselor here in 2006. He has also coached soccer.

Cifelli has 12 years experience in education, including the past nine as a guidance counselor. She comes to Gorham from Edward Little High school in Auburn.

While the School Committee dreams of a multimillion dollar high school expansion project, the three administrators will grapple this year with some brick and mortar challenges at the high school that opened in 1959. The school was renovated in the mid 1990s with a capacity to handle 750 students. Enrollment, down from 900 a few years ago, is rebounding. Last year enrollment was 835 and this year it’s about 850, Jandreau said.

Despite cramped conditions, staff and teachers appeared happy as they buzzed in and out of the main office this week. Some were hoping to see Cifelli.

“Teachers want to meet her,” Watts said.

She has met some faculty members and is looking forward to opening day. “I’m ready to go,” she said.

She said she sought the position because of Gorham’s reputation for its interest in the school’s students and the town.

For the “Dream Team,” building rapport with students is important. Cifelli has already attended a cheerleaders’ car wash and a football scrimmage.

Jandreau said teaching is an art and a science.

“There’s an art form in connecting,” Jandreau said.

The youthfulness of the high school administrators undoubtedly, too, will help them connect with students. Watts, who rides a motorcycle, said students tell him, “You’re like you’re on our level.”

In academics, students this year will receive traditional grades but with proficiency-based education assessments that indicate strengths and areas where improvements are needed.

High school students will have opportunity to take numerous courses at the University of Southern Maine. Some students will leave high school at 12:45 p.m. to take  classes at the nearby university campus and earn college credits. “We are increasingly trying to find ways to collaborate with USM,” Jandreau said.

Jandreau, the first in his family to go to college, praised a teacher’s encouragement and stressed taking an interest in students as key to inspiring them. “They begin to believe in themselves,” he said.

Robert Lowell can be reached at 854-2577 or email rlowell@keepmecurrent.com