DATE: Mar. 6, 2008
PPS Director named:
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An administrator familiar with New Lenox School District 122 programs and families has been selected to replace Margaret Smith as the district’s director of pupil personnel services.
Ami Porte-Lewis, who has worked alongside Smith for the past two years as the district’s assistant director of pupil personnel services, will assume the director’s role July 1, 2008 when Smith retires.
“Ami is a natural choice for this position,” said Associate Superintendent Peggy Manville. “She has worked as an assistant director in the department and has been instrumental in creating an effective PPS department that focuses on supporting the needs of all our students. She exemplifies collegial spirit and her expertise in the area of special education will truly be an asset for our entire school community.”
Prior to joining the district in 2006, Porte-Lewis worked as a school psychologist with the Lincoln-Way Area Special Education Cooperative where she was responsible for evaluating children’s eligibility for special education services; assessing academic skills and aptitude for learning; working directly with children and their families to help resolve problems in academic adjustment and learning; and providing training in social skills and anger management.
She also worked as school psychologist at Homewood-Flossmoor High School, conducting psycho-educational assessments, facilitating individual and group divorce, self-esteem and social skills counseling and creating/ implementing behavior management plans. In the late ‘90s, she worked as a residential counselor at Saint Margaret Mercy Hospital in Dyer, Ind. where she supervised a unit of 15 adolescents and taught daily living skills and social skills groups. She also assessed crisis situations and initiated one-on-one meetings with suicidal and violent residents.
In New Lenox School District 122, Porte-Lewis has been instrumental in providing transitional activities for the district’s newly employed psychologists and social workers; implementing the RTI model of assessing students; and monitoring the speech/language pathologists as well as all teacher assistants.
Porte-Lewis received her bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1998 from Indiana University and her master’s degree in education from Valparaiso University in 2003. She also earned her educational specialist degree in school psychology in 2003 and her educational administration degree in 2008.
She lives in Plainfield with her husband Drew.