Spruce Mountain Schools: Meet the Staff!

Spruce Mountain Primary School

Angela Blaise is a Pre-Kindergarten teacher at the primary school. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in early childhood special education from the University of Maine at Farmington, and a master’s degree in education from Thomas College. She started teaching PreK in RSU 73 in September 2012. Prior to that she taught preschool at a center in Vermont, worked at Child Development Services in Farmington for 5 years; and was a program project director at UMF for 3 years. She enjoys reading, camping, skiing and spending time with her family.

Spruce Mountain Elementary School

Rebecca Spencer has been secretary at the elementary school since 2016. She is also the fifth grade drama director. Her biggest adventure was a road trip to Michigan with her two daughters. The furthest she has traveled is to England. She would love to visit Greece someday. Her favorite season is fall.

Spruce Mountain Middle School

Robin Ouellette teaches sixth grade English language arts and Social Studies at the Middle School. In 1982 she graduated from the University of Maine/Orono with a BSW degree in Social Work and Sociology. After working in this field for a brief time she worked toward and earned her teaching certification. She has taught at SMMS since 2011 and prior to that taught at Livermore Falls Middle School for 25 years. She enjoys swimming, hiking, walking and any time spent in the outdoors. She also enjoys attending concerts and spending time with family and many close friends. Robin has two daughters who are also educators and a 13-year-old yellow lab named Malley. She lives in Winthrop with her husband Steve, a former teacher and school administrator.

Spruce Mountain High School

Jan Michael Barlow is a high school art teacher and fantasy and science fiction illustrator, mostly concentrating on book covers and album covers. “My earliest childhood memory was at five years old. I remember standing on the cushion of the love seat in the living room jumping and bouncing up and down, making the statement, ‘I am not going to stop jumping until I am an artist’.” As a professional illustrator working in the field, the passion he has for creating his own work and sharing it with others are forces that help to motivate his students. “I enjoy working alongside my students, it keeps us on the same level and they learn as much and more from watching me struggle and succeed as they do from instructions.” He has a fifth degree black belt in Shaolin Kempo Karate ( Kung Fu), and has been studying martial arts for almost 30 years. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration from St. John’s University and earned his master’s in illustration from Hartford Art School. He looks forward to a future when he can pass his days away in his studio painting and gazing out the window from his second home in Thailand.