In this file photo, Martel Elementary School students leave at the end of a school day. Martel and Longley Elementary School students will be blended in 2019 when Connors Elementary School opens. A search for a new principal will be launched next year.  (Sun Journal file photo)

LEWISTON — This fall and winter Lewiston Superintendent Bill Webster will launch a national search to find a principal for Connors Elementary School, set to open in fall 2019. 

The school is under construction next to Lewiston High School. It will merge Longley and Martel elementary schools and hold more than 800 pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade pupils.

Webster expects to have a principal nomination to the Lewiston School Committee in February 2019.

This fall, community meetings will be held at Martel and Longley schools to hear from parents, staff and the community on what characteristics they want in the new school principal, Webster said.

The job of Connors Elementary School principal “is both a daunting position and also an exciting opportunity for someone out there,” Webster said. The new school will not only blend two schools but children from two cultures.

The majority of Longley pupils are from the Somali immigrant community, and the majority of Martel students are white. 

“We have the potential to attract some outstanding candidates,” Webster said. “Not very many people get to open a new school and blend students from different cultures.”

In this file photo, Longley Elementary School students leave at the end of a school day. Martel and Longley Elementary School students will be blended in 2019 when Connors Elementary School opens. A search for a new principal will be launched next year. (Sun Journal file photo)