Trustees are asked to sign off on $15 million in first-stage funding to get it off the ground.
Noel K. Gallagher
Noel Gallagher covers K-12 and higher education issues statewide. Her stories are a mix of breaking news and trend stories. In recent years, they’ve ranged from why college costs so much, the launch of the state’s first charter schools, how a school welcomed a transgender student and why Maine schools have a hard time finding teachers. She’s enough of a news nerd to enjoy sitting through legislative education committee meetings and hours-long school board meetings so you don’t have to.
The Maine Press Association has honored Noel’s work, but she says she writes for the readers, in the firm belief that an informed citizenry is key to a healthy democracy.
Noel is a California native who has worked at wire services, online websites and newspapers across the country. She was in Washington D.C. during the early Clinton years, covering AIDS activism in 1990s San Francisco, documenting the business of wine in Sonoma County and riding out the boom and bust cycle of the early Internet era in early 2000s Silicon Valley. She arrived in Maine at the beginning of the recession and wrote quite a bit about the downturn here.
In her free time, Noel writes the occasional cookbook review, spends an inordinate amount of time at the Portland Public Library and hangs out with her three fabulous kids and wonderful husband. She is not a former member of the band Oasis.
Alternative school drops bid to be new charter school
Wayfinder says it will stay focused on its work with pregnant teens and high school dropouts.
Two Maine charter schools get strong support for renewal
A state commission must decide whether to renew the charters of two schools that have been open for five years, the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences and the Cornville Regional Charter School.
State fire officials investigating fatal Boothbay blaze
A posting on a fundraising site for one injured victim, whose son was one of the two men killed, says she is in intensive care with third-degree burns.
Two dead, four injured in Boothbay house fire
A family had been renting the house to celebrate the 50th birthday of one of the men killed in the fire.
Millions flowing into Maine to influence referendum results in November
Much of the $9.5 million came from out of state, and groups tied to the background check question took in the most.
Alternative school’s application still alive after Maine charter commission splits vote
The commission’s review team had recommended against moving to the next step on Wayfinder Academy’s application to be the state’s 10th charter school.
Maine will have 2nd highest top tax rate in U.S. if Question 2 passes
If voters approve Question 2, households with incomes of more than $200,000 would pay the second-highest tax rate in the nation, which would raise $159 million for schools.
Maine Community College System to request 13 percent increase in state funding
Most of the money would pay for expanding programs to train the types of workers needed by Maine’s businesses.
Support for tax to fund education splits along party lines in survey
But those in favor of requiring wealthy earners to pay more hold a distinct advantage – 60 percent.