The measure, backed by the Legislature’s Education Committee, would then relieve school districts of the responsibility and the difficulty.
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.
Posted inLocal & State, News, Politics, Schools and Education
To make up for snow days, bill calls for longer school days
Several Maine districts now face the possibility of holding Saturday classes, adding days to the end of the school year or holding classes during April vacation week.
advertisement
Posted inLocal & State, News, Schools and Education
S&P downgrades UMaine System outlook to negative
The credit rating firm cites declining enrollment and the high turnover among leadership at the seven system campuses.
Posted inNews, Politics, Schools and Education
Panel votes to shift Maine teachers’ retirement costs back to state
Just two years ago, the state moved some teacher retirement costs onto school districts.
Posted inNews, Schools and Education
USM names former dean to lead Metropolitan University initiative
Lynn Kuzma, now an associate professor, will serve a 12-month term overseeing USM’s effort to form new partnerships with the community.
Posted inLocal & State, News, Schools and Education
Maine won’t issue A-F grades to schools this year
A new assessment test in use means grading of schools will happen next in the fall of 2016 with two years of data.
Posted inLocal & State, News
One of 3 candidates for USM president drops out
Jose Sartarelli, the chief global officer and dean of the business school at West Virginia University, withdraws his name after visiting the campus and deciding it wasn’t ‘a good fit.’
Posted inLocal & State, News, Schools and Education
UMaine professor whose laptop was stolen violated university’s data policy
Students’ Social Security numbers shouldn’t have been on the laptop, says an official who’s looking into why the sensitive information was stored there.
Posted inLocal & State, News, Politics
For Maine’s Sen. Angus King, moderate stance, unpredictability paying off
‘I may be in a more effective position as a legislator in the minority,’ says the independent in an interview with the editorial board of the Press Herald/Telegram.
Posted inLocal & State, Schools and Education
Candidate for USM presidency touts administrative experience
Harvey Kesselman, provost and executive vice president at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, visits the University of Southern Maine in his bid for its presidency.