Following concerns over costs, lawmakers on the education committee supported an amended version of the bill. It now goes to the full Legislature.
Riley Board
Staff Writer
Riley covers education for the Press Herald. Before moving to Portland, she spent two years in Kenai, Alaska, reporting on local government, schools and natural resources for the public radio station KDLL as part of the Report for America program. Riley originally hails from Sarasota, Florida, and is a graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont, where she served as the editor-in-chief of the college’s student newspaper, The Campus. She has interned at the Burlington Free Press, and at the Smithsonian Institution’s Folklife Magazine in Washington, D.C. Outside of work, Riley is passionate about roller skating, cooking and her cat, Edgar.
Posted inMaine, News, Politics, Schools and Education
Supporters object to trans sports referendum ballot language
The secretary of state released draft language this week for how the initiative, which seeks to limit school sports participation and use of bathrooms and similar spaces to a student’s assigned sex at birth, would appear on the November ballot.
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Posted inMaine, News, Politics, Schools and Education
A commission spent more than a year studying Maine’s school construction crisis. What now?
An amended bill passed by the education committee incorporates some of the commission’s recommendations, but a $100 million price tag might scare lawmakers.
Posted inMaine, News, Politics, Schools and Education
Statewide bell-to-bell ban on cellphones in schools moves a step closer to reality
The Legislature’s budget committee this week supported funding and language Gov. Janet Mills proposed in her supplemental budget. If the House and Senate follow suit, Maine would join 23 other states with similar policies.
Posted inMaine, News, Schools and Education
US Supreme Court won’t hear Maine case about parental rights on gender in schools
Amber Lavigne sued a Damariscotta-based school district in 2023, arguing it violated her rights by not informing her about her 13-year-old’s gender expression.
Posted inMaine, News, Politics, Schools and Education
Mills ups the pressure for permanent free community college in her final year as governor
The two-term Democratic governor now running for U.S. Senate has visited campuses recently in an effort to get one of her signature policies funded.
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Maine, News, Schools and Education
UMaine alum, TV star Timothy Simons will give 2026 commencement speech
The Readfield native best known for his roles in ‘Nobody Wants This’ and ‘Veep’ graduated from the Orono university in 2001.
Posted inMaine, News, Schools and Education
Facing $18M deficit, UMaine plans to increase tuition, cut costs, eliminate staff
The state’s flagship university announced it intends to raise tuition by 4% and cut more than $10 million from its budget but declined to provide details about what programs and positions are being axed.
Posted inMaine, News, Politics, Schools and Education
Maine’s school funding formula could be changed for first time in 20 years
Following a major amendment, the education committee pushes forward significant changes to the Essential Programs and Services formula that education leaders said are long overdue.
Posted inMaine, News, Schools and Education
Maine’s early childhood intervention system was broken. Schools are taking over.
Fifty school districts have already assumed control of preschool and pre-K special education from the state and many more will follow suit in the fall. Although challenges persist, district leaders say the shift has benefited students.