The finalists will now have interviews and a school site visit before the teacher of the year is announced.
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.
Abuse reports, deaths, fall through the cracks in DHHS system
Families can’t count on a complex reporting system to work properly, imperiling adults with developmental disabilities who are vulnerable to abuse and neglect.
Ex-Westbrook High track coach who admitted having sex with student found dead
The body of Timothy Even, 28, of Stoneham was found Friday in his car in Lovell, an apparent suicide, Maine State Police say.
Tuition, fees unchanged in Maine Community College System
The system’s president, Derek Langhauser, says the freeze was possible because of an increase in the state appropriation.
Bowdoin relocates Confederate plaque
Jefferson Davis, who had an honorary degree, and 18 graduates who fought for the South are listed.
Portland rescinds policy requiring students to behave in class to be eligible for sports, clubs
Superintendent Xavier Botana said he realized schools weren’t yet ready to put the plan into place in time for the upcoming school year.
DHHS comes under fire on 2 fronts over damning findings in federal report
While lawmakers are demanding answers about ‘egregious lapses in oversight and management’ of care for adults with developmental disabilities, the caregivers say they are being squeezed financially.
BJ’s Wholesale fills every Maine teacher’s classroom wish list
The donation of $100,000 will go for 165 classroom projects in K-12 schools across the state.
Federal officials to review audit critical of DHHS services to developmentally disabled Mainers
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which funds services for the disabled, could require the state to change the way it responds to reports of abuse and other critical incidents.
Federal audit finds Maine failed to investigate deaths of developmentally disabled patients
The review shows the Department of Health and Human Services did not comply with federal requirements to report and monitor incidents involving abuse or deaths of disabled people in the care of community-based providers.