The money will keep the 4-year-old Culture Club running for another three years.
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.
Maine delegates inspired and nostalgic after Obama speech
The president’s address at the Democratic National Convention caps a night in which Democrats make a case for Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.
Parents push $70 million plan to upgrade 4 elementary schools in Portland
They make their pitch at the first meeting of the school facilities ad hoc committee.
Court hearing on AG’s complaint over LePage’s closed-door education meeting postponed
The Maine Attorney General’s Office says an education finance reform commission meeting in April at the Blaine House should have been open to the public.
Goals vary for Maine’s delegates to Democratic National Convention
Some of the state’s 30 delegates will still support Sanders, others are pledged to Clinton and some want to end the superdelegate system.
New York man arrested in Portland heroin sting
Bobby Forte, of the Bronx, is charged with trafficking after police say they seized 180 doses of heroin from him on the Western Prom.
USM tuition would increase under UMaine System pricing plan
Students at Gorham and three other campuses in the state university system would pay a one-time increase under the proposal.
Cookbook review: ‘Cooking: How to Make Food for Your Friends, Your Family and Yourself’ and ‘You’re the Chef’
A complementary set of books teaches kids both kitchen sense and individual recipes.
Portland school board endorses $70 million renovation plan
After parents speak passionately in favor of the improvements at four elementary schools, board members reject a proposal for a $40 million borrowing plan.
Incoming Portland schools chief faces depleted leadership team
Stability was a top priority in hiring Xavier Botana, the district’s sixth superintendent in nine years, as three other administrators take their leave.