The bond proposal would go to voters in November and pay for fixes at the Presumpscot, Longfellow, Lyseth and Reiche schools.
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.
Board cites long-term commitment in hiring Xavier Botana as Portland superintendent
Botana, a Cuban immigrant who is now an associate superintendent in Indiana, will start July 1 in Portland, which has had five superintendents since 2007.
Portland set to hire next superintendent, hoping for long-term leader
Xavier Botana, 53, has the credentials sought by the school board, which will vote Tuesday, and he says he wants to stay a long time.
Faculty members question UMaine System’s ‘One University’ plan
Professors tell the trustees they feel left out of the process; the board approves a new $523.4 million budget that freezes tuition for a sixth year.
At long last, University of Maine System sees surplus in its future
After years of sizable deficits that forced painful faculty and program cuts, projections hint of a budget in the black in 2021.
Portland high schools expanding Chinese language classes
The school district already offers Mandarin classes. The new arrangement will bring an instructor from China who will teach two classes at Deering High and two at Casco Bay High.
Embattled SAD 6 superintendent resigns
Frank Sherburne steps down amid pressure from parents who called for his ouster after he broke the district’s nepotism policy by hiring his son, who lacked state approval to work with students and was later charged with the sexual assault of a student in another district.
Portland changes morning bell times for some elementary and middle schools
The school district adjusts schedules effective this fall to ensure that buses don’t drop off students too early and are there at the end of the school day.
Teachers, residents say ‘the trust has been violated’ in SAD 6
Many residents of the five small towns that make up the school district are frustrated and angry about nepotism issues focused on Superintendent Frank Sherburne.
SAD 6 risked conflict of interest in using own counsel for probe
The school board strayed from the norm by not hiring an outside attorney to determine whether two members and the superintendent had violated the district’s nepotism policy.