Baxter Academy is set to open to 135 ninth- and ten-grade students next week after the charter school received a temporary occupancy permit.
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 inNews
University of New England dental school opens its doors
The College of Dental Medicine in Portland has 64 students in its inaugural class, and plans to treat thousands of patients each year.
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Posted inNews
Maine gets $80K for low-income students to take AP exams
Officials said the amount should be enough to cover all but $10 of the cost of each exam.
Posted inNews
Portland charter school preparing for third city inspection
The Baxter Academy for Technology and Science must pass the inspection to get an occupancy permit to open next week.
Posted inNews
Maine schools struggling with cuts
Districts across Maine are trying to preserve core academics and get creative with athletic programs, but jobs and programs are lost.
Posted inNews, Politics
Bowen steps down as Maine education chief
He leaves Sept. 12 for a national policy post. Gov. LePage’s office has no comment on a successor.
Posted inNews
Portland charter school denied occupancy approval
The charter school plans to fix building code violations and start year one on time.
Posted inNews
Chelsea, Whitefield part of schools-based food pantry pilot program
Programs to combat hunger will be expanding when Maine’s public schools open in a few weeks, part of a growing effort to get more food in the hands of hungry children and their families.
Posted inNews
Maine gets waiver on some ‘No Child Left Behind’ requirements
The state will get flexibility, for example, on a rule that all students be proficient in math and reading by 2014, but must continue publishing A-F report cards for all schools.
Posted inNews
Maine food pantries go to school
The BackPack Program will expand serve about 200 children from eight elementary schools along the midcoast, and eight schools statewide will host food pantries.