Category Archives: Penobscot County

Four districts prepare for construction projects

The Maine Department of Education School Facilities Services team is working with four districts on a total of six proposed construction projects.

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Bowen praises improvement efforts at Indian Township and Caravel Middle Schools

CARMEL – Department of Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen commended regional sharing of resources as well as professional development efforts at Indian Township School in Princeton and Caravel Middle School (RSU 87/MSAD 23) in Carmel, which he visited Thursday and Friday as part of his Promising Practices Tour.

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Two Maine schools invited to participate in AP STEM Access program

The College Board shared the following news release with the Maine DOE for publication.

AUGUSTA—Hampden Academy and Scarborough High School are among 800 schools across the country invited to participate in the AP STEM Access program, created to increase the number of traditionally underrepresented minority and female high school students that participate in Advanced Placement® courses in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) disciplines. Continue reading

Weatherbee School gets community involved in Maine Day

Fourth grade student Colin Trudelle uses a microscope to study fiber investigation.

Weatherbee School fourth grade student Colin Trudelle focuses on fiber investigation during a Maine Day paper making workshop (hosted by the Maine Discovery Museum).

George B. Weatherbee School in Hampden recently celebrated its second annual “Maine Day,” a tribute to Maine Statehood Day, by offering dozens of state-themed workshops to its third through fifth grade students on Monday, March 18.

This year’s event featured over 40 presenters, half of whom were outside visitors from the community. Presenters taught workshops that focused on Maine’s slogan: The Way Life Should Be.  Teachers assigned third grade students to workshops, but fourth and fifth graders could sign-up for the workshops that most appealed to them. Workshops included: “A Wicked Good Guide to Maine Language,” in which kids listened to a true Mainer speak and translated to people from afar; “Mission of the Maine Warden Services,” which explained game wardens’ role in protecting fish and wildlife; “Whoopie Pies,” in which students heard about the official state treat; and “Aroostook County,” a brief overview of the area and potato harvesting.

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Hermon’s Bridge Year Program keeps earning praise

The Bangor Daily News recently featured Hermon High School’s innovative Bridge Year Program as it nears the end of its successful pilot year. By June, 14 juniors will have earned up to 13.5 college credits and will be on their way to completing associate’s degrees in the year after high school graduation. Governor Paul R. LePage’s two-year budget plan calls for $1 million annually to replicate this five-year high school program in other areas of the state.

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Innovative Maine Schools selected to present at conference

The schools will share successful strategies with colleagues from across New England

AUGUSTA – Three Maine secondary schools—Falmouth High School, Sanford High School, and United Technologies Center (Bangor)—have been invited to represent the state at a regional conference on effective strategies for improving teaching and learning in the 21st century.

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Bridge Year program poised for growth

Bridge Year student Taylor Smith gives a tour of the United Technologies Center in Bangor.

Bridge Year student Taylor Smith gives a tour of the United Technologies Center in Bangor. Smith is enrolled in the business management program at UTC and hopes to become a nurse.

In the spring of 2014, fourteen Hermon High School students will graduate with a high school diploma, a year’s worth of college credits and the incentive to continue their education thanks to Hermon’s Bridge Year program, launched during the 2012-13 school year. Now the program’s steering committee is seeking funding to replicate this progressive program all over the state—and Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen recently announced to committee members and area legislators Gov. Paul R. LePage’s plan to do just that by including money for Bridge Year in his proposed budget. Continue reading

Bowen shares plans for five-year high school expansion

At an event to showcase Hermon’s Bridge Year program to area legislators on Friday, Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen told the audience the program is so promising that Gov. Paul R. LePage has included money in his proposed budget to replicate it in schools statewide.

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Bowen to honor student Veterans Day essay winners

As with many of Gov. Paul LePage’s cabinet members, Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen will be participating Monday in an event to mark Veterans Day. He will speak briefly to recognize students who have written winning essays on the theme of “What Freedom Means to Me” at the Cole Land Transportation Museum in Bangor.

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Nokomis holds “box out” for homeless

Special thanks to Jobs for Maine’s Graduates for sharing the following article with the Maine DOE for publication.

For the second year in a row, Melissa Coppa’s Jobs for Maine’s Graduates students at Nokomis Regional High School in Newport held a “Sleep-in-a-Box” event so that students could raise funds for homelessness awareness in their communities. Continue reading