WASHINGTON — More than 3,000 former Corinthian College students will have their college loans erased, the first wave of debt relief tied to the collapse of the for-profit higher education chain. The potential cost to taxpayers if all Corinthian students seek relief: $3.2 billion.

So far, almost 12,000 students have asked the federal government to discharge their college loan debt, asserting that their school either closed or lied to them about job prospects, according to a report released Thursday by the Education Department.

About 3,100 closed-school claims have so far been approved – totaling about $40 million in student loans, the department said.

While unprecedented, the figures represent just a fraction of the students who might qualify for debt relief.

Education Undersecretary Ted Mitchell told reporters in a press call that processing remaining claims will take some time.

WATERVILLE — Waterville Senior High School Principal Don Reiter is on paid administrative leave for a reason school and police officials would not reveal Saturday – and which Reiter’s attorney said he and Reiter don’t know.

“We are being kept in the dark,” Portland lawyer Gregg Frame said Saturday.

Eric Haley, superintendent of Alternative Organizational Structure 92, which includes Waterville, Winslow and Vassalboro schools, said Reiter was placed on paid administrative leave Tuesday. Haley and Assistant Superintendent Peter Thiboutot are conducting an investigation, Haley said.

“There’s an internal investigation and it’s been reported to the police, and the police have an active investigation,” he said.

Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey on Saturday confirmed an investigation is taking place and said police will complete it as soon as possible. He said the case was reported to police Thursday, but he would reveal no further details.

“All I can say is that, yes, we are conducting an investigation,” Massey said. “That’s all I can say at this point.”

Contacted Saturday, Reiter referred questions to Frame.

Frame, of the law firm, Taylor, McCormack & Frame, said he and Reiter are scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon with Haley and the school district’s attorney “to find out exactly what this is about.”

“Don’s been a principal nine years and an administrator 16 years and has an unblemished record, and we’re anxious to know exactly what’s going on,” Frame said. “And we’re certainly looking forward to speaking with the superintendent to understand why he’s been put on leave.”

Frame said Reiter wants the chance to understand just what the reasons are for the administrative leave and, if necessary, to clear his name so that he can return to work.

Haley said that as school superintendent, he has authority to put someone on paid administrative leave, which he did, and he informed the Waterville Board of Education about the action.

He said he doesn’t know when Reiter would return to work.

“We do not know. It depends on the findings of what both investigations are,” Haley said.

He said he informed high school teachers Friday about Reiter having been placed on paid administrative leave.

“I told the staff yesterday that during his absence, Assistant Principal Brian Laramee will be acting principal,” Haley said.

Contacted Saturday, both School Board Chairman Sara Sylvester and longtime board member Joan Phillips-Sandy referred questions about Reiter to Haley.

Reiter has been principal since 2007, when the School Board voted 7-0 to approve a recommendation by Haley and a search committee to hire him. He came with his wife, Terri, to Waterville from Buckfield Junior-Senior High School, where he had been principal for three years.

A resident of Mount Vernon, Reiter holds a master’s degree from the University of Southern Maine and a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Brown University. He also completed an extended teacher education program at USM.

Reiter taught social studies for six years at Mascenic Regional High School in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, and after two years, he became chairman of the social studies/foreign language department there. Two years later, he became assistant principal and was certified as an administrator.

Five hundred and fifty-nine students are enrolled at Waterville Senior High School, which employs about 51 teachers, according to Haley.

Amy Calder can be contacted at 861-9247 or at:

acalder@centralmaine.com

Twitter: AmyCalder17

A half-dozen Ocean Avenue Elementary School students, accompanied by their parents with coffee mugs and dog leashes in hand, walked down Edwards Street last Thursday morning to wait for the school bus beside the commuter traffic on Congress Street.

Not among them was 8-year-old Zeke Podolsky. His father decided that driving his third-grader to school was the only option after learning the bus stop had been moved from the corner of a quiet side street to the busy corridor.

“It’s just a disaster waiting to happen,” Michael Podolsky said.

Parents who were at the stop weren’t pleased either, and others with children assigned to wait on Auburn Street and Brighton Avenue also have concerns about the safety of the new consolidated bus routes. For now, the Portland school district has no plans to make changes.

“The bus stops are along sidewalks, which have plenty of room,” said Craig Worth, the district’s deputy chief operations officer. “At this point, we plan to keep them as is.”

Worth said he didn’t know how many complaints the school district has received from parents concerned about bus stop safety.

If no changes are made, Jim Streeter or his wife will start driving their two kids to Lyseth Elementary School. That may leave their stop on the corner of Auburn Street and Washington Avenue Extension without any student bus riders.

Streeter’s kindergartener hasn’t started school yet, so his first-grader was the only one at the bus stop Thursday.

After trying out the new stop on the first day of school Wednesday, Streeter said, all the other parents decided to go to other stops or drive their kids themselves.

“There’s just got to be another way,” he said.

SIDE EFFECT OF FEWER BUS RUNS

The school district decided to consolidate bus routes this year in conjunction with a change in school start times and a new requirement that high school students use city buses, freeing up more of the fleet.

Last year, buses made as many as three trips to each school in order to pick up and drop off all the students, some of whom wouldn’t get home until an hour and a half after school ended, Worth said.

With more buses available and two elementary start times, the idea this year was to get all students from each school on and off in one trip, with buses making one run for the schools that start earlier, then another for the later schools.

But with just 20 minutes between start times, the trips have to be quick. That’s why the routes were relocated to main streets, rather than stopping on side streets like they used to do. However, some of the main streets are heavily traveled, some with more than 10,000 cars a day.

That means the bus coming down Congress Street halts commuter traffic at the corner of nearly every side street in Libbytown during the morning rush hour.

Nicole Gordon, whose fifth-grader, Charlie, catches the school bus at the corner of Edwards Street at 7:40 a.m., said she saw two cars drive right past the stop sign on the school bus Wednesday.

Deb Breiting, whose two girls also use the stop, said she worries about cars cutting through Edwards Street to get from Congress to Brighton. She’s even seen them cut through the parking lot of Eddie’s Nails, where the kids have been waiting.

Lauren Dietlin has taught her third-grader, Everett, not to walk into the street, but you never know what kids might do, she said.

“You don’t want to stand at the bus stop and hold your kids’ hands like they’re in chains,” Dietlin said.

But that might be the only option for some parents.

“I have to get to work. I can’t drive my kids to school,” said Margaret Carignan, who was waiting Thursday with her 8-year-old son, Scott.

MORE SAFETY CONCERNS IN WINTER

Parents say they’d happily have their children ride the bus for a longer period of time if it meant safer stops. And they’re quick to note that their concerns have nothing to do with wanting the stops to be closer to their houses. They said they’re concerned only with safety, and they want to meet with the district soon to air their concerns.

The parents say they’ll have even more concerns in the winter, when snow from plows is likely to pile up on sidewalks that don’t get cleared right away.

Streeter said the district has promised to remove snow from the stop, but he doesn’t believe it.

Worth said the district will continue to monitor the situation and is not opposed to making changes if necessary, but he said right now, it’s just too early to tell.

“As winter conditions start, we may have to modify things,” he said.

NEW LONDON, N.H. — Three nursing students have sued a New Hampshire college after they failed a required course that was overbooked.

The students from Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island say Colby-Sawyer College needed to “thin the herd” of nursing students, so it failed them.

Colby-Sawyer requires its nursing students to complete a course — usually in the sophomore year — that includes classroom instruction, lab work and a clinical internship. The pass-fail course taught in the spring is limited to 36 students; the lawsuit says 51 students applied for it in 2014.

The college offered the remaining 15 students three options, including a summer course taken by the three who sued. Of the 15 students who took the summer course, 11 failed, were induced to changed majors or left the program. The summer course cost the students $1,800 in tuition plus $100 a week for room and board.

The lawsuit claims the three students — JoAnna Densmore of New Gloucester, Maine; Julia Shriver of Mansfield, Massachusetts; and Kristina Fuccillo of Smithfield, Rhode Island — started off well with a substitute professor who praised their work for three weeks. Then, when the regular instructor returned, the students were held to a higher standard than those students who had completed the coursework in the spring semester, the suit said. The students say they were assessed unfairly compared with other students in the summer program and weren’t given required evaluations or plans to improve performance.

In the lawsuits filed in August in U.S. District courts in the women’s home states, they claim Colby-Sawyer saw that it had too many nursing students heading into the 2015 and 2016 academic years so it orchestrated a plan to reduce the number.

Brad Cook, a lawyer for the private college, says Colby-Sawyer treated the students fairly and went out of its way to help them meet requirements.

The suit claims deceptive business practices and breach of contract. The students want a judge to order Colby-Sawyer to remove the failing grades from their transcripts, award undisclosed damages and pay their legal costs.

Portland school board member and youth engagement specialist Pious Ali is one of five nominees for a $100,000 grant from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation.

The foundation, an education philanthropic organization, selects one nominee each from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont and allows online voting to dictate the winner. The online poll, which allows one vote per email address, closes Sept. 30.

Ali is a leader for Portland Empowered, a Nellie Mae-funded project that works to build leadership among mostly marginalized parents and young people, and supports efforts to implement student-centered learning at Portland’s high schools. Ali is also a youth and community engagement specialist at the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service, which receives Nellie Mae funding to be the lead community partner for Portland Empowered.

The Lawrence W. O’Toole Award is given annually to an individual, organization, school or district for advancing student-centered approaches to learning. Last year, Casco Bay High School Principal Derek Pierce won the award.

Bowdoin College remains a top liberal arts college in the nation, coming in fourth in annual college rankings released Wednesday by U.S. News & World Report. Bowdoin was ranked fifth overall last year.

The news magazine releases several “best of” lists at once, from best national universities and best schools for veterans to “Top A+ schools for B Students.” Princeton University remained the top school in the best national universities category, while Williams College again was the top national liberal arts college. The University of California, Berkeley is the top public national university.

Many institutions and groups release “best of” lists ranking higher education institutions, and U.S. News has been releasing its annual list for more than 30 years. The news magazine evaluates schools on up to 16 measures of academic quality, with 30 percent of the ranking based on graduation and retention rates.

Maine colleges and their rankings are:

• Best liberal arts colleges: Colby College (19), Bates College (25), and College of the Atlantic (82). The news magazine evaluated the nation’s 217 private and 27 public liberal arts colleges, which are schools that emphasize undergraduate education and award at least half of their degrees in the arts and sciences.

• Best national universities: University of Maine at Orono (168), up from 173 last year.

• Best regional colleges: Maine Maritime Academy (7), University of Maine at Farmington (19), Unity College (28), UMaine Fort Kent (38), UMaine Presque Isle (40) and Thomas College (44). Regional colleges offer a full range of undergraduate programs and some master’s level programs, but few, if any, doctoral programs.

• Best regional universities: University of New England (83).

In the best colleges for veterans lists, Maine colleges were: Bowdoin (4) and Colby (15) for liberal arts colleges, and Unity College (22), UMaine Farmington (14), and UMaine Fort Kent (29) for regional colleges.

In the best value listing for liberal arts colleges, Maine schools were College of the Atlantic (11), Bowdoin (12), Colby (13) and Bates (25). Unity was ninth for best value for regional colleges.

UMaine Augusta was 40th in the nation for best online degree programs.

Metro bus service officials say they’re working out a few kinks in a new program for Portland high schoolers who ride city buses to school, but that the roll-out has gone smoothly overall.

After four days of school, Metro officials are keeping an eye on which buses are filling up quickly so they can deploy extra buses to pick up overflow passengers, said Greg Jordan, Metro’s general manager.

“Overall, it’s going really well. We’ve had 1,200 to 1,300 (student) boardings a day since the first day, which is a little higher than expected,” he said.

After just a few days of school, Jordan said he and his staff are able to better analyze the crowded sections of each route and send out extra buses.

“Every day we learned a little bit more about the best way to put those (extra) buses into service,” he said. “We’re staying pretty well on time for most of our trips.”

School officials approved the use of Metro buses as part of a plan to add 20 minutes to the school day and reorganize the yellow school bus system. Moving high school students to the Metro buses freed up the district’s bus fleet to make more runs in less time to accommodate changes in start times for elementary and middle school students.

Route 9, which launched in August, loops around the city, hitting Portland, Deering and Casco Bay high schools. Students were given their Metro passes in June to allow them the summer to get used to using the bus service. In July, Metro reported 5,882 rides by high school students.

When buses along the route fill up, drivers are supposed to stop and let waiting passengers know another bus is coming. Jordan said the wait for the next bus is usually five to 10 minutes.

During the first week of classes, there were some bus delays because of construction on Allen and Washington avenues, but there were no problems getting students to school on time, according to officials.

Derek Pierce, principal of Casco Bay High School, said the switch to Metro has gone smoothly for his students.

“We’re super pleased,” he said. “It provides a lot of flexibility for our kids to stay after school and do field work in the city.”

Deborah Migneault, principal of Portland High School, said the roll-out of the new system as been “remarkably smooth.” She said students benefit by having better access to other schools, such as the Portland Arts and Technology High School, and to other parts of the city.

Dominique Hamilton and Sophie Frantz, both sophomores at Portland High School, said they have been riding the Metro bus to school every day. Both said they thought the transition has been smooth and their classmates seem to be making it to class on time.

“It’s always crowded, especially on the way home,” Hamilton said. “There’s always 20 people standing.”

Frantz said it’s especially convenient to be able to use the Metro bus to get to and from sports practices after school instead of walking.

Alexander Nguyen, a senior at Portland High, said he has been riding the city bus for a few years, but likes that he now has a free pass.

“I think it’s pretty good so far,” he said. “It can be crowded, but it gets you to school.”

CHINA — When Joshua Lambert suggested putting bicycle desks in his math classroom at China Middle School last year, the idea was met with skepticism.

Lambert is on the Regional School Unit 18 wellness committee, which was coming up with ideas for grant proposals to fund health and fitness programs in district schools.

“They all chuckled a little bit,” he said.

But when the two FitDesk bicycle desks showed up in his classroom at the end of last school year, they were an immediate hit.

During homeroom period first thing Wednesday morning, two students quickly hopped onto the desks and started pedaling.

Working on his laptop and happily pedaling away, eighth-grader James Hardy said working at the desk helps get some of his energy out during the school day. After the desks were delivered last year, the class kept track of how many miles students pedaled and tried to do the equivalent of crossing the U.S., he said.

“We got as far as Georgia,” Hardy said.

The white FitDesks look like normal stationary bicycles, but with a flat workspace attached in front of the handlebars in front of the rider. The bikes are stable, so the desks don’t wobble, and also silent, so they don’t distract other students.

The idea for the bike desks came to Lambert when he watched his father use his stationary bike. He wondered if he could attach a desk to it, Lambert said. After a little research, he found out that someone else already had the idea.

A number of companies, including FitDesk, build and sell bike desks, and people have also created their own. The school bought the cycle desks through a Lets Go! program grant from Inland Hospital in Waterville.

Lambert, who isn’t a cyclist, said the idea appealed to him because he felt it would be a way for students to work off some of the nervous energy that can keep them from focusing in the classroom.

“Eighty minutes is a long time to sit in a math class,” Lambert said. “You can just see them fidget, see them need to move. This makes a world of difference.”

Lambert also installed two new standing desk stations.

“If I can have a classroom of students who move around more than sit, that would be great,” Lambert said.

He intends to apply for more money this year to buy a few more of the desks for the class.

Because there are only two bike desks, students have to take turns, using the bikes for about five or six minutes at a time. So far, that hasn’t been a problem, and all the students recognize when they’ve been on the bike for too long and someone else wants to use it, Lambert said.

Colby Marston, an eighth-grader, was one of the first students on the bikes at the beginning of Lambert’s class Wednesday morning. Marston said it was only his second time on the bike, but it helped him focus on his classwork.

“I tend to be a little restless,” Marston said. “This helps me get my energy out,” he said, pumping the pedals faster.

Fellow student Morgan Presby, sitting next to him, agreed.

Sitting at a desk for a long time can make her feel tired and unfocused, but on the bike she feels like she is paying more attention to the lesson.

“I’m energized, moving. It makes me want to do work,” Presby said. “It’s a really cool tool.”

The University of New England is awarding $25,000 scholarships to 34 students in its College of Osteopathic Medicine.

The awards, part of the university’s Doctors for Maine’s Future Scholarship Program, are intended to help pay for the high cost of medical education and to encourage students to pursue careers in primary care, according to a release from Biddeford-based UNE.

The university instituted the program in 2009 to help increase the number of health care providers on Maine. The program, which requires a matching amount from private philanthropic sources, stipulates that recipients must gain experience in rural health care and primary care environments during their education. It is especially targeted toward supporting students with an interest in serving rural areas upon graduation.

Maine education officials released the latest K-12 state test results Friday, but they are practically meaningless because the state used a new test – the Smarter Balanced test for English and math – but won’t use it again.

That means the results can’t be compared to previous years’ test results, and they can’t be compared to whatever test the state selects for students this year. The state issued a request for proposals for a new statewide assessment test this week, and expects students will take it in the spring.

The lack of comparable testing data has created a gap in meaningful test results.

The last statewide results in Maine were released in March 2014, for the New England Common Assessment Program tests given to elementary and middle schools and the SAT for high school juniors. They showed that overall, 60 percent of Maine students were proficient in math, 69 percent in reading, and 48 percent in writing, significantly higher than the Smarter Balanced results released Friday.

The results from the Smarter Balanced test, which is aligned to tougher Common Core learning standards, found that 36 percent of Maine students are considered proficient in math and 48 percent in English.

Educators have been warning parents and students to expect a drop in test scores, based on other states’ experiences. In Kentucky, the first state to administer Common Core-based tests, there was a 30 percent to 40 percent drop in proficiency in reading and math, according to results released in late 2012.

The Common Core standards spell out exactly what students in each grade level are expected to know, such as the coordinate system in fifth-grade math.

“We’ve said all along it’s supposed to be more rigorous,” said acting Maine Education Commissioner Tom Desjardin. “The standards are supposed to be tougher.”

According to the results, proficiency scores in English remained fairly steady across the grades, from 46 percent for sixth graders to a high of 51 percent in fifth grades. Math scores showed a steady decline, with third-graders showing 45 percent proficiency, to a low of 25 percent for high school juniors.

Individual school results are available at the Department of Education website.

Desjardin added that there are other factors that may have led to lower scores. It was the first time Maine students took state assessments on a computer, instead of using paper-and-pencil, which caused problems in the classrooms, some teachers reported. There was also a low participation rate among high school juniors – 30 percent didn’t take the test, and at eight high schools no students took it.

Participation rates were particularly low at some of the state’s top-ranked high schools. Top-ranked Maine School of Science and Mathematics only had 51 percent of their students take the math test. Yarmouth High school had 8 percent take it, Cape Elizabeth had 30 percent take it and Greely had 19 percent take it. Low participation at top schools, Desjardin noted, may have pulled down the statewide average scores.

Some of the state’s largest schools also had low participation rates: Portland High School (215 students) had 54 percent participation; Lewiston High school (299 students) had 11 percent take the test; Camden-Rockport Middle School had fewer than half their 382 students take the test.

“It affects the results of the statewide score,” Desjardin said of the 70 percent participation rate of juniors. “It’s very statistically significant.”

The opt-out rate was only 94 percent for third- through eighth-graders, he said.

COMMON CORE CRITICIZED

The pushback against the Smarter Balanced test was tied up in the anti-Common Core movement that swept the nation last year. In Maine, there was a fledgling effort to put an anti-Common Core measure on the ballot, and critics said the standards are developmentally inappropriate and part of federal efforts to nationalize education.

Advocates said having a common set of academic standards across multiple states would benefit students and better prepare them for college or career.

Beginning in 2009, 45 states, including Maine, and the District of Columbia adopted the standards, but several, including Indiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina, dropped them in the face of parent and teacher protests.

Maine was one of 18 states that participating in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium that hired American Institutes for Research (AIR) to create the online tests. Two other states besides Maine are dropping the test, and some states are suing Smarter Balanced because of problems administering it.

In Maine, the expectation was that this year’s Smarter Balanced results would provide a baseline for future comparisons on student performance. Dropping the test has thrown other education department projects into hiatus, such as the decision to not issue A-F report cards for schools until there are two years of results from the same standardized test.

The Smarter Balanced test was dropped in Maine after educators and parents argued that the test was flawed and difficult to administer and take.

Desjardin said the juniors may have opted not to take the Smarter Balanced test because they were taking other tests such as the ACT and SAT. Despite the lower scores, Desjardin said, Maine’s results are similar to those in other states.

“Compared to the three or four other states, we’re in the same ballpark,” he said.

Desjardin said it cost the state about $3.5 million to administer the Smarter Balanced test, about $300,000 less than it did for the New England Common Assessment Program test.

AUGUSTA — Maine education officials on Friday released a one-time look at how students performed on new, tougher standardized tests, but since the state is dropping the test, the data can’t be used to show improvement or declines in student learning.

Rachelle Tome, acting deputy commissioner of the state Department of Education, said the department was encouraging students and parents to compare their results on the Smarter Balanced test to the state average or district average to get a sense of how students did.

“We believe this is a good learning year,” Tome said at a press event Friday at the department’s offices. Tome said the DOE had not yet had a chance to analyze the data and could not draw any conclusions.

“Schools should take a look at the data locally,” she said. “We want this to be a learning experience for everyone.”

The results from the Smarter Balanced test, which is aligned with Common Core learning standards, found that 36 percent of Maine students are considered proficient in math and 48 percent in English.

The expectation when the test was administered was that the results would be a baseline score for future comparisons, but direct comparison will be difficult since the test has been dropped. Officials said any future test will still be based on Common Core standards. The Smarter Balanced test was dropped in Maine after educators and parents argued that the test was flawed and difficult to administer and take.

Tome noted that students were not only taking a tougher test, they were taking it on a computer for the first time.

“For some students that represented a great change,” Tome said.

Parents will get letters showing their child’s score, along with those from the school, the district and the state, Tome said.

Previously, elementary and middle school students took the New England Common Assessment Program. Juniors took the SAT as their state assessment test.

Educators have been warning parents and students to expect a drop in scores, based on other states’ experiences. In Kentucky, the first state to administer Common Core-based tests, there was a 30 percent to 40 percent drop in reading and math proficiency, according to results released in late 2012.

Portland’s education officials said they identified some trends in the data.

English scores in elementary and middle school were consistent with earlier results, said Chief Academic Officer Becky Foley.

“In math, there is noticeable improvement, with district scores trending up when compared to current and previous state averages,” she said. The district didn’t analyze high school results because of the low participation rate – only 54 percent of Portland juniors took it.

The Common Core standards spell out exactly what students in each grade level are expected to know, such as the coordinate system in fifth-grade math.

“We’ve said all along it’s supposed to be more rigorous,” said acting Maine Education Commissioner Tom Desjardin. “The standards are supposed to be tougher.”

According to the results, proficiency scores in English remained fairly steady across grades, from 46 percent for sixth graders to 51 percent in fifth grades. Math scores showed a steady decline, with third-graders showing 45 percent proficiency, to a low of 25 percent for high school juniors.

Individual school results are available on the Department of Education’s website.

A large number of students did not take the test, in part because of an opt-out movement that swept the nation during anti-Common Core protests last year. About 30 percent of juniors statewide didn’t take the test, compared to only about 5 percent of elementary and middle schools.

Participation rates were particularly low at some of the state’s top-ranked high schools. The Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Limestone only had 51 percent of its students take the math test. Yarmouth High school had 8 percent, Cape Elizabeth had 30 percent and Greely had 19 percent. Low participation at top schools, Desjardin noted, may have pulled down the statewide average scores.

Yarmouth Superintendent Andrew Dolloff said most of the juniors there focused on SATs, Advanced Placement exams, ACT and other tests.

“With so many students participating in assessments that are important to them individually, it seems senseless to them, and to their parents, that they are being asked to participate in yet another assessment that detracts from the instructional day and has no bearing on their future,” he said.

Some of the state’s largest schools also had low participation rates: Portland High School (215 students) had 54 percent participation, Lewiston High School (299 students) had 11 percent take the test, and Camden-Rockport Middle School had fewer than half of its 382 students take the test.

“I think the computer test was a challenge for everybody this year, a challenge to get it right,” said Lois Kilby-Chesley, president of the Maine Education Association. The results released Friday are “not comparable to anything. It basically was just a wash.”

Dropping the test has thrown other education initiatives into hiatus, such as the decision to not issue A-F report cards for schools until there are two years of results from the same test.

The state put out a request for proposals this week for a new state assessment test that would be administered in the spring.

Fall enrollment figures at the University of Maine System – critical data for the state’s financially struggling public higher education system – show a mixed performance, with a lower overall head count but significant increases at some campuses in out-of-state students, who pay much higher tuition.

Five of the seven campuses, including the two largest – the University of Maine in Orono and the University of Southern Maine – all show increases in out-of-state students. The highest are a 15 percent increase at the University of Maine at Augusta and 14 percent at the University of Maine at Fort Kent. Other increases are 7 percent at Orono, 3 percent at Farmington and 2 percent at USM.

Chief Student Affairs Officer Rosa Redonnett said the increases are “an important financial boost” to the campuses.

At the flagship campus in Orono, in-state tuition and fees are about $10,606. Tuition and fees at USM are $8,540 a year. For out-of-state students, tuition and fees are about $30,000 per year.

The vast majority of the out-of-state students are at Orono, where they now make up 30 percent of the student body, or 3,157 out of 10,906 students.

Systemwide, 4,822 out-of-state students make up 17 percent of the overall student body.

Across all campuses, the fall 2015 head count is down 2.7 percent, from 29,325 students last fall to 28,529 students this fall.

In-state enrollment is down 4.2 percent, from 24,758 to 23,707 students, which didn’t surprise Redonnett.

“With fewer high school graduates and more competition from private and for-profit institutions, our in-state enrollment is consistent with our expectations,” she said.

Only the University of Maine at Farmington and UMaine Fort Kent showed increases in overall enrollment this fall.

At USM, which has 7,590 students in Portland, Gorham and Lewiston, overall enrollment is down 6.6 percent, a figure that new USM President Glenn Cummings is closely watching. At his inaugural staff welcome, he touted the enrollment numbers, which were an improvement over earlier estimates that fall enrollment could be down as much as 11 or 12 percent.

But Cummings noted that the number of new and transfer students is up slightly for both undergraduates and graduates. USM had 1,564 new undergraduate students this year, up 2 percent from last year, and 379 new graduate students, up 1 percent from last year.

“Maine students and their families expect affordable access to quality programs from our public universities,” Cummings said in a statement Friday. “Our modest increase in new enrolled students at USM this fall is just one of the promising developments we are seeing as our universities continue to focus on developing programs and delivering services that help our students succeed.”

The system has posted declining enrollment figures for years, which officials say is largely related to Maine’s demographics and the shrinking number of Maine high school graduates.

That drop in enrollment, paired with a tuition freeze since 2011, when state officials agreed not to cut higher education funding, has hurt the system financially.

The system’s $518 million budget that began in July uses $7 million in emergency funds despite cutting 206 positions systemwide. In the previous budget year, which ended June 30, the $529 million system budget required using $11.4 million in emergency funds and cutting 157 positions.

The current enrollment numbers are as of Sept. 8, the first day of class, but final official figures will not be released until Oct. 15, after the add-drop period has passed.

SEATTLE — Dena DeYoung traces her trouble with math back to sixth grade, when a well-intended placement test showed she was smart enough to do advanced work.

And for several years, DeYoung did well. But when she reached high school, math became her worst subject. Lost by the logic, unable to imagine how what she was learning would ever come into play in the real world, her math grades plummeted.

“I just never got it,” DeYoung said. “I was barely scraping by. It was just a nightmare.”

DeYoung eventually dropped out of her Shoreline school, and while math was not the only reason, it didn’t help. Instead of a high school diploma, the promising student earned a General Educational Development degree, or GED.

More than any other subject, math trips up students who might otherwise thrive in college, especially those who don’t plan to go into technical careers that require proficiency with numbers.

Failing the state’s math test keeps hundreds of students from graduating from high school each year, even when they’ve met every other requirement. Math is the reason why half of Washington’s high school students who enter community college must take remedial classes — which few ever pass, even after years of struggle.

NO SINGLE ANSWER

A lot of effort has gone into thinking – and arguing – about how best to teach math, hoping to keep it from being such a barrier to higher education. But the math problem also has caused leaders of Washington’s community colleges to ask a fundamental question: How much math, and what kind, should be required for a student to earn a college degree?

Their answer, increasingly, is that there is no one answer.

Students who are studying to become nurses, social workers, early-childhood educators or carpenters may never use intermediate algebra, much less calculus. Yet for years, community colleges have used a one-size-fits-all math approach that’s heavy on algebra and preps students for calculus.

That’s starting to change in a few pioneering schools that are overhauling what math they teach and how they teach it. Some colleges, for example, have started to offer a math sequence that focuses on statistics, and persuaded the state’s four-year colleges to accept it as a college math credit. Others are offering a learn-at-your-own-pace approach.

These experiments, to date, are small but encouraging. The word is spreading about algebra alternatives, many of which include the kind of math students are more likely to need, such as probability and margins of error in opinion polls. Students are flocking to such classes – and they’re passing at much higher rates.

One study found that a statistics-focused class, identical to one offered at Seattle Central College, had triple the success rate when compared with the traditional math sequence, and students finished math in half the time.

A DIFFERENT APPROACH

DeYoung, now 26, enrolled in Seattle Central’s version of that sequence last year, called Statway, but with the nagging concern that she’d soon hit a wall – just like in high school.

But that didn’t happen.

“In the first quarter, I realized there isn’t something wrong with me,” DeYoung said. “I just needed a different approach.”

Seattle Central is one of 19 colleges nationally using Statway, which was developed by the Carnegie Foundation. (The foundation has also developed a program called Quantway that uses math skills to solve real-world problems.)

It’s one of the programs highlighted in a new math strategic plan that calls for all of Washington’s 34 community and technical colleges to find new, innovative ways to approach math.

“For too many students, the pre-college math experience at community and technical colleges has been frustration and failure,” the plan notes.

WESTBROOK — At 7:50 a.m., the lilting theme song to the 1970s sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter” played over the loudspeaker at Westbrook High School, signaling the start of the school day.

While current high school students wouldn’t remember the first bell ringing at any other time than 7:50, Westbrook is on the leading edge of what could be a growing movement to start the middle school and high school day later. The school department shifted its middle school start time from 7:25 a.m. to 7:55 a.m. and the high school’s from 7:30 a.m. to 7:50 a.m. in 2012-13. And Westbrook officials are considering making the start times even later in upcoming years.

Old Orchard Beach switched its starting times this school year from 7:30 to 8 a.m., and other Maine schools soon may follow suit. Some southern Maine educators are talking about organizing a regional approach to start times, and parent groups are urging schools to make start times later. Sleep advocates are talking about scheduling a summit on the topic this fall.

The movement seems to be spurred in part by recommendations for later starting times to improve teens’ health from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Research shows that later start times for schools can fend off depression, obesity and diabetes, improve test scores and reduce tardiness and absenteeism. It can even help athletes recover more quickly from sports injuries. Teens who sleep at least eight hours per night are also less likely to smoke, drink and use drugs, according to the CDC.

“We are starting to view this as a public health issue,” said Dr. Thomas Mellow, a sleep specialist at Maine Medical Center in Portland. “Getting 30 minutes of extra sleep can be a big deal for a lot of kids.”

A still-sleepy Omar Mohammad, a Westbrook junior, began his day in study hall, giving him a chance to wake up. He said he notices how much more alert he is when schools are delayed an hour or two, usually because of a snowstorm.

“I think if we started at 8:30, it would be perfect,” Mohammad said. “When we had school delays last year, I was ready to start the day and start studying right when I got here.”

Another Maine Med sleep specialist, Dr. Christopher Murry, is planning to organize a summit this fall on school start times.

“Attention, focus, memory and cognitive ability are all improved with later start times,” Murry said, pointing to numerous studies on the topic. “And there are fewer teenagers getting in automobile accidents. If you can save lives that way, isn’t reducing automobile accidents enough of a reason on its own to shift the times?”

DAYLIGHT A CONSIDERATION IN MAINE

The CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics and numerous studies recommend later start times for secondary education – ideally 8:30 or later. The health benefits to more closely aligning school start times with teens’ natural sleep patterns are undeniable, the research says.

A groundswell of public opinion and research may be starting to nudge school districts to adopt later starting times, even in Maine – the easternmost state in the Eastern time zone – where available light for after-school sports and activities puts a premium on scheduling efficiencies.

Nationwide, hundreds of schools have shifted to later start times.

In Maine, school districts including Cape Elizabeth, Brunswick, Westbrook and Old Orchard Beach have shifted start times to later in the morning over the past several years, touting the health benefits. Portland schools have considered later start times as well, and the school board nixed a proposal to start high school 15 minutes earlier, pointing to the research that says such a change would be detrimental to students’ health.

But still, many Maine high schools start classes at 7:30 a.m. or earlier.

According to a CDC report released in August that surveyed schools across the country, Maine’s average high school start time was 7:53 a.m., 10 minutes earlier than the national average of 8:03 a.m. Also, only 7.5 percent of Maine high schools started at the recommended 8:30 a.m. or later, compared to a national average of 17.7 percent.

Biddeford Schools Superintendent Jeremy Ray hopes to organize a regional discussion this fall among school officials about starting school later.

“Every district needs to make their own decisions, but I do think we need to have a regional conversation,” Ray said.

Meanwhile, parent groups in Saco and South Portland are pushing for later start times, and a bill mandating an 8 a.m. or later start time was introduced in the Maine Legislature this year. It failed when education groups argued against it, not on health grounds, but because they believed that schools should be free to make their own choices.

“It’s getting really hard to ignore the data and the research,” said Tracey Collins, a Saco parent who is lobbying for later start times for Saco Middle School by organizing a local chapter of Start School Later, a nonprofit advocacy group. “I’m tired of hearing all the excuses of why we can’t do this, but it’s not going to change until we as a society say it’s not OK to do this anymore.”

Lloyd Crocker, superintendent of RSU 23, which includes Old Orchard Beach High School, said the research is “compelling” that schools need to shift to later starting times, and he’s looking at moving the clock forward another 30 minutes for an 8:30 a.m. start for grades six to 12 in the 2016-17 school year.

Crocker said an 8:30 a.m. start would be among the latest for a public high school in southern Maine.

“Public education is still stuck in the old model of doing things, and people get comfortable with that,” Crocker said. “We get stuck into continuing what’s convenient rather than what’s best.”

Crocker said the 8 a.m. start time is an improvement, but not the full solution.

“I realize that it’s a good first step, but we did not take it far enough,” said Crocker, who plans to host forums on the topic this fall.

‘EXPONENTIAL’ CHANGE EXPECTED

Nationally, at least 200 schools instituted later starting times over the past few years, according to Start School Later.

“Now that the CDC and the pediatricians have come out in favor, we should see exponential growth in schools doing this,” said Stacy Simera, outreach coordinator for the nonprofit advocacy group.

But in Maine, where tradition and a location in the far eastern reaches of the time zone limit available after-school daylight for sports and other activities, just getting classes to start at 8 a.m. and not 7:20 is a challenge for many schools.

“It’s a massive organizational effort,” said Ray, the Biddeford superintendent, who was involved in the planning for Westbrook when he was an administrator there before taking the Biddeford post. “But it’s the right thing to do for kids.”

Aside from sports, other challenges to later start times include busing and parent work schedules. Ray said having a before-school “morning care” program for parents who need to get to work early is key.

Westbrook Superintendent Marc Gousse would like to incrementally shift the starting times even later, because the research proving medical benefits is so sound.

“If I could wave my magic wand, we would change it to be later than it is now,” Gousse said. But the logistics of everything from bus schedules to after-school activities to parent work schedules make change difficult, he said.

“It sounds simple to shift start times by half an hour. But everything you do has this cascading effect,” Gousse said. “We had a yearlong conversation about this.”

In South Portland, where the high school bell rings at 7:30 a.m., new superintendent Ken Kunin met with parents lobbying for a later start time. But he said that since he just started the job on Aug. 1, he’s not ready to draw any conclusions about what should be done. Kunin said it’s an issue that the community should talk about.

TEENS’ CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS

John Heffernan, a South Portland teacher and parent who is lobbying for later start times, said the science is indisputable, and it’s time to prioritize shifting to later start times.

Even modest changes like those made at Westbrook are helpful, according to Simera, of Start School Later.

“The research shows that every 20 minutes later you start school has some benefits to the students,” Simera said.

Mellow, the Maine Med sleep expert, said people assume teenagers could simply go to bed earlier and get up earlier. But while adults could shift sleep times, a teen’s brain cannot adjust as easily.

“A teen’s circadian rhythms will make the teen want to go to bed later and get up later,” Mellow said. That’s why in the summertime, teens will often go to bed at 11 p.m. or midnight and wake up at 10 a.m., he said.

For a teen’s brain, 7 a.m. is roughly equivalent to 4 a.m. for an adult, he said.

“The research looked at what happens when school starts later, and the kids do not go to bed later, as one might think,” Mellow said. Instead, they tend to go to bed around the same time, when their body’s biological clock tells them to, usually around 10 or 11 p.m.

So, when schools start later, the teens are getting more sleep, which is better for their health.

When teens are sleep-deprived, they may still function adequately at the beginning of the week, but by the end of the week they are usually dragging, not as alert and not doing as well in school.

“There’s a cumulative cost to not getting enough sleep,” Mellow said.

Murry said many common disorders – such as attention deficit disorder – can be greatly alleviated simply by going to bed at the right time and getting enough sleep.

Rep. Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, introduced a bill this past spring to mandate 8 a.m. or later starting times, but it failed because schools did not want to give up the autonomy of making their own decisions.

“We are setting our kids up for failure,” Daughtry said. She intends to reintroduce the bill and is willing to modify it to accommodate the varying challenges districts face.

For instance, in rural districts, transportation is an even bigger issue, as children are riding the bus for 45 minutes or longer to get to school. Later starting times are even more of a logistical challenge for large districts.

Also, some schools send their students to regional vocational schools, so when a school changes its starting time, it affects other schools, too. That’s why a regional approach would be best, Ray said.

Molly Sweet, 16, a Westbrook junior, said when the school made the start times later when she was in middle school, it didn’t affect her, but she noticed how other students were less tired.

“Before, a lot of my friends were tired at the start of the day, and a lot of people were late to school,” Sweet said.

Jon Ross, Westbrook High School principal, tried to energize students at 7:50 a.m., cheerily greeting them as they changed classes, directing lost freshmen down the correct hallways. He sees the juggling act firsthand, how schedules are compressed when the school day starts later. Now, there’s less time when the school day ends and after-school activities begin, which can make students late for practice if they need to consult with a teacher. Sometimes, the school has to dismiss teams early so they can travel to their games.

But Ross said ultimately, schools should make changes to benefit students.

“I don’t know why we go through all this effort to get kids out of bed and here by 7:45 a.m. It doesn’t make any sense,” Ross said.

BINGHAM — When Upper Kennebec Valley Memorial High School Principal Julie Richard received a postcard in the mail last June inviting her to nominate her school for recognition in preparing students for college, she didn’t think the chances were very high that the school would get it.

The invitation, from Newsweek magazine, was seeking schools across the country that were successfully preparing students from low-income backgrounds for college.

One hundred percent of students at Upper Kennebec Valley Memorial High School qualify for free or reduced price lunches from the state, according to the Maine Department of Education, which also gave the district an overall letter grade of C in 2014.

But in April, the department also listed the school as one of 21 High Progress Reward Schools, a designation given to Title I schools that have shown the most progress over a three-year period.

BEATING THE ODDS

Richard filled out the postcard. On Sept. 1, the day before the first day of school, she got an email saying the high school had been selected as one of four schools in Maine for Newsweek’s “Beating the Odds 2015” list.

The list includes 500 schools from around the country that the magazine has deemed the best at preparing students from low-income backgrounds for college. The others in Maine include Cape Elizabeth High School, Falmouth High School and Madawaska Middle and High School. Valley was 175th, the highest rank of the Maine schools. Cape Elizabeth was ranked 295th, Madawaska 320th and Falmouth 479th.

“I was just so excited I wanted to call all the faculty and let them know immediately,” Richard said.

A member of the high school’s first graduating class in 1968, Richards came out of retirement in 2012 to serve as a districtwide principal in School Administrative District 13. The district serves students in Bingham, Moscow, Concord, Pleasant Ridge and West Forks.

Twelve of last year’s graduating class of 15 seniors went on to college.

“I think people don’t expect it from a small school because there’s not a big pool of students to choose from,” said Charlie Savoy, a 17-year-old senior from Pleasant Ridge who is starting to apply to colleges. The University of Maine and Denison University in Ohio are among her top choices.

The Newsweek designation takes into account college enrollment rates, graduation rates, student participation in advanced level classes, SAT and ACT scores, student retention rates, and counselor-to-student ratios.

WORKING FOR BETTER GRADES

Teachers and administrators say that since getting an “F” grade from the state in 2013, they’ve worked hard at improving educational opportunity in the rural school district.

SAT and ACT scores have gone up, they say, and while the school offers only a few advanced placement classes, they’ve seen an increase in the number of students who take dual enrollment classes through local colleges.

“If a student is hesitant about going to college, dual-enrollment classes are a big help in getting them more comfortable with post-graduation studies and convincing them that they can do the work,” Richard said. There are currently 16 students enrolled in dual enrollment classes out of the 64 students in the school.

For the first time this year, the school is also participating in a program called Early College for ME, which offers scholarships and mentoring for college-bound students through the state’s community college system.

They’ve also sought out grants, including a U.S. Department of Education grant called “Gear Up” that has paid for trips and projects, like a new “homework cafe” where students can do work after school hours, and a grant from the Good Shepherd Food-Bank that helps them to offer fresh fruit and vegetables.

One of the most important keys to success, according to Richards, has been making sure the district continues to support field trips in a time when many districts are cutting budgets and field trips are some of the first things to go.

“There’s a culture that comes with poverty,” said Superintendent Virginia Rebar. “We have kids who could be in second or third grade and they’ve never left this immediate community. Some have never been to a restaurant. It’s really vital to give them that exposure.”

When it comes time to apply to college, students who have interacted in environments outside of their community are more likely to feel comfortable going away for school, Richards said.

EXPERIENCING THE UNKNOWN

High school guidance counselor Katie Flood-Gerow also said that getting kids to see and experience new places by going on trips is vital preparation for applying to and going to college, especially for students from a small, rural community.

The biggest challenge to sending low-income rural students to college is fear, she said.

“It’s the fear of the unknown,” Flood-Gerow said. “If they haven’t seen anyone in their family go to college and their parents haven’t gone to college, it can be scary. Getting past that fear is the biggest thing, more so than finances or anything else.”

Going on trips plays a big role in helping students conquer their fear, and Flood-Gerow has been known to take students on individual trips and out-of-state trips to colleges so they can see what the schools are like. She also participated in a pilot program this summer, SignalVine, that helps students transition to college. The pilot program consisted of a computer program at the school through which Flood-Gerow could send students text messages throughout the summer, answering their questions and addressing any last-minute doubts about going to college.

“It’s important to keep that line of communication open,” she said. “I tell them, ‘Once I’m your guidance counselor, I’m always your guidance counselor.'”

Texting is an easy way to communicate with students because it’s a mode of communication they are comfortable with, and the computer system was more professional than using her personal cellphone, she said.

She said the Newsweek designation is important to the school community, but only because of the work it highlights.

“A few years ago we were the ‘F’ school,” she said. “That was embarrassing and it was hard for the kids, too, but I think there’s a lot of good work being done and the kids are succeeding.”

The Biddeford School Department and University of New England have agreed to a partnership that will allow the city’s high school students to earn college credits – and potentially enter the college with sophomore standing – upon successful completion of an advanced mathematics class.

The schools will announce the partnership Wednesday, according to a news release.

Biddeford High School already has similar partnerships with Thomas College, Southern Maine Community College and St. Joseph’s College of Maine.

Superintendent Jeremy Ray and Principal Jeremie Sirois will join UNE President Danielle Ripich and others at Biddeford High School on Wednesday at 3 p.m. to formally announce the partnership.

Looking to earn the big bucks after graduating from a Maine college? Check out Maine Maritime Academy, whose alumni earn a median of $74,700 a year 10 years after they enrolled.

Comparing graduation rates at Maine’s largest public universities? The University of Maine tops the list with 57 percent, compared with 56 percent at UMaine Farmington and 32 percent at the University of Southern Maine.

Would-be college students and their families grappling with one of the most important – and most expensive – decisions in their lives have access to new tools and detailed information about schools on a “college scorecard” website just launched by the federal government.

A college guidance counselor at Casco Bay High school said the site was useful, but should only be considered as one tool among many, and that any serious search should be done with a school counselor.

“It’s a good tool for certain purposes,” said Michael Hale, the director of college, career and citizenship at Casco Bay High School. “It’s definitely going to help students get a basic sense of schools.”

He thought it was “very helpful” for students looking to find a particular academic program in a particular geographic area – say, studying engineering in the Pacific Northwest. The site allows users to filter their search by state, or within a certain radius of a location.

President Obama unveiled the website over the weekend, in the midst of a vigorous national debate over soaring college costs and concerns over student loan debt reaching $1.3 trillion nationwide.

For the first time, students can see future earnings for graduates, albeit only for those who received federal loans, and what percentage of graduates started paying back student loans three years after graduating. It also details the percent of former graduates earning more than a high school graduate.

“Everyone should be able to find clear, reliable, open data on college affordability and value,” the president said in his weekly radio address. “Many existing college rankings reward schools for spending more money and rejecting more students, at a time when America needs our colleges to focus on affordability and supporting all students who enroll.”

Much of the data on collegescorecard.ed.gov was previously available, but is presented in an easy-to-search format with highlighted graphics that emphasize future earnings and college costs. It has both short- and long-term earnings data, with one set showing the percentage of students earning more than the average high school graduate ($25,000 a year) six years after starting the school, and the other showing the median earnings of students 10 years after entering the school.

It also clearly spells out average annual cost based on family income.

The administration had planned to introduce a new college ranking system based on affordability and return on investment, but dropped the idea after critics said it would be arbitrary and unfair, or an example of government overreach.

The new site has limitations, mainly that the earnings data – what a graduate is earning 10 years after enrolling – only apply to students who had federal loans or aid. The data also combines all graduates into an average, so future earnings data don’t distinguish between a philosophy graduate and a physicist.

In another weakness, it also captures only federal student loan debt, which maxes out at $27,000, and doesn’t capture federal Parent Plus Loans for families or graduate students, or any private loans. So while student loan debt may appear the same at a public university and a more expensive private college, it’s just because the data doesn’t show all forms of student loan debt.

Like many college cost calculators or websites catering to customized searches for individual students, the site narrows and hones the vast amount of data according to certain student information.

U.S. Sen. Angus King said the scorecard was “a step in the right direction toward arming us with improved, accessible data that can help students and their families.”

“With student debt topping the $1.2 trillion mark, the time is long overdue to provide students and families with better information about college performance, including which schools graduate students who succeed in the workforce and which schools leave students saddled with large amounts of debt and no degree,” Maine’s independent senator said in a statement Tuesday. “While I welcome this step, more needs to be done – and it’s up to Congress to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, which will provide the opportunity to enact broader reforms to our federal student aid system and ensure that colleges keep their prices affordable for middle class families.”

A typical scorecard search on financial elements would be for post-graduation earnings, annual cost and average debt of graduates.

Among Maine’s four-year colleges, Maine Maritime Academy showed the greatest long-term post-graduate earnings after 10 years, at $74,700, with an average annual cost of $19,687 and an average student loan debt of $27,000.

By comparison, the lowest post-graduate earnings of $23,700 were at Maine Academy of Art, where the annual cost is $29,009 and the average student loan debt is $27,000.

The University of Maine at Orono, the flagship of the state’s seven-campus system, showed post-graduate earnings of $38,700, with an average annual cost of $16,831 and student debt of $27,000. Southern Maine Community College students had post-graduate earnings of $37,300, with an average annual cost of $11,395 and student debt of $12,500.

“Earnings are not the only reason – or in some cases, even the primary reason – that most students enroll in college,” the department wrote in a paper describing the site. “It is important for students to be able to evaluate whether or not the cost of an institution is worth the investment, including possible student debt.”

Obama has launched several college affordability initiatives, including a plan to make community college free for students using state and federal subsidies, which Congress has taken up in a bill.

Last year, Obama signed legislation cutting interest rates on some federal student loans, tying the rates to the 10-year U.S. Treasury note, creating interest-rate ceilings and locking in rates for the lifetime of a loan. He also signed an executive order to expand a program that lets borrowers pay no more than 10 percent of their income every month for 20 years. After that, the balance is forgiven, but the borrower must pay taxes on the amount forgiven.

The latest efforts to reshape the University of Maine System into a single entity – along with a plan to overhaul academic offerings systemwide – will be major topics this weekend at the system’s trustee meeting in Presque Isle.

UMS Chancellor James Page on Sunday will outline the administration’s progress in seeking a single accreditation for the entire system as part of its effort to have all seven campuses viewed as one university.

This comes as the system continues to consolidate numerous back-office functions, such as purchasing, IT, human relations and budgeting. The efforts are aimed at reducing overlap and saving money to close a deficit projected to reach $69 million by 2019. Page and the trustees have repeatedly said that maintaining seven campuses, each with its own administration, is financially unsustainable.

Maine’s four-year public campuses are now individually accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, or NEASC. Accreditation means that a university meets peer-reviewed standards for the quality of its programs and resources.

A single accreditation could help the UMaine System as it implements multi-campus degree programs or shifts to a unified budget process. Over the summer, Page and other administration officials met with the accrediting group’s commission, which later sent a letter saying they were “open in principle” to the idea.

The commission asked officials to submit a report next spring with more detail and a timeline, and noted that they would conduct “a comprehensive evaluation of the single institution once it has been established.”

Other four-year public university systems have single accreditations, including Penn State, which has one accreditation for 24 campuses.

One practical outcome of moving to a single accreditation became clear last week, when the Obama administration released a new “college scorecard” allowing would-be students to compare and contrast colleges using new data, including graduates’ average earnings and loan debt. Because Penn State has a single accreditation, all the campuses registered the same “salary after attending” data on the scorecard, making it impossible to compare data at individual campuses.

The trustees will also get an update on the early work of the academic review. Teams of faculty are analyzing each academic area, such as nursing and business, and evaluating all programs across the seven campuses to see what, if any, changes should be made – whether, for example, multiple campuses should offer the same degree, or should it only be offered at some campuses.

Recommendations already approved by Page include creating joint or system degrees for the following programs:

• History: Explore forming one statewide program.

• Business: one master’s in business adminstration program, offered through UMaine and the University of Southern Maine.

• Criminal Justice: one associate’s degree, common course numbers.

• Education: common master’s of education in instructional technology, offered through UMaine, USM and UMaine Farmington.

• Languages: statewide program for French and Spanish.

• Marine Sciences: a professional science master’s degree using so-called “4 +1” or four years undergraduate, one year master’s program.

• Nursing: fully aligned, with a unified nursing curriculum.

Page also approved plans to share courses and faculty, such as having all history faculty in the system apply for UMaine graduate faculty status and creating semester-long residencies at various campuses for the recreation and tourism program. He also approved a plan to make all lower-division mechanical and electrical engineering programs identical systemwide, easing the transition to graduate work at USM or UMaine.

The trustees will also vote on a proposed annual raise for employees not covered by union contracts, including senior administration officials.

The proposed increase for Page and campus presidents is a $750 one-time bonus and a 2 percent increase to their base salaries, effective next July. That would take Page’s salary from $277,500 to $283,050, and UMaine President Sue Hunter’s salary from $250,000 to $255,000.

MONTPELIER, Vt. — A Vermont college has been ordered by a federal judge to reinstate a student who was expelled over allegations of sexual misconduct that occurred during his junior year while he was studying abroad.

U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha issued the order Wednesday, the same day classes began at Middlebury College.

In his order, Murtha noted that the Middlebury student, identified in court papers as John Doe, was cleared of wrongdoing by the School for International Training in Brattleboro, which sponsored the study abroad program, and continued his studies at Middlebury last spring. The court documents don’t say where he was studying abroad.

The order for a preliminary injunction said Doe would suffer irreparable harm if expelled before his senior year and would be unable to complete his education. He has been offered an $85,000-a-year job after graduation next spring.

Murtha’s ruling said Doe was billed for the fall semester, given a room assignment and listed as an active student enrolled in classes as of last week.

Changes to Portland’s new school bus routes are unlikely, according to some of the roughly 25 parents who met with Portland School Department officials on Wednesday.

Parents concerned about the safety of the new bus routes met with Craig Worth, the school department’s director of operations, and with Transportation Director Fred Barlow, who is responsible for setting the routes. Most of the parents live in Portland’s Libbytown neighborhood between Congress Street and Brighton Avenue.

Worth and Barlow listened to their concerns, and Barlow agreed to ride on a school bus to learn why parents have safety concerns. Barlow followed through, riding a route Thursday morning.

Barlow said he also received a new bus route proposal from a parent Thursday, but was noncommittal when asked if changes might be made.

Gilda Bryand, the parent of two elementary school children, attended Wednesday night’s meeting at the Ocean Avenue Elementary School.

“The feeling I got is that really nothing is going to change,” Bryand said. “I’m concerned because my children have to stand and wait for a bus on a sidewalk and the road they are standing beside is very busy. Cars are going real fast and it can be kind of hairy at best.”

Under the new bus route system, Bryand walks her children, ages 7 and 8, to the school bus stop at Congress and Craigie streets.

“In the past, they were picked up at a our driveway, but I don’t expect that. It has been a luxury,” Bryand said.

She said a safer alternative to the new route would be to have buses pick up students on Elizabeth Street, which cuts through the heart of the Libbytown neighborhood.

Mike Podolsky, who lives on Edwards Street, said his 8-year-old son rode the bus last year. Now, Podolsky drives his son to school.

“I got the sense at last night’s meeting that it was going to be a heavy lift for the school department to change anything,” Podolsky said. “They seemed more interested in getting the buses to school on time, but we weren’t there to talk about getting buses to school on time. It is where the kids have to wait for the bus that’s the problem.” In the past, school buses drove up and down side roads, picking children up on lightly traveled streets.

Under the new system, buses only travel on major thoroughfares. The school district decided to consolidate bus routes this fall in conjunction with a change in school start times and having high school students use city buses, freeing up more of the school bus fleet for younger grades.

With more buses available and two elementary school start times, school officials wanted to have each bus take only one trip to and from each school rather than have to drive more than one route in the morning or afternoon.. But with just 20 minutes between start times, the trips have to be quick. That’s why routes were moved to main roads such as Congress Street.

Barlow said he is still reviewing the new route proposed by a parent. He pointed out that under the new system, students always board the bus on its right side, which means they do not have to cross main roads like Congress Street or Brighton Avenue to reach the stop.

“The information is still coming in and we’re still taking feedback,” he said.

Podolsky said it’s unlikely that Barlow or school department staff will make an exception to the newly established routes.

“The only way for this to be resolved is for the policy makers to step in,” Podolsky said of the school board. “(Barlow and Worth) seemed pretty entrenched.