DURHAM, N.H. — The furor over Deflategate may have subsided a bit, now that Tom Brady is back on the field. But it’s still providing weekly lessons for about 70 students at the University of New Hampshire.

Michael McCann, one of the nation’s leading sports law attorneys, is teaching a four-credit class this fall about the legal ramifications of Deflategate and other legal issues pertaining to sports.

“You see the title, ‘Deflategate,’ and you say, ‘How is that useful?’ I’d argue this class is more useful than most of their classes,” said McCann, director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at UNH and a legal analyst and writer for Sports Illustrated.

“Learning what labor law is, learning what antitrust law is, learning intellectual property laws is very useful. For a course title that doesn’t sound like it would be practical, I think the substance of the class is very practical.”

The class – an elective offered to undergraduates through UNH’s Discovery School – meets each Wednesday for three hours. McCann said it had to be moved into a larger lecture hall after registration surpassed 50 students.

Many of the students wear Patriots T-shirts or caps, but McCann makes sure they know that the law takes no sides.

“I’ve stressed from Day One this is not a pro-Patriots class,” he said. “This is not Deflategate according to Tom Brady. This is Deflategate.

“I want students to play devil’s advocate. I want students to take the opposite view even if they don’t like it. I’ve forced students to say, ‘Look at it from the NFL’s side – what is its best case against Tom Brady.’ ”

The idea for teaching a class on Deflategate was born in February, a few weeks after the Patriots had been accused of using deflated footballs in their 45-7 AFC championship game victory over the Indianapolis Colts. Margaret McCabe, associate dean of academic affairs at the UNH School of Law in Concord, told McCann that the investigation might go to court and could make a good case study. McCann agreed, and charted plans for a course that includes a nine-page syllabus with reading assignments before each class.

The first class was held Sept. 2 – the day before a federal judge vacated the four-game suspension levied on Brady by the NFL for his failure to cooperate with the league’s investigation.

McCann likes how these undergraduate students often engage in insightful – and sometimes emotional – discussions, like the one that occurred Wednesday night.

He began the second half of the class with a discussion about the NFL’s reinstatement of Patriots employees Jim McNally and John Jastremski, central figures in the deflated football scandal. News of their reinstatement broke during the first half of the class.

“What does that mean?” McCann asked.

“Maybe the NFL is trying to get things back to normal,” one student replied. Another student asked, “If they’re guilty, why would the league reinstate them?”

That discussion then led to the most recent accusation leveled against the Patriots, by the Pittsburgh Steelers after their 28-21 loss to the Patriots on Sept. 10. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin claimed his headsets weren’t working properly and that the problem always happened when his team came to Gillette Stadium. The NFL cleared the Patriots of any wrongdoing, but the students in McCann’s class don’t see an end to accusations.

That began what could only be called a 45-minute therapy session for the Patriots fans in the class. Some students offered impassioned reasons why the Patriots are so disliked – they win all the time; they’ve been caught cheating before (Spygate, 2007); people are jealous of them; they push the boundaries of fair play; the media hates the Patriots; Bill Belichick is disliked; Tom Brady is too perfect.

When a couple of New York Giants fans offered their observations, McCann noted, “You are both courageous for taking this class.”

It can’t just be about the winning, McCann said, because teams in other sports win as much and are applauded for their success. “Why do we hate some teams that are good, and admire others?” he asked.

McCann asked his students, “How many of you like the fact that the Patriots are hated?” A majority raised their hands.

Then he asked, “How many would prefer a team like the (San Antonio) Spurs?” Only one student raised his hand.

McCann said afterward that he had never had a discussion go on like that. “You could see the students’ eyes light up that they wanted to talk about it,” he said.

Deflategate has touched something in them.

“I like it, it’s interesting,” Jesse Arford, a freshman from Brunswick, said of the class. “Obviously the Tom Brady aspect, I want to get the inside scoop on everything.”

Ben Allen, a freshman from Portland, said he wanted a class he knew nothing about, like law. “I’ve been told to take courses that really interest me and I wanted to see the unbiased opinion behind it,” he said. “I love it. It’s really cool being in a class that I actually enjoy and have a genuine interest in.”

Bryce Blake, a freshman from Swanzey, New Hampshire, calls his father after each class to discuss what he learned. “It’s covering much more than what I expected,” he said. “I’m learning about a lot of stuff I never knew about. But my favorite part is when people get heated up and start arguing.”

McCann, who lives in Andover, Massachusetts, with his wife, Kara, said future classes will be devoted to the media coverage of Deflategate and the science behind the controversy.

Although the NFL’s appeal likely won’t be settled until next summer or fall, McCann said he’s not sure whether the class will return. But he’s pleased that the students have taken to the subject matter.

“I think the undergraduates are learning (that) in law it’s not like math where there is an answer,” he said. “In law, there are a series of arguments and you have to persuade someone that yours is right.”

For some students, however, no argument is going to change their opinion.

“I’m still a die-hard Patriots fan and you’ve got to love Tom,” said Portland’s Allen. “I don’t think this class will affect how I feel toward him.”

Representatives from two Maine universities pledged their support Friday of an initiative expected to produce jobs and research opportunities in marine industries.

On the bridge of an Icelandic freighter, the presidents of both the University of Southern Maine and the University of New England signed agreements to join an effort to create a business incubator for marine-related businesses. The new incubator will combine research and development with commercial operations planned on the Maine State Pier.

The bridge of the MV Selfoss, one of the ships belonging to Eimskip, the Icelandic shipping company that planted its flag in Portland two years ago, was a symbolic setting to launch the New England Ocean Cluster House. It was Eimskip’s arrival that jump-started Portland’s increased involvement in the North Atlantic economic region.

Gov. Paul LePage visited Iceland last year, including a stop at the Iceland Ocean Cluster in Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital, on which the New England Ocean Cluster is modeled after.

USM and UNE expect the partnership with the Portland incubator will present opportunities for student internships and to work collaboratively on research and development geared toward advanced ocean technologies.

“We are deeply committed to providing our students with experience solving real world problems through programs and partnerships that also benefit the community,” UNE President Danielle Ripich said Friday on the Selfoss’ bridge. “We understand the impact collaborative thinking can have on our students and on the state. Now, through this new partnership, we have the opportunity to venture into truly international waters and to help create for Maine a dynamic marine business incubator that will use local resources to drive economic growth.”

The university’s marine and bioscience labs in Biddeford and in its pharmaceutical labs in Portland are expected to be the focus of the partnership.

Likewise Glenn Cummings, new president of USM, said its sponsorship of the Ocean Cluster House will create opportunities for international experiences for its students, as well as collaboration with the university’s school of business, the Muskie School of Public Policy, the Cutler Institute for Research and Lewiston Auburn College. Additionally, the university will offer its expertise in regulatory compliance within its Maine Regulatory Training and Ethics Center.

USM students will have opportunities for internships in advanced applied ocean technologies and to work with companies already operating in those fields.

“The New England Ocean Cluster House partnership will lead to direct economic growth not only for the Portland region but for the entire state of Maine,” said Cummings.

The university has already started to build relationships with Iceland directly. In the spring, USM hosted a reception for 45 students from the MBA program at Reykjavik University. Next month, Cummings expects to visit the country along with a group of USM colleagues to attend an Arctic conference and strengthen bonds with Icelandic universities.

USM has pledged $60,000 a year to sponsor Portland’s marine incubator.

The incubator is modeled after a similar operation in Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital. The incubator is home to several businesses and benefited from collaborations. For instance, one company has collaborated with an educational institution to develop technology applying fish skin to chronic wound care.

Backing the proposal is a coalition of business and education interests that is bidding on a $7 million jobs bond to help finance the transformation of an old city transit shed on the pier into the New England Ocean Cluster House. Bids must be submitted by Dec. 3 and a decision is expected by the end of the year, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources website.

The coalition includes UNE, the New England Ocean Cluster House, Southern Maine Community College and two Washington County organizations.

The majority owner in the Ocean Cluster House is Patrick Arnold, owner of Soli DG Inc., a management and consulting firm in South Portland that manages the Portland Marine Terminal on behalf of the Maine Port Authority. Arnold is partnering with Icelandic businessman Thor Sigfusson, who owns the Iceland Ocean Cluster in Reykjavik.

Arnold says the startup is prepared to invest several million dollars to rehab the transit shed if it wins the bid. But if the city and company are unable to agree on a long-term lease for the 30,000-square-foot space, the $2.5 million could be spent to prepare another site on the city’s waterfront, he said.

Both Ripich and Cummings said their support for the incubator was also a reflection of their respective universities’ missions to support the broader community.

UNE recently adopted the tag line, “Innovation for a healthier planet,” and Ripich said supporting these sort of ventures is furthering that mission.

“We believe this project helps us move in that direction and we’re happy to be a part of it,” she said Friday on the bridge of the Selfoss.

PRESQUE ISLE — Facing deep financial shortfalls, University of Maine System officials say they are committed to a long-term transformation that will streamline costs by cutting overhead and sharply focusing on what academic programs will be offered at each campus.

“We have made enormous progress,” Chancellor James Page told the system’s board of trustees Sunday at the opening of its two-day meeting at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. “If I can be so bold as to say: I think our teams have made more progress in 36 months than (the system made in) the previous 36 years.”

The so-called “One University” initiative is a multipronged approach to 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.

At its most basic level, the plan involves consolidating administrative structures to cut costs and overhauling the academic offerings at each campus to reduce overlap.

Some parts of the One University plan have already been completed, such as consolidating certain back-office functions. Other aspects lie ahead, such as the academic program changes and consolidating the finance functions.

So far, consolidating information technology and procurement is saving the system $5 million a year and consolidating human resources functions is estimated to save $1.4 million by 2019, officials have said. There is no estimate yet for the potential savings in consolidating the finance functions.

An updated five-year financial projection, taking into account the savings from the various initiatives, is scheduled to be presented to the trustees Monday.

As part of the academic overhaul, teams of faculty are currently analyzing each academic area, such as nursing and business, and evaluating 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 only a few should. The process will eventually evaluate all course offerings.

Dave Stevens, who is leading the overhaul as the system’s director of organizational effectiveness, described many of the changes so far as laying the foundation for future work, which will stretch out for years.

“This is not a one-year change process,” Stevens told the trustees. He said the foundational work will be done by the summer 2018, when the system is projected to be operating as a single entity.

Over the next academic year, he said, officials plan to present the One University plan to each campus to get input from employees, students and members of the local community.

Student trustee Paul Nelson said that was a key step, and that officials should use student governments on each campus to help get the word out about the changes or there will be “mass confusion.”

“I’m asking myself, what is academic transformation? What does it mean to me as a student? We’re going to whiplash students if they don’t understand,” Nelson said.

Page said changing the university community’s thinking around whether the system is seven individual campuses, or a single system, is also key.

Under the old model, the campuses were encouraged to compete for students, while the new model is to see the campuses as individual players on a single team. The old model led campuses, for example, to offer lower tuition or better financial aid to get students who might have attended another UMaine System campus. Similarly, a student transferring between campuses was seen as a “loss” to one campus and a “gain” to another. In the new model, it would be seen as a “win” for the system because the system retained that student.

Several trustees said they were still concerned about the financial bottom line.

“We’re cutting a path through brush and we don’t know as we hack through the brush where we’re going to end up, and what resources we may or may not have, and we’re developing a vision as we go,” said trustee James Irwin, noting that Page did not include financial projections. “How do you line up the goal with economic reality?”

Page said eliminating the projected $69 million budget gap was a top priority, because it stands in the way of major investments.

“We have to absolutely eliminate the structural deficit. We have to get beyond the uncertainty of ‘next year we are going to have to cut,'” Page said. “Once we do that, we can continue to invest in a small way, but the investments have to be very careful and very limited.”

Noel K. Gallagher can be contacted at 791-6387 or at:

ngallagher@pressherald.com

After a bill that would have made it harder for parents to skip immunizations for schoolchildren failed in the Maine Legislature this spring, schools across the state are on the front lines dealing with vaccinations and will potentially be most affected by any disease outbreaks. The fall is when schools send notices to parents asking them to be up to date on their vaccines.

But Maine’s weak immunization laws make it impossible to do much, school and public health officials say, because parents have the legal right to opt out. That makes it a steep climb to try to improve school vaccination rates, which are among the worst in the country despite some improvement in 2014-15 compared with 2013-14.

Maine’s low vaccination rates put the state’s children at risk for outbreaks of preventable diseases such as measles, chickenpox and pertussis.

“We go as far as we are allowed to under the state law to encourage immunization,” said Ken Kunin, South Portland’s superintendent of schools. The district’s Small Elementary School had one of the highest first-grade opt-out rates in the state for the 2014-15 school year, with 20 percent of parents forgoing vaccines for their children. Small school also had one of the worst opt-out rates for the measles vaccine.

For the first time this spring, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention released school-by-school vaccination rates, giving parents the opportunity to see their school’s data.

While Maine’s overall voluntary opt-out rate was 3.9 percent, there are pockets of vaccine resistance, with more than 60 schools having opt-out rates of 10 percent or higher for kindergarten or first grade. Some parents are fearful that vaccines cause autism or are unsafe, despite hundreds of studies proving vaccines are overwhelmingly safe and that there’s no link to autism, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Maine’s opt-out rate for 2014-15 was eighth-highest in the United States, and more than double the national average of 1.7 percent.

Kunin, who took the helm Aug. 1 as superintendent, said nurses will be having one-on-one conversations with parents and encouraging them to talk to their primary care doctors about vaccines.

But Kunin said South Portland’s approach to vaccinations won’t be much different from years past, because he says the law does not allow the district to be more aggressive.

“We have to abide by the law, but I’m 100 percent in favor of changing the law,” Kunin said.

A bill would have required a signature by a doctor or medical professional before parents could opt out of vaccinations for their children.

The current law allows parents to simply sign a form when opting out of vaccinations on philosophic or religious grounds. Maine is one of 18 states that permit parents to opt out on philosophic grounds. Some states are tightening their vaccine requirements, and California, after a Disneyland measles outbreak this year sickened hundreds, eliminated the philosophic exemption. Other states have passed laws requiring a physician’s signature to opt out, like Maine lawmakers tried to do.

Meanwhile, schools that want to try to improve vaccination rates don’t have many tools to do so, said Dr. Laura Blaisdell, a Yarmouth pediatrician and vaccine advocate.

“The schools’ hands are tied,” Blaisdell said. “Parents have legal rights. I can understand why school administrators would not want to touch this.”

The Maine Association of School Nurses supported the doctor’s signature bill, sponsored by Rep. Linda Sanborn, D-Gorham, who is a doctor. The Legislature overwhelmingly approved the measure, but Gov. Paul LePage vetoed the bill in June and the House fell a few votes short of overriding the veto. LePage’s veto message supported vaccines, but said the bill infringed on parent choice.

Pro-vaccine legislators say the unvaccinated endanger others, including immune-compromised children who can’t get vaccines, and infants too young to have all their vaccines.

Teresa Merrill, president of the Maine Association of School Nurses, a trade group, said school nurses traditionally send out the paperwork and obtain signed exemptions for everyone who doesn’t vaccinate. Anything beyond that would be asking the nurses to step into a role that should be reserved for pediatricians or others, she said.

“The law is very specific and obviously we have to follow the law,” said Merrill, who is also the school nurse at Great Falls Elementary in Gorham. “We don’t get involved in counseling a parent directly about vaccines. That’s up to their primary care physician.”

Janet Anderson, principal at Camden-Rockport Elementary School, which had one of the highest opt-out rates for kindergarten and first grade in 2014-15, said many parents have strong feelings about vaccines. The school’s role is to hand out the form and explain the consequences if there’s an outbreak. Unvaccinated children can be required to be kept home for 21 days during a preventable disease outbreak.

“We’re caught in the middle,” Anderson said. “We must respect parents’ personal decisions.”

Sanborn, the Gorham legislator, said she wishes that schools would do more public health education. But she said the most effective way to improve vaccination rates would be to change the law.

Sanborn said she’s not giving up on the bill, vowing that she or another lawmaker would bring it or a similar bill back in upcoming years.

“We are very committed to making this happen,” she said.

PRESQUE ISLE — Years of deep cuts have shaved $37 million off the University of Maine System’s five-year projected deficit, according to updated financial figures presented to the system trustees Monday.

The projected fiscal year 2020 budget gap will be $52.6 million, compared to earlier projections of $89.6 million, according to the presentation by system Chief Financial Officer Ryan Low.

Low said the bulk of the savings, $21 million, came from eliminating positions. Another $6 million came from campus-level budget cuts, and the balance was a mix of increased revenue, such as a boost in state appropriations, a rise in out-of-state students who pay higher tuition, and better than expected union contracts.

Low said the five-year projection is a baseline estimate, and does not include any other revenue. Additional five-year projections that could cut the deficit further include:

n If the state appropriation rises each year at the same rate as the Consumer Price Index, or just under 3 percent, the budget gap in 2020 would shrink to $38.6 million.

n If the state appropriation and tuition revenue both increase by the CPI rate, and the system writes off some depreciation, the 2020 gap would drop to $22.4 million.

Since 2010, the system has eliminated 656 full-time equivalent positions, bringing total staffing from 5,017 employees to 4,361 by June 2015. Since 2012, overall compensation has been reduced nearly $5 million systemwide, from $258.8 million to $253.8 million.

“We had to make difficult choices,” trustee Chairman Sam Collins said about the cuts in recent years. “I hope the Legislature sees the hard work and effort it took to get to where we are today, and that it will take a combination of modest (state appropriation) increases and continued cuts.”

The trustees need to focus on getting the deficit to zero, ideally by 2019, Collins said.

“We still have a major gap,” Collins said. “We need it to go to zero because we need to start reinvesting in signature programs. There’s a lot of hard work being done at each campus.”

The system’s employment peaked in 2007, with 5,414 full-time equivalent employees. Officials have eliminated more than 700 positions since then.

Chancellor James Page said the report shows “substantial progress,” but said ongoing cost-saving projects need to continue.

“These are hard-won, but fragile advancements,” said Page, who did not want to lose sight of the human cost behind the numbers.

“This is good news and these are dry numbers, but we should not forget the reduction was built on eliminating literally hundreds of full-time equivalent employees who were doing good work and were the victims of this, not the cause,” he said.

The shrinking deficit is good news, said Connor Scott, the UMaine undergraduate student representative to the board of trustees.

“We made tough choices and for students it was difficult and it was challenging,” Scott said. “But it was time. It’s very good at the end of the day to be fiscally responsible.”

In other business, university officials also announced the creation of the Maine Food and Agriculture Center, a new way for Mainers and Maine businesses to tap into the resources currently offered across all seven campuses. Much of this work is coordinated through University Extension officers, but the new center is in response to the growing markets in agri-tourism, farming, organic farming and the local food movement.

“It’s very clear that one of the cornerstones of Maine’s economy is going to be agriculture,” Page said.

The center will allow the system’s various ag-related efforts be better coordinated and improve outreach, he said.

“Food is becoming an economic development issue. It’s very exciting,” said John Rebar, the executive director of UMaine’s Cooperative Extension. Rebar noted that the center can help small farmers or major chains – he said Chipotle reached out to him recently to identify farmers within 175 miles of their locations.

The trustees also were updated on the early work of the academic review. Faculty teams are analyzing each academic area, such as nursing and business, and evaluating programs across campuses to see what changes should be made – whether, for example, whether multiple campuses should offer the same degree.

Recommendations include creating joint or system degrees for history, business, criminal justice, education, languages, marine sciences and nursing. Ideas include sharing courses and faculty, such as creating semester-long residencies at various campuses for the recreation and tourism program.

Any final decisions need to be made in consultation with faculty members and administrators, said Ellen Chaffee, who is overseeing the academic review.

Also Monday, the trustees:

• Approved funds that can be used for raises for employees not covered by union contracts, including senior administration officials. The approved increase, equivalent to a $750 one-time bonus and a 2 percent increase, creates funds that each campus president can distribute as desired. Page said he will not take a raise, nor will flagship President Sue Hunter, and any raises would be merit-based.

• Approved a $2 million loan to fund moving central office staff from their Bangor offices to various locations, including another Bangor building, the former MPBN building at 65 Texas Avenue, that is now called Lewiston Hall and is a remote location of UMaine Augusta. The loan will be repaid with the proceeds from the sale of the current central office at 16 Central Street. The trustees also voted to approve $1 million in improvements to Lewiston Hall.

• Approved a five-year lease for $1 a year at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station for a facility to be used by the Maine Cyber Security Cluster, a University of Southern Maine research unit. It would be a sub-tenant of SmarterRisk, LLC, and the facility is a secured space with power that meets federal government specifications for a closed facility that can handle classified research.

• Approved $2.4 million for the Trustee’s Reinvestment Fund, with $2.1 million for academic reinvestment at multiple campuses; $200,000 for the new Food and Agriculture Center; and $100,000 for the academic overhaul.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Nearly a quarter of undergraduate women surveyed at more than two dozen universities say they experienced unwanted sexual contact sometime during college, according to a report released Monday.

The results of the Association of American Universities Campus Climate Survey come at a time of heightened scrutiny of the nation’s colleges and universities and what they are doing to combat sexual assault. Just last week, Vice President Joe Biden visited Ohio State University and highlighted several new initiatives, including mandatory sexual violence awareness training for the school’s freshmen beginning next year.

The survey was sent this spring to nearly 780,000 students at the association’s member colleges, plus one additional university. About 150,000 participated in the online questionnaire. Researchers said results could be biased slightly upward because students who ignored the survey may have been less likely to report victimization.

The results were generally in line with past surveys on sexual assault and misconduct on college campuses – and confirmed that alcohol and drugs are important risk factors.

“How many surveys will it take before we act with the urgency these crimes demand?” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, who is pushing for passage of a bill that would address how sexual assault cases are handled on campus and the resources available to help students.

Researchers cautioned against generalizations from the data, partly because experiences of different students and at different schools could vary widely. It was not a representative sample of all the nation’s colleges and universities.

Some students attended schools that have recently grappled with reports of sexual assaults or misconduct, including the University of Virginia, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Ohio State.

University of Virginia President Teresa A. Sullivan has said that a widely discredited and later retracted Rolling Stone magazine story about a gang-rape at a fraternity house harmed efforts to fight sexual violence and tarred the school’s reputation. Hazing that included excessive underage drinking and sexualized conduct – though none of it aimed at females – prompted the University of Wisconsin-Madison to terminate a fraternity chapter earlier this year. And Ohio State fired its marching band director last year after an internal investigation turned up a “sexualized culture” of rituals and traditions inside the celebrated organization.

The Obama administration has pushed colleges to better tackle the problem of sexual assault, including releasing the names of 55 colleges and universities last year facing Title IX investigations.

WATERVILLE — The results of a police investigation into allegations against Waterville Senior High School Principal Don Reiter are expected to be forwarded to the district attorney’s office in the next several days, and the school superintendent said he thinks the school district’s investigation will be done by the end of the week.

“We are getting very close to finishing our investigation,” Police Chief Joseph Massey said Tuesday. “As a matter of fact, I anticipate our lead detective, Dave Caron, will forward his report on to the district attorney’s office later this week or early next week so they can review it, sit with the detective and make decisions regarding the case.”

Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said Tuesday that when she receives such a police report, she reviews it and decides whether charges should be brought against a person.

Reiter was placed on paid administrative leave three weeks ago, but police and school officials will not say why. Reiter’s attorney, Gregg Frame of Portland, indicated it has to do with allegations involving another person.

School Superintendent Eric Haley said Tuesday that he expects to make a recommendation soon to the Waterville Board of Education. Haley is superintendent of Alternative Organizational Structure 92, which includes Waterville, Winslow and Vassalboro schools.

“I’m thinking by the end of this week we certainly will have concluded our investigation,” he said.

Asked whether he knows what the outcome will be, he said, “I have a sense, but I’m not at liberty to say at this point.”

Frame and Reiter met Tuesday with Haley, Assistant Superintendent Peter Thiboutot and the school’s attorney, Melissa Hewey, to follow up on questions school officials had for Reiter at a Sept. 8 meeting.

Frame said, as he did after the Sept. 8 meeting, that there was nothing in Tuesday’s meeting that gave him pause about Reiter’s position in the schools. He said Reiter answered the questions truthfully and candidly.

“I fully expect he’ll be back in school shortly,” he said.

Frame was equally confident that the police investigation would result in no charges.

“I think the police have to conduct their investigation,” he said. “My sense is that there’ll be nothing further from this.”

Haley and Thiboutot are conducting an internal school investigation separate from the police investigation.

Haley placed Reiter on paid administrative leave Sept. 1 and reported the case to police Sept. 2.

Seven students in three York County school departments have contracted viral meningitis over the past week, the schools have reported, but a handful of students getting sick does not signal an impending outbreak, a top state health official said.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the federal CDC don’t track viral meningitis cases, so it’s difficult to determine whether this fall is better or worse than previous years. Hospitals and other health care providers do report bacterial meningitis – which is more rare and dangerous than viral meningitis – to the state and federal health agencies. There have been no reported bacterial meningitis cases in Maine this year and there were two cases in 2014.

But Dr. Siiri Bennett, Maine’s state epidemiologist, said it’s typical to see viral meningitis cases surface in the fall, when school begins.

“We see more viral meningitis cases at this time of year. This is when the virus is most active,” Bennett said.

With school in session, students are in close contact with each other in classrooms and while participating in sports and other activities. The congregation of people aids the spread of the virus.

Hundreds of different viruses can turn into viral meningitis – an inflammation of the tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord – with symptoms that include vomiting, fever, stiff neck, sensitivity to light, loss of appetite or fatigue. The symptoms are similar to bacterial meningitis, which is why it’s important to get tested, Bennett said. Health professionals can test for meningitis through blood, serum, rectal or other methods.

“Bacterial meningitis can be treated with antibiotics, and it can be very severe,” said Bennett, noting that some bacterial meningitis patients die or lose fingers or limbs from the disease. In contrast, viral meningitis tends to resolve itself within a week or 10 days and typically does not cause any lasting damage, Bennett said.

There is no treatment for viral meningitis, other than rest and supportive measures to ease symptoms.

The prevention of viral disease is similar for all viruses – practicing good hygiene, such as washing hands with soap and water and not sharing utensils or drinking glasses.

“If you’re sick, stay home,” Bennett said.

On Tuesday, the Saco School Department notified parents of a viral meningitis case at Saco Middle School.

In a letter to parents, Superintendent Dominic DePatsy said there is no need for alarm, but staff would more frequently clean bathrooms, faucets and drinking fountains, classrooms and the cafeteria.

“We are doing ‘double cleanings’ right now,” DePatsy told the Portland Press Herald.

Saco Middle School Principal Laurie Wood said absenteeism rates are normal for this time of year.

Elsewhere in York County, Regional School Unit 57 officials confirmed Tuesday that four students have contracted viral meningitis. That district covers Newfield, Limerick, Lyman, Alfred, Waterboro and Shapleigh.

Last week, North Berwick-based School Administrative District 60 reported two students had meningitis.

Portland School District officials said Wednesday that they will make changes next fall to either the yellow school bus system or to school start times, to avoid problems that have plagued the district this year.

The problems this fall have fallen primarily on elementary schools, which are divided into two groups and start 20 minutes apart. The idea was to have yellow school buses make runs to multiple schools, but instead they have had logistical problems that include one bus arriving at East End School 10 minutes before staff arrives, forcing students to wait on the bus with the driver for that period, or at the end of the day, not having buses available to pick up students at Presumpscot Elementary school until an hour after classes ended, forcing teachers and students to wait in the cafeteria.

“The two (starting times) are just too close together,” interim Superintendent Jeanne Crocker told the school board’s operations committee at their meeting Wednesday night.

The school board approved the new start times last December as part of a larger initiative to add 20 minutes to the school day, and switch all high school students off the yellow buses and onto Metro buses.

Crocker said it would be too disruptive to change school start times this fall, and the district can borrow buses and use resources within the existing transportation budget to make ends meet for the rest of the year.

Among the accommodations already made this year, she said, were borrowing buses from Bonny Eagle school district, changing the number of buses on certain routes and using temporary drivers to fill vacant positions.

Crocker said the district also was working to shift some East End teachers’ schedules earlier, so they would be there when the first bus arrived. She credited the teachers who have been working early and staying late without filing a union grievance or making complaints.

But next year, there will have to be changes, Crocker said. District staff will draw up a new plan and present it to the school board sometime after December, she said. It could be that simply changing which schools are in each group could fix the problem, so that the groups are geographically clustered and the buses have more efficient routes.

Or the start times of the schools may change, she said.

“(Any changes) will have to be very carefully vetted, including by our school leaders who were not part of this process and could have saved us a great deal of heartache,” she said. “We have to learn from the past year.”

School Board member Stephanie Hatzenbuehler said she thought making changes next year was the right course.

“There’s certainly enough blame to go around. It was like a perfect storm,” she said of the problems in recent weeks. “I think everyone has done a really great job making a miracle happen, really,” she said of the efforts made to address problems this year. “I also feel for the parents and students and teachers.”

Board member Jenna Vendil said teachers she talked to have been understanding about the problems, as have parents who told her they appreciated the district was making changes this fall to correct some of the problems.

“They know the district is working on it,” she said.

This fall, some parents also have raised safety concerns because the yellow buses are being routed to artery streets, such as Congress Street. Transportation officials said they were continuing to evaluate the routes and were meeting Thursday with concerned parents, and would do another safety evaluation after daylight-saving time ends Nov. 1.

Portland parents with elementary school-age children said Thursday they were glad to hear school officials are working on fixing problems with a new yellow-bus schedule this fall, but they hoped some changes would happen a bit faster.

“Our preference is to switch (bus stops) as soon as possible,” said Michael Brown, who was picking up his two daughters, students at Ocean Avenue Elementary School, at a bus stop on Congress and Edwards streets. Brown and his Libbytown neighbors have been lobbying the district to have bus stops on interior streets, not high-traffic Congress Street.

Robert Carignan, who was picking up his 8-year-old son, Scotty, agreed. He said district officials have been talking to parents, but there’s still no concrete sign they will change the stops.

“We understand the transportation director came in and had this mess, but they didn’t get responsive until we raised a big stink,” Carignan said.

School district officials said Wednesday that they will make changes next fall to either the yellow school bus system or to school start times, to avoid the problems that arose this year.

The district consolidated bus routes this year in conjunction with an initiative to add 20 minutes to the school day, change school start times and begin having 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 1½ hours after school ended.

The timing problem has largely affected elementary schools, which are divided into two groups and start 20 minutes apart. The idea was to have yellow school buses make runs to multiple schools, but instead they have had logistical problems that include one bus arriving at East End School 10 minutes before staff arrives, forcing students to wait on the bus with the driver for that period, or at the end of the day, not having buses available to pick up students at Presumpscot Elementary school until an hour after classes ended, forcing teachers and students to wait in the cafeteria.

Interim Superintendent Jeanne Crocker told the School Board operations committee Wednesday that it would be too disruptive to make major changes this year, such as changing start times, but that district staff would draw up a proposal to change the situation for next fall.

In the meantime, the district is continuing to make smaller changes to bus routes in order to smooth out the timing issues, Crocker said. Among the accommodations already made this year, Crocker said, were borrowing buses from the Bonny Eagle school district, changing the number of buses on certain routes and using temporary drivers to fill vacant positions.

The district made some of those changes to bus schedules starting Sept. 21, Deputy Chief Operations Officer Craig Worth told the operations committee Wednesday.

At Presumpscot, they are “very happy” with the changes, which produced “a vast improvement in their time,” he said.

Officials are continuing to work with other schools on specific issues, Worth said.

“As the week goes on, we’ll see how times are and we’ll work on that,” he said.

SAFETY AND WEATHER CONCERNS

Some parents said Thursday they aren’t having any late bus problems, but they’re concerned about safety issues, because buses have been re-routed off side streets and onto artery streets.

Parent Stacy Aceto said she thinks a new bus stop in her neighborhood will be a problem in wintertime. The bus has also sometimes been late dropping off her twin kindergarten daughters, who attend Presumpscot.

“I didn’t expect that with school starting earlier, the bus (coming home) would be later,” said Michelle Hawkes, who was waiting for her 9-year-old Presumpscot fourth-grader, Hannah, to come off the bus. Hawkes, cradling a newborn to her chest and pushing a stroller with a toddler, said she now has to walk four-tenths of a mile to the bus stop. She used to be able to see it from her porch.

“What am I going to do when it starts snowing?” Hawkes asked. A neighbor, Anthony Aceto, nodded: “We’re all going to be driving, lined up right there,” he said, pointing to the stretch of road by the bus stop.

Transportation officials said they were continuing to evaluate the routes and would do more safety evaluations after daylight-saving time ends Nov. 1 and in the wintertime when snowplows and snowbanks could become an issue.

A new species of tardigrade, a microscopic animal known for its cuddly appearance and ability to survive in extreme conditions, has been discovered on an island off the coast of Maine by a team of researchers from Unity College.

The discovery of Echiniscoides Wyethi has brought worldwide attention to the college – known for its commitment to educating the next generation of environmentalists – and to the professor who led the mission.

Dr. Emma Perry and several of her students collected the tardigrades, commonly known as water bears, from Allen Island, a 450-acre island off the coast of Knox County that is owned by the family of artist Andrew Wyeth. Perry, who is a professor of marine biology at Unity College’s Center for Biodiversity, named the micro-animal after the Wyeth family.

Perry’s findings have been published in a scientific journal and she presented her research at an international conference in Italy last summer.

Perry said tardigrades are distinctive eight-legged invertebrates that look, at least under a microscope, almost cute enough to touch. The only problem with touching tardigrades is their size. They measure on average 0.039 of an inch, Perry said.

“They are like a gummy bear with an extra set of legs,” she said of looking at the animal under a microscope.

Tardigrades can be found all over the world and can live in some of the harshest environments known to man. They’ve been discovered living in moss and lichens, bubbling hot springs, Antarctic ice, deep-sea trenches, and even on Himalayan mountaintops.

Perry said that tardigrades were sent into space in 2007 with the European Space Agency shuttle. During the mission, the organism was exposed to the vacuum of space and to radiation.

Perry said tardigrades can curtail their metabolism while shrinking or curling up, going for extended periods without food, water or oxygen. When the tardigrades returned to earth, scientists poured a few drops of water on the them and they sprang back to life.

“To quote ‘Star Trek,’ it would be like going into stasis,” Perry said. “They can completely shut down their metabolism.”

Perry suspected she had discovered a new species in May 2014 after collecting samples from barnacles she and her team found on Allen Island’s beaches. Students Chaz James, Jesse May, Ashleigh Munton and William Stoker helped her collect and analyze the samples taken from the island.

Under a microscope, this new creature had a much longer and more flexible buccal tube (similar to a human esophagus) than other species of tardigrades.

After conferring with her mentor, Dr. Bruce Miller, a tardigrade expert at Baker University in Kansas, and documenting her discovery, she published a paper on her findings in The Biological Society of Washington, an organization founded in 1880 to encourage the study of the biological sciences.

In June, Perry went to Modena, Italy, to present her research to the 13th annual International Symposium on Tardigrada.

Excitement within scientific circles has been growing for years around these tiny animals.

It led to creation of the The International Society of Tardigrade Hunters, which was founded in 2015 to advance the study of the water bear. Dr. Thomas C. Boothby, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina, is the Society’s founder and president.

Boothby said there are more than 1,100 known species of tardigrades.

“Since their discovery some 250 years ago, tardigrades have fascinated scientists. Today, researchers are applying both traditional and cutting-edge techniques to study the biology of these amazing creatures,” Boothby said in an email.

The first tardigrade recorded in North America was discovered in 1873 by a minister in New Gloucester, Maine, named Rev. W.R. Cross.

“Understanding the biology of tardigrades has and will continue to make significant impacts on our understanding of animal physiology, evolution, development and ecology,” Boothby added.

Boothby said the scientific community has taken note of Perry’s discovery.

“Every time we find a new tardigrade we have another opportunity to learn something new about their biology and the world we live in,” Boothby said. “Beyond identifying this new species, Dr. Perry’s discovery sheds light on the fact that there are likely many undiscovered species of tardigrades whose identification would be a boon to the research community.”

Unity College issued a statement describing Perry’s discovery. The college’s statement said tardigrade research is important because it could help with understanding biodiversity loss, global warming and other environmental issues.

“Why care? … Just because we don’t know about them doesn’t mean they are not important,” Perry said in the statement about her discovery.

Two Maine schools have been named Blue Ribbon schools by the U.S. Department of Education, officials announced Tuesday.

The honor, for Coastal Ridge Elementary School in York and Minot Consolidated School, recognizes high achievement on learning standards or notable improvements in closing the achievement gap. The two schools are among 285 public and 50 private schools awarded Blue Ribbon status this year.

Coastal Ridge Elementary School serves second-, third- and fourth-grade students. Minot Consolidated School serves pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade students.

HINCKLEY — The sun wasn’t shining Wednesday afternoon, but the lights were still on at the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences, where the school recently installed more than 200 electricity-generating solar panels.

The panels are part of a $7 million renovation and expansion at the Charles E. Moody School, a former grammar school on the Good Will-Hinckley campus that is now home to the charter high school.

“The reason we had to expand was the demand,” said Rob Moody, interim president of Good Will-Hinckley and the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences, during a tour of the building Wednesday. “There are a lot of kids that want to come here, so we had to find a place to fit 200-plus kids.”

The school’s current enrollment is about 125 students, according to Moody, and the school hopes to expand to a student population of about 200 in the next three years. It is on the Good Will-Hinckley campus, which is also home to the L.C. Bates Museum, the Glenn Stratton Learning Center and the College Step Up Program.

‘A REAL FEELING OF COMMUNITY’

Students and parents at a ribbon-cutting Wednesday said they were pleased with the renovated building, although some had reservations about growing the student population.

“I know it’s good for a school to grow, but right now we have a real feeling of community because we’re small,” said junior Hannes Moll of Windsor. “I feel like that could decline a little with more kids.”

Moll’s mother, Leanne Moll, who was also at the ceremony, said the school has helped her son’s self-confidence and also helped her as a single parent.

“It’s hard as a single mom to raise a son, but the male teachers here are really role models and have really been a good connection,” she said.

“I was like, ‘Wow,’ ” Moll said, describing her reaction when she walked into the updated building for the first time. “Before they had really tiny classrooms, but they made it work. The building is only as good as the people in it, and I think (the staff members here) are already doing a really good job.”

The renovation of the Moody School into a home for the charter school has been in the works since the school opened in 2012 as the state’s first charter high school, Moody said.

‘FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY’

The building was built around 1905 as part of the Good Will-Hinckley Home for Boys and Girls, a home and farm where orphaned and needy children could get an education. The residential school closed in 2009, citing financial reasons, and the charter school opened in its place in 2012. The school is open to students from around the state and offers a curriculum based in agriculture, forestry and hands-on learning.

“The focus on sustainability is part of our mission,” Moody said. “We’re teaching that in the classroom, and this is one way of carrying out what we are teaching.”

He said the century-old Moody School, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, was in good condition when renovations began in 2012. The exposed brick of the old building can still be seen within the walls of the new structure, which includes a 7,000-square-foot addition. The building is 23,350 square feet total and includes 17 classrooms and 267 photovoltaic panels – solar panels that use the sun’s energy to generate electricity.

Members of the Good Will-Hinckley board of directors and contributors to a $10 million capital campaign funding the renovation and an endowment said they were excited about the building.

BUILDING IS ‘NET POSITIVE’

The Maine Academy of Natural Sciences “has had to turn students interested in attending the school away each of the past two years,” said Good Will-Hinckley board of directors Chairman Jack Moore. “Today we are on our way to achieving the vision of serving over 200 students from across Maine each year.”

“We are delighted to see Good Will-Hinckley take this exciting next step toward serving more Maine youth at the state’s first charter school,” said Greg Powell, chairman of the Harold Alfond Foundation, a contributor to the capital campaign.

The solar panels are expected to produce 91,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. The building is also “net-positive,” which means it generates more electricity than it will use. The remaining electricity can be used to run other buildings on the campus or can be sold back to the electrical grid.

The installation is one of several large solar projects to be built at academic facilities around the state in recent years. In 2012, Thomas College in Waterville erected what was at the time the largest solar panel system in the state with the installation of 700 solar panels on the roof of the Alfond Athletic Center. The panels continue to generate about 11 percent of the school’s electrical needs.

Unity College also has made strides in solar energy on its campus with solar panels on the Unity House, where the school’s president lives, and in residential facilities such as TerraHaus, a dormitory building that covers most of its heating costs with thermal solar panels.

Jennifer deHart, sustainability director at Unity College, said there are significant challenges to generating enough solar electricity to run an entire building.

“To put up enough panels to run a conventional building is way more than most buildings can accommodate,” she said. “So it requires you to first shrink the energy requirements of the building and then your solar array can be sized.”

Rachel Ohm can be contacted at 612-2368, or at:

rohm@centralmaine.com

BRUNSWICK — Southern Maine Community College formally dedicated the newest addition to its midcoast campus Thursday, a $4.5 million academic building partly paid for with donations from L.L. Bean.

The L.L. Bean Learning Commons and Health Science Center has modern classrooms and labs, including high-tech mannequins used to simulate medical problems.

The dedication Thursday coincided with an announcement by L.L. Bean board Chairman Shawn Gorman that the company will donate another $250,000 to be split between Preble Street and the Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges in memory of Leon Gorman, former president and chairman, who died last month.

The new building is intended to be the hub of the campus, which opened in 2011 on the grounds of the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. It has state-of-the-art classrooms and laboratories, large common areas, a cafe, advising offices, a library and study rooms, and is intended to serve the 600 students now enrolled at the campus.

SMCC President Ron Cantor praised L.L. Bean for the company’s numerous contributions to the college, including support for the construction of the new building. The company and the Gorman family have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the school and contributed $200,000 toward the landscaping of the building.

“You can’t believe how pleased I am to see the L.L. Bean name on this building,” said Gorman. “There’s no better investment than in your community and your children.”

Students have been using the new building for weeks.

Each classroom has a “smart board,” which essentially turns the entire wall into an interactive computer surface. Some walls have special paint that allows them to function as traditional whiteboards that teachers and students can write on.

The Emergency Medical Services lab contains complex mannequins that accurately simulate medical situations. Examination rooms feature one-way mirrors and cameras, allowing instructors to observe students from a distance as students deal with simulated medical issues.

Students have immediately taken to the building.

“I used to commute to the South Portland campus,” said Kathrine Norcott, a business administration major who lives in the Boothbay region. “It’s made a huge impact on my career as a student.”

Jameson Rodriguez, who is among the first 37 on-campus residents at the school, said, “This is a really nice space to utilize,” and he uses the common areas and study rooms almost every day. He said they have helped him focus on his academics. “I think this is a great tool that people will be able to use.”

Chris Chase can be contacted at cchase@coastaljournal.com.

CAPE ELIZABETH — As Talya Edlund walked into the auditorium at Pond Cove Elementary School on Monday, the room erupted in cheers.

In the surprise ceremony, the third-grade teacher was named the state’s top teacher. The students and teachers were supposedly gathering to celebrate the school’s 250th anniversary when they drew back the curtain to reveal the “2016 Maine Teacher of the Year” banners.

Edlund covered her mouth and smiled when she realized why the entire school was gathered. Her students, who walked into the auditorium with her, pumped their fists in the air and jumped up and down.

“I don’t even know where to begin. I am so grateful to all of you,” Edlund said, her voice breaking as she thanked her “beautiful, amazing students” and others in the school and community.

“You make my job an adventure every day,” she told her third-grade students, who sat on the floor at the foot of the stage during the hourlong ceremony. “Thank you for showing me kindness and creativity. With those things, anything is possible.”

As the 2016 Maine Teacher of the Year, Edlund will travel around the state during the year to meet with teachers and students and speak about Maine’s public schools. She will also travel to the White House with other state teachers of the year to meet with President Obama.

“Today we celebrate you and your love of teaching,” said acting Deputy Education Commissioner Rachelle Tome, who presented Edlund with a plaque and read a letter of congratulations from Gov. Paul LePage.

Tome described Edlund as a “teacher’s teacher” who “understands and values the individual uniqueness of every child.”

Her students said she makes learning fun, and they were sure she would win the Teacher of the Year award.

“She teaches us and she also pushes us to do harder things. And she helps us if we have trouble,” said 8-year-old Campbell DeGeorge.

“Everything about her is just amazing. When I was in second grade and they said I would be in Miss Edlund’s class, a whole surge of happiness just went through me,” said Nikolas Moliski, also 8. “She’s amazing.”

Edlund emerged from an initial field of more than 300 nominees. The group was narrowed down to 16 county Teacher of the Year winners and to three state finalists, from Cumberland, Franklin and Piscataquis counties.

Edlund says her philosophy is to get students engaged by working with their hands and thinking problems through by experimenting, such as making a lobster trap out of cardboard tubes, string and some tape.

She also wants to get them comfortable: On the first day of class, she gives her students the messiest possible assignment so they can have some fun, learn that they can make a mess – and how to clean up. Her classroom is a bright, inviting space, with brightly colored maps on the walls and shelves stuffed with books at a child’s eye level. Bins with Legos, crayons, puzzles and glue sticks also line the shelves.

Edlund started teaching 15 years ago, in Brooklyn, New York. She began working in Cape Elizabeth in 2004. She has taught second-graders and worked as a literacy coach.

“We are so fortunate to have you work with us at Pond Cove,” Principal Kelly Hanson told Edlund. “All at Pond Cove adore you, Talya.”

The state’s 2015 Teacher of the Year, Jennifer Dorman, was part of the committee that selected Edlund. She said the committee observed her teaching, and asked her third-grade students to describe Edlund in one word.

“Students have a knack for a one-word description,” Dorman said. Among the words they used, she said, were “epic, happy, awesome … stupendous.”

Edlund’s classroom, she noted, “smelled like paint” and was filled with a “buzz of learning.”

In an interview at the beginning of the school year, Edlund said third-graders are fun to work with because they have a great sense of humor at that age and are “very good at working together.” They have moved from “learning to read” to actually “reading to learn,” and are very positive about being at school and learning.

“They don’t have to be perfect. Their job is to figure out how to work with the abilities and talents they have,” she said.

Edlund said going through the teacher of the year process “shoved me out the door and has given me a reason to think about the choices I make,” referring to the essay-writing portion of the application. Applicants also had to make oral presentations in the final stages.

Edlund has a bachelor of arts degree in humanities from the University of Michigan and a master of science degree in elementary education from Brooklyn College.

In his letter to Edlund congratulating her, LePage wrote, “Through your teaching, you foster a sense of self-reliance, a love for learning, an independence, and endless encouragement for students.”

GORHAM — In a move that has disappointed students, Gorham High School has done away with school dances other than the prom because of concerns over sexually suggestive dancing.

A homecoming bonfire will be held Friday instead of the traditional first dance of the school year.

“Word around the school is no one is going to go, and it’s going to be lame,” senior Billy Ruby said of the bonfire.

A year ago, Gorham High students walked out of the homecoming dance because a controversial dance style called grinding was prohibited.

Dances were canceled for the rest of the year and none was scheduled for this year, aside from the prom, where students tend to be better behaved because it’s a more formal event, said Principal Chris Record.

In a letter sent to parents last month, Record said the prevalence of grinding, in which the buttocks of one dancer are backed up against the pelvis of another, makes it impossible for chaperones to control.

He doesn’t blame the kids, he said, but the nature of the contemporary dance culture.

After school Tuesday, some students said they’re fine with not being able to grind at dances. They’re upset about losing the chance to get dressed up, take pictures and enjoy the music.

“If there’s people grinding, kick them out. Don’t ban the whole thing,” said junior Kiara Sweet.

After the student walkout at Gorham High last year, students at Scarborough High School did the same.

David Creech, the Scarborough principal, did not return a call for comment Tuesday on whether his school has changed its dance policies.

LONGSTANDING ISSUE LOCALLY, ACROSS U.S.

Suggestive dancing at school events has been an issue that schools throughout the country have grappled with for decades, and schools have dealt with it in various ways.

In response to a ban on grinding, students at an Illinois high school held their own “anti-homecoming” at a private club. A high school in Vermont banned last year’s homecoming dance because of an increased amount of twerking, another sexually provocative type of dance that involves squatting and hip thrusting. Several years ago, officials at Skaneateles High School in upstate New York changed DJs and tried to introduce formal dances, like the waltz or the hustle, to try to get kids to dance differently, but ended up canceling dances when students wouldn’t stop grinding.

The issue isn’t new to Gorham High, either.

Two years ago, Gorham High’s School Council, a group composed of students and staff members, reviewed the school’s procedures for dances to prevent grinding.

A decision was made to increase lighting and the number of chaperones, but when those and other changes were implemented last year, two-thirds of 350 students at the homecoming dance left early, according to Record’s letter.

“The following week, GHS was disrupted by an uprising of sorts by the seniors and juniors, demanding that grinding should be allowed,” Record wrote.

The disc jockey at the dance, who also works for Portland radio station Q97.9, invited students to speak on air about the incident, which Record believes exacerbated the situation.

Brian Lang, market manager for Townsquare Media’s radio stations in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Portland, including Q97.9, believes the principal was in a tough situation, and that it’s in the school’s purview to make and enforce the rules for dances.

But, Lang said, it should be up to parents to teach their children about appropriate behavior.

“I think blaming the radio station is ridiculous,” he said.

SCHOOL’S ‘NEW DIRECTION’ DISAPPOINTS STUDENTS

Despite rumors that Record decided to cancel dances for the remainder of last year, he said, it was student leaders who believed that the dances wouldn’t be worthwhile to organize.

Then near the end of the year, Record said, administrators decided to “move in another direction regarding offering safe and appropriate events” for students, such as Friday’s bonfire.

Those events also serve as fundraisers for the Student Council, which could have a hard time raising money for scholarships and other activities.

Gorham High students interviewed Tuesday said they either weren’t planning on going to the bonfire or hadn’t decided, and would probably go to other parties or hang out with friends instead.

Record said he’s heard opinions from “across the spectrum” on the matter from students, parents and alumni.

“I’m sorry people are upset, but my number one job is to keep students safe,” he said.

Record said the administrators’ decision isn’t necessarily permanent, and he’ll continue to have a conversation with student leaders about how to improve the school’s culture.

Meanwhile, from seniors missing out on their last homecoming dance to freshmen looking forward to their first, students say they’re disappointed.

“I would have definitely wanted a homecoming dance,” said freshman Cooper Lyons.

Students said it’s especially hard knowing friends at other schools are having fun at homecoming dances where there’s less issue taken with grinding.

Record said the problem isn’t unique to his high school.

“It’s not a Gorham issue. It’s a Maine issue, it’s a national issue,” he said. “I’m not trying to lead the way, I’m just trying to make good decisions for the school community.”

NORTH BERWICK – Noble High School officials said Tuesday they are seeing higher test scores and fewer disciplinary problems two years after launching a multimillion-dollar program aimed at ninth-graders that emphasizes making social and emotional connections with students.

The Building Assets-Reducing Risks program is described as a “structured, tag-team approach” targeting ninth-graders. Under the program, teams of ninth-grade teachers, counselors, social workers and others are assigned blocks of freshmen. They meet regularly to discuss individual student’s progress and the entire group is responsible for the overall progress of all students in the block.

The students also attend a period where they do group activities to encourage them to share information and form connections.

“It’s a good way to talk to people,” said Jordynn Godin, 14, a freshman at Noble. “It helps you learn about someone in a new way.”

“Usually, you have those cliques, but now you don’t because it’s kind of a forced group,” said Andrew Morissette, 14.

At Noble, standardized test scores are up 15 percent and truancy and disciplinary problems are down, said BARR coordinator Janice Eldridge.

The school hosted a two-day conference on Tuesday and Wednesday for teachers from several states that are testing the BARR approach.

“It’s about people. It’s about relationships,” said Angela Jerabek, who developed the BARR program when she was a counselor at St. Louis Park High School in Minnesota. “If we’re being attentive to the person, and use data, we’re going to continue to see incredible results.”

In 2013, Spurwink was awarded a five-year, $12 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to implement the BARR program in Maine schools. In 2015-16, BARR will be used in schools in seven states, through 25 grants nationwide.

In Maine, it is being used in nine schools, including Mountain View High School in Thorndike, Presque Isle High School and Lake Region High School in Naples. Some are running randomized control studies – picking out some students randomly to participate – to generate data about the results.

At the conference Tuesday, Jerabek said the idea behind the program is to make a personal connection with each student, and between teachers who must work together to understand and serve the students.

“There’s not a magical curriculum, there’s not a magic technology that’s going to revolutionize our schools,” she said. “It’s going to be these intentional relationships.”

“People talk about the achievement gap. I believe a lot of our students are in a relationship gap,” Jerabek said. “BARR has been considered soft, but our outcomes are hard.”

Bucksport High School, one of the earliest adopters of the program, is now considered a demonstration BARR school, along with the Minnesota school where it began.

Regional School Unit 25 Superintendent Jim Boothby said they started the program at Bucksport in 2011-12 with grant money, but have continued it for two years without additional funding, and expanded it to the middle school.

“It is part of our culture now,” Boothby said, noting that the school has seen increases in test scores and graduation rates. He said the graduation rate had been just under 80 percent for years, and is now more consistently around 90 percent. “When I walk into the high school now, everything has a purpose. I see a healthy environment, an environment prepared to meet the needs of the students.”

Supporters are collecting signatures to put a measure on the November 2016 ballot that would tax high-income households to help fund public education.

Under the proposal, Maine households earning more than $200,000 a year would pay $30 for every $1,000 over $200,000 into a fund benefiting schools serving kindergarten through 12th grade.

The Stand Up for Students campaign said it estimates it will need 62,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot. The group said it expects the measure could raise $110 million.

The state has never met the 55 percent school funding level specified in Maine’s education subsidy laws, a measure passed by voters in 2003.

“We’re asking our top earners to pay a little bit more to help fund our most common and essential public good – the education of our children,” said Michael Hillard, professor of economics at the University of Southern Maine. “This initiative is good for students, good for schools, good for taxpayers, and good for Maine.”

FARMINGTON — Amid dust, dump trucks and construction clatter, a vision of a sustainable future is becoming real on the University of Maine at Farmington campus.

On a former parking lot at the back of the campus, the building of a biomass central heating plant puts UMF on track to be the state’s first public college to rely almost entirely on a sustainable energy resource for heat.

“This biomass plant offers a very important milestone in our renewable and sustainable energy journey on the UMF campus,” said Luke Kellett, coordinator of the university’s Sustainable Campus Coalition.

The $11 million biomass heating project broke ground in June and is halfway to completion. When it’s done, it will replace oil as the university’s primary energy source, and moves UMF toward its goal of being carbon-neutral by 2035.

The project was proposed after Summit Natural Gas delayed its plans to extend a pipeline to Farmington until 2016. University officials were not content to put off their commitment to sustainability any longer.

“Even from the early stages, (the project) was going to be a natural gas plant with the hope to be biomass at some point later in the future. But because of natural gas backing out, we jumped ahead to go right to biomass,” said Jeff McKay, director of facilities management at UMF.

The 5,885-square-foot central heating plant being built on the corner of Perkins and Quebec streets will house the biomass boiler.

The boiler will burn 4,000 tons of locally sourced wood chips a year to heat water circulating through 2 miles of underground piping connecting campus buildings to the plant.

McKay says the loop is about 80 percent complete and will be heating the campus by mid-November using the existing oil boilers on campus.

Over winter break the biomass boilers are expected to be fired up, and by the time the students return, the biomass system will be completely up and running.

OUT WITH THE OLD

Aside from the construction of the heating plant itself and the extensive trench work that has been underway to install the 2 miles of steel piping for the heating loop, UMF facilities management workers and contracted Vining Construction crews have to replace large oil furnaces with smaller biomass heat-exchangers in the basements of campus buildings.

“This project is so long and intrusive, and that has been one of the biggest challenges – working around the academic calender,” McKay said. “However, it is a very, very good project. So the short-term discomfort hopefully is going to be outweighed by the long-term gain.”

Similar biomass heating systems are being used by Colby College in Waterville and the University of Maine at Fort Kent.

The biomass system in place at Colby since 2012 is larger than the UMF project, but is using steam instead of hot water. It was funded privately by the college.

The $2.6 million Fort Kent biomass system was constructed in conjunction with the Fort Kent Community High School campus through a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant and is “about half the size of our heating system, maybe even less than that,” McKay said.

The UMF heating plant is projected to recoup construction costs through energy savings in the first 10 years of operation, replacing 390,000 gallons of heating oil now being used annually.

Once the new heating plant is in full operation, 95 percent of the campus will be heated by renewable biomass. Four fuel-efficient oil boilers will remain in operation on campus to add heat to the loop and serve as a backup source of heat if the biomass system ever goes off line.

“Most of the heat is going to come from (the biomass plant) to heat that water, but there are a few what they call ‘injection points’ at these four buildings on campus, where heat is going to be added to the loop,” Kellett said. “It’s also a good backup to keep just a small amount of oil in case this ever did go offline. We need some degree of a backup, just in case.”

VISION FOR A SUSTAINABLE CAMPUS

The central heating plant is the largest step UMF has taken toward reducing its carbon footprint, but it is not the first.

Around 2000, UMF officials began to think critically about the future of campus sustainability and what steps they could take to reduce their carbon emissions in order to combat climate change, Kellett said.

In the following years, the school began investing in geothermal energy and has installed 142 thermal wells on campus. It also has converted buildings to meet certifiable LEED standards.

In 2010, UMF drafted a Climate Action Plan that lays out the university’s goals for reducing carbon emissions. Kellett said that for many years the UMF campus has emitted around 12,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, though reports show that a slight decline in emissions began in 2007.

The Climate Action Plan sets a goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2035 with an intermediate 2025 goal of a 43 percent reduction in emissions from 2007 levels.

Kellett said that UMF emitted about 10,800 metric tons of carbon in 2014, and the campus conversion to biomass will reduce current emission levels by 3,000 to 4,000 metric tons.

Projections show that with the biomass heating system in place, the campus’s carbon emissions will hover around 7,000 metric tons, putting UMF on target 10 years ahead of schedule to reach its 2025 goal, Kellett said.

“Ultimately we hope to drastically alter the campus energy mix away from fossil fuel to renewable sources. This heating plant guarantees that energy shift and highlights the sustainability commitment that UMF continues to embrace,” Kellett said.

The next step UMF hopes to take is to explore how wind and solar power could be incorporated into its energy portfolio.

STATEWIDE CARBON REDUCTION

In September, the University of Maine System board of trustees said in a news release that its campuses had achieved a 26 percent reduction in carbon emissions since 2006.

As part of its Energy and Sustainability Report, the system also announced that campus dependence on heating oil is expected to drop by an estimated half a million gallons by the start of 2016.

“Maine’s universities are leaders on the environment because of our research and our programs, our investments and the daily choices we make across our campuses,” UMS Chancellor James H. Page said in the release.

The UMF biomass conversion accounts for 80 percent of the 500,000-gallon reduction occurring on the seven UMaine campuses.

Other carbon-reducing projects across the system include a compressed natural gas project replacing 13 boilers at the University of Maine at Machias, three newly installed natural gas boilers at the University of Southern Maine, and the biomass heating system at Fort Kent.

In January, the board of trustees voted to begin divesting its direct holdings in coal companies, making UMaine the first public land and sea grant university in the nation to begin divesting fossil fuels.

The moves toward sustainability taken over the last year are being fueled by the idea that the university system wants to set an example of environmental stewardship for the students it is educating, said Dan Demeritt, executive director of public affairs for the UMaine system.

“We are working hard to be responsible stewards of the tax and tuition dollars entrusted to the university system and of the environment,” said Norman Fournier, chairman of the board of trustees’ Finance, Facilities and Technology Committee, in the release.

HOLISTIC VISION

The UMF biomass plant is already being incorporated into curriculum across disciplines, Kellett said, and with the completion of the project by the end of the year and the inclusion of a classroom in the building, he expects it to become an important learning tool for students.

But inclusion in curriculum is only one way UMF is trying to convey a message of sustainability to its students and the surrounding community.

As a group, the Sustainable Campus Coalition is made up of UMF faculty, staff, students and interested community members.

The group encourages anyone with an interest in the environment or climate change to get involved regardless of their academic background.

In essence, the coalition allows any UMF student to get involved with projects like the biomass heating plant and learn firsthand what it takes to enact environmentally healthful projects and policies, said UMF alumnus Paul Santamore, who worked with the coalition when the biomass discussion first began.

“The holistic nature is something that is fostered at UMF and is something that is embraced. If you don’t know the technical terms, then someone will teach them to you or teach you how to understand the science,” Santamore said. “Farmington does a really nice job of integrating their visions, their values, not only into actions, but into their curriculum and what they teach.”

Santamore graduated from UMF in 2014 with an individualized study degree focusing on poverty policy.

In his senior year, he worked as a project assistant for the coalition, leading meetings and helping work on the sustainability plan.

While Santamore was not a science student, the coalition allowed him to work closely on issues he was passionate about and to have a say in the direction of UMF’s sustainability future.

Kellett says that the coalition encourages student input and hosts energy forums to gauge student attitudes toward sustainability ideas.

Santamore recalls that during his time on the coalition, students were concerned about the initial natural gas project for ethical and political reasons, but also because they felt the idea of a natural gas pipeline didn’t fit in with UMF.

“The biggest opposition we had with natural gas, other than some ethical worries that the students had, was that UMF was taking the same step as everyone else,” Santamore said. “We weren’t being innovative and we weren’t being different, which is what Farmington is about. It’s a very different place.

“And with Farmington taking that innovative role in the green functions of a university by converting (to biomass) or being more sustainable or using local food and having an active student group, I think that’s huge.”

Lauren Abbate can be contacted at 861-9252 or at:

labbate@centralmaine.com

Twitter: Lauren_M_Abbate

CORNVILLE — What do you get when you take slices of red apple, green apple, some kiwi fruit, mini-marshmallows, a few grapes, pretzels and corn chips and stick them together with caramel sauce?

Well, at the Cornville Regional Charter School, you get edible art.

The art class taught by Sally Baker of Bingham is one of four revolving courses of art and music at the charter school conducted as part of the regular curriculum each week.

On a recent afternoon as Baker and her students were making art with food, artist Shirleyanne Ratajczak of Waterville was teaching pottery, and musicians Elaine Loekle of East Madison and Gail Kelly of Cornville were giving music instruction, singing songs with a roomful of kindergarten students.

School Principal Travis Works said the art and music groups – along with what he calls “student interest groups” for welding, jewelry-making, yoga, sign language, soccer, robotics, baby-sitters club, hiking and others offered by community volunteers twice a week – form an important part of the school day.

“It gives the students an opportunity to be exposed to a wide variety of things that they wouldn’t normally be exposed to,” Works said. “We find things the kids are interested in. The art and music piece is something we value greatly – they are part of the human experience.”

Works said a charter school is all about educating the whole child, and art and music are part of that goal along with the core content of math, language, science and agriculture.

The art and music projects run for nine weeks, then students switch so that they get instruction from both artists and both musicians. Loekle and Kelly work together some of the time, then break off into separate groups in which Kelly focuses on music theory and Loekle focuses on violin instruction and appreciation, Works said.

One provides the live music in the combined sessions, while the other teaches rhythm and dance.

Charter schools, like the Cornville school and the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences on the campus of Good Will-Hinckley in Fairfield, are public schools that are allowed the freedom to be more innovative while being held accountable for advancing student achievement. Because they are public schools, they are open to all children, do not charge tuition and have no special entrance requirements.

The state is now billed directly for students who attend charter schools in Maine. Until this year, local school districts paid tuition for all students living within the district who attended the charter schools. The payment process created huge expenses for local districts. The Cornville school’s annual budget is $1.1 million.

In the arts and music classes last week, students got their hands into gray clay that was mined locally on land owned by the parents of Justin Belanger, the school’s executive director.

“We’re making clay bowls,” said Aiden Belanger, Justin and Sandy Belanger’s son, during pottery lessons.

“I love it,” fellow student Logan Fowler of Skowhegan said of the class. “It’s fun. I’m learning how to mold clay and what kind of clay it is.”

Ratajczak, the pottery instructor, said students processed the natural clay by mixing it with water and running it through cloth to take out unwanted particles.

The result could be cereal bowls or soup bowls for a possible soup supper at the school.

Over at the edible arts class, Baker and her students were trying to figure out just what to do with the cut-up fruit, pretzel pieces and caramel. It wasn’t easy projecting what a work of art might look like at first when the pieces were still ordinary food, the students said.

“Edible art is you make something and then you eat it,” student Clara Jewell said, assembling her apple slices into a triple decker with toothpicks. “I have no idea what mine is yet.”

Baker said she and her students have done self-portraits, which are on display in the hall, drawings and sketches for a mosaic project and some designs on graph paper. Baker also teaches yoga and supervises weaving and jewelry making.

The Cornville Regional Charter School, with 60 students in kindergarten through grade six, opened in October 2012 as the first elementary education charter school in Maine.

The school now has an enrollment of 121 students in kindergarten through grade eight from towns all over the region.

The instruction for reading, writing and math is connected to the Common Core Standards, Works said.