Working Waterfront

Closing a rural school raises key questions

It is school budget time. For remote and rural towns, it is common for the sustainability of small schools to be in question: do the economic benefits of the school outweigh the cost to local property tax payers? On the surface, closures or consolidations often seem more cost effective. In… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Girls running club built connection, confidence

During the pandemic, I missed working with kids, so this spring, I registered as a volunteer coach for Girls on the Run (GOTR). An afterschool program for girls in grades 3-5, GOTR “inspires girls to be joyful, healthy, and confident.” Throughout the season, girls meet twice weekly, growing social-emotional skills… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island high school grads back in gear

Three islanders graduating from high school this month are moving forward into more education and experience, undeterred by the pandemic: [caption id="attachment_26379" align="alignleft" width="350"] Cameron Todd[/caption] Cameron Todd of Chebeague Island graduated from Yarmouth High School and will study cybersecurity at Thomas College this fall. During the past two… SEE MORE

From left are seventh graders Lola Gahan and Hannah Frothingham and fifth grader Lucy Lombard of the Cuttyhunk School. The students built satellite models after the virtual NASA field trip. PHOTO: MICHELLE CARVALHO

Working Waterfront

A field trip to space

In February, students from Maine’s outer islands met virtually for a field trip to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Students and teachers from the one-room schools on Cliff, Monhegan, Isle au Haut, Frenchboro, Great Cranberry, Little Cranberry, and Cuttyhunk (in Massachusetts) islands met on Zoom with NASA educators to learn… SEE MORE

Visitors line up to board Diver Ed's boat in Bar Harbor.

Working Waterfront

Starfish Enterprise will sail from new, more easterly port

Too many people ashore and not enough animals under the water have forced one of Mount Desert Island’s most popular tourist attractions to move its operations this summer from Bar Harbor to Eastport on Passamaquoddy Bay. [caption id="attachment_26187" align="alignleft" width="350"] Diver Ed kisses a crab.[/caption] Ed Monat, universally known as… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

MMA honors student for COVID efforts

Midshipman Korey DeBoth, a senior in Maine Maritime Academy’s marine transportation operations program, has been announced as the college’s 2021 recipient of the Phyllis Tenney Community Service and Leadership Award. [caption id="attachment_25933" align="alignleft" width="300"] Korey DeBoth[/caption] The award is presented annually in honor of Phyllis Tenney who served Maine Maritime… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Navigating change—Cultivating resilience in fisheries, coastal communities

Although there are several ongoing programs that monitor the status of the lobster population in Maine, no equivalent system exists to understand the status of the fishery itself, and of those who work within it. In a new project led by Joshua Stoll, assistant professor of marine policy and fellow… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Native Interior Secretary speaks to COA grads

As the Biden administration seeks to rescue, recover, and rebuild the country, graduating college students are key to those efforts as they enter the workforce. So said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who gave the keynote address during College of the Atlantic’s hybrid in-person and online commencement ceremony on June 5.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Native peoples should inform land use policy

Indigenous peoples should be part of land use decisions, asserts Darren Ranco, a University of Maine associate professor of anthropology and citizen of Penobscot Nation. “We have to be at the table,” he says. “When indigenous people are on the land and making decisions about land management, biodiversity increases.” An… SEE MORE

A recent photo of Thomas and Jackson. PHOTO: COURTESY YVONNE THOMAS

Working Waterfront

My personal race story

Twenty-five years ago, I made a conscious choice to avoid the issue of race. And because I am a white woman, living in a majority white community, I had the privilege of making such a choice. I had just earned my master’s degree in counseling, and had done my student… SEE MORE