North Haven Community School from the air.

Working Waterfront

North Haven school gets personal with students

By Courtney Naliboff High school students at Maine’s smallest K-12 public school will start the 2019-2020 school year with something new: a personal learning plan. North Haven Community School staff have worked with Rural Aspirations this year to design a system that enables each high school student to have a… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Waypoints Forum envisions a more welcoming, diverse Maine

By Tom Groening Despite being in the depths of winter—or maybe because of it—a Feb. 8 gathering in Portland saw a host of forward-looking ideas aired that may shape the Maine coast and islands through the next decade. The Waypoints Forum 2019, hosted by the Island Institute (publisher of The Working… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

John Zavodny named president of Maine Seacoast Mission

The Maine Seacoast Mission has announced that John Zavodny, Ph.D., will be its new president beginning on Feb. 19. "During our interviews with him, his excitement and compassion for the work of the Mission and an understanding of life in rural Maine were evident," said Stacy Smith, the board chairwoman. "He… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Great Lakes islands launch basketball tournament

Editor’s note: The Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront, has developed informal partnerships with residents of the islands in the Great Lakes, and we like to feature some reporting by those islanders. By Wil Cwikiel On the first weekend in December, Beaver Island Community School welcomed the Put-in-Bay Panthers, the Mackinac… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Whale skeleton work brings school, community together

By Courtney Naliboff It could have been a ghoulish scene: hole saws cut into vertebrae, hammers whacking chisels, loosening chunks of marrow. Small children swept bone and sawdust from the floor. Rather than a scene from a horror movie, this was a community work day on North Haven’s minke whale… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Remembering Kristin Rohrbach-Westra

Editor’s note: Kristin Rohrbach-Westra, who had taught at the Chebeague Island School, died Oct. 1. Police reported it was a suicide. The following remembrance was written by Ruth Kermish-Allen, executive director of the Maine Math and Science Alliance and a former education director at the Island Institute, publisher of The Working… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Thoughts about leaving… way before it’s time

Reflections is written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in remote coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. ByStevie Kowalczyk My first draft of this piece was terrible. I wrote a nondescript, short essay about projects I was working… SEE MORE

Ken Spinney is the new principal at North Haven Community School.

Working Waterfront

North Haven principal has small-town Maine background

By Courtney Naliboff North Haven Community School’s new principal, Ken Spinney, brings with him a lifetime of leadership experience and a love of small town life. A lifetime Mainer, Spinney grew up in Bangor and moved to Skowhegan with his mother for high school. “I was highly into athletics. I… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Our oceans are worth a deeper dive

By Tom Groening The rock musician Frank Zappa often chose bizarre, sometimes off-color, but usually witty titles for his instrumental songs. One from the late 1970s, “The Ocean is the Ultimate Solution,” remains in my memory, even though I can’t summon to mind a single lick of the tune. The… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island intangibles marked first year on North Haven

Reflections is written by Island Fellows, recent college grads who do community service work on Maine islands and in remote coastal communities through the Island Institute, publisher of The Working Waterfront. By Maria Keeler It is an inherently slow process to incorporate yourself into a community, to listen to what others… SEE MORE