Presentation on the Town Academies in Bangor this Thursday
For those of you who missed our event announcement, we have a great event coming up on Maine’s Town Academies and independent schools. Doug Cummings, who is the executive director of the Independent Schools Association of Northern New England, will be speaking in Bangor on the subject of Maine’s Town Academies.
The Town Academies, for those of you who are not familiar with them, are private high schools whose student populations are predominately publicly-funded. Towns that do not operate their own high schools often “tuition” their students to the Academies in lieu of building their own high schools. Some of the Academies have been around since before Maine was a state and today most of them serve as the de facto public high school for their areas.
That they are independent, though, gives them far more freedom, a freedom many of them have used to become some of the finest high schools in Maine. As Maine looks to adopting public charter schools, the time is right to look at the ways these independent schools have operated and the success they’ve had.
Doug will be giving his talk on the past, present, and future of Maine’s independent schools at noon on Thursday, May 14, at the Sea Dog Brewery in Bangor.
Please see our event notice for information on registration.