Lana Cohen

Portland

Education Reporter at The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram

Covering education for the Portland Press Herald [email protected]

Articles

Why is building and renovating schools so expensive in Maine?

Sep 24, 2024 | yahoo.com | Lana Cohen

The price tag on a new elementary school in Bar Harbor is $63 million. An Auburn high school completed in 2023 came in at $122 million. And at the ballot box this fall, Cape Elizabeth voters will consider a $94.7 million bond that would be used to build a new middle school and renovate the district’s elementary and high schools.
Why is building and renovating schools so expensive?

Sep 22, 2024 | pressherald.com | Lana Cohen

The price tag on a new elementary school in Bar Harbor is $63 million. An Auburn high school completed in 2023 came in at $122 million. And at the ballot box this fall, Cape Elizabeth voters will consider a $94.7 million bond that would be used to build a new middle school and renovate the district’s elementary and high schools. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the average price of school construction in the United States has increased by 32%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Why is building and renovating schools so expensive?

Sep 20, 2024 | themainemonitor.org | Lana Cohen

The price tag on a new elementary school in Bar Harbor is $63 million. An Auburn high school completed in 2023 came in at $122 million. And at the ballot box this fall, Cape Elizabeth voters will consider a $94.7 million bond that would be used to build a new middle school and renovate the district’s elementary and high schools.
Maine AG looking into USM’s parking enforcement contractor

Jul 16, 2024 | centralmaine.com | Lana Cohen

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Maine AG looking into USM’s parking enforcement contractor

Jul 16, 2024 | pressherald.com | Lana Cohen

The Office of the Maine Attorney General is looking into complaints that a parking enforcement company hired by the University of Southern Maine has used predatory tactics to squeeze money out of campus visitors.
Maine parents ramp up fight to get cellphones out of schools

Jul 9, 2024 | pressherald.com | Lana Cohen

Every time Falmouth resident Stacy Taylor tells her 9-year-old son Niko it’s time to put away his iPad, he fights it. He argues, begs for more time and tells his mother she’s a horrible parent. Eleanor Keeler, a South Portland High School science teacher of 20 years, struggles every day to get her students to put their phones in their backpacks and pay attention in class. It’s an uphill battle. Matthew Pines has owned and operated Maine Teen Camp with his wife in western Maine for 27 years.
Maine parents ramp up fight to get cellphones out of schools

Jul 9, 2024 | sunjournal.com | Lana Cohen

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Portland planning board to look at expansion of downtown child care

Jul 8, 2024 | pressherald.com | Lana Cohen

Big changes may soon be coming to Youth and Family Outreach, a Portland child care and preschool dedicated to serving low-income and otherwise at-risk children and families. The Portland Planning Board is scheduled Tuesday night to look at the child care center’s plan to knock down its existing facility on the corner of Cumberland Avenue and Preble Street and replace it with a six-story mixed-use building housing an expanded child care facility and 48 affordable and 12 market-rate apartments.
Portland Adult Education graduates celebrate success and sacrifices

Jun 28, 2024 | pressherald.com | Lana Cohen

Semhar Gebrab sat at a small dining table covered in a white, printed tablecloth Thursday night surrounded by her husband, mother, stepfather and a close family friend. She wore a canary-yellow dress underneath an unzipped black graduation gown, and a tired, but happy look on her face.
Maine school districts are working to keep their students engaged over summer break

Jun 16, 2024 | pressherald.com | Lana Cohen

Every day at Reiche Elementary School’s summer program starts with a community gathering. Students, teachers and administrators sing a song or dance together. Summer program class sizes are small, and school days are abbreviated. Teachers have less on their plates. “One thing we’ve really worked on doing is having a kind of joyous, camp-like feeling even though the focus is academic,” said Lori Bobinsky, a lead teacher and administrator at Reiche.