Educational forums scheduled for Orono

ORONO — Wanting to get a jump start on planning for the coming decade, the Orono School Department has scheduled a series of educational forums.

The series will include three forums, with one each in January, February, and March, and will address educational concerns that will affect the system. Each 1 1/2-hour meeting will center on a topic of concern and will feature a presentation designed to be informative and spark discussion, responses from residents and interest groups, the opportunity for public discussion, and a dialogue between residents and educators.

The first session is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 29, and will feature Dr. Robert Cobb, dean of the University of Maine College of Education. Cobb will discuss current national trends in public education and their implications for Orono’s schools during the next decade.

The second forum will be held Feb. 12, and will include Dr. Richard Barringer, director of the Muskie Institute for Public Policy and Management at the University of Southern Maine. Barringer is scheduled to examine social, demographic, and economic conditions in Maine and offer projections on how these conditions will influence Orono schools.

Dr. Leta Young of the Maine Department of Education will lead the final session, scheduled for March 19. Young will describe the development of Maine’s Common Core of Learning. The Common Core challenges traditional beliefs about students and schooling and provides a statement of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that all Maine students should have when they graduate from high school.

All meetings will begin at 7 p.m., and are scheduled to be held at the Orono Junior-Senior High School. Superintendent Richard A. Moreau encouraged residents to attend the meetings as school officials begin “looking at education in the next decade.”