Want to share something through School News? E-mail it to weekly@bangordailynews.net, or mail it to The Weekly, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or drop it off at the front desk of the Buck Street entrance at the Bangor Daily News, 491 Main St., Bangor.

Schools

All Saints Catholic School

BANGOR – All Saints Catholic School received a $500 grant from the ExxonMobil Educational Alliance program. The grant will allow fourth- to eighth-graders to attend holiday plays at the Penobscot Theatre.

Irene Thomas, assistant manager of Airport Mobil on the Run, worked with school officials to secure the grant, one of 4,000 available to schools across the country served by Exxon or Mobil. The grant was made possible by funding from ExxonMobil Corp.

“All Saints Catholic School is extremely grateful to R.H. Foster and Airport Mobil on the Run for providing this opportunity to the students,” said Principal Marsha Diamond.

“All Saints Catholic School has worked hard for more than 100 years to help educate the young and aspiring minds of the greater Bangor area youths,” said Irene Thomas.

Airport Mobil met stringent eligibility criteria before applying for and being awarded the grant, including having a commitment to providing a superior buying experience for customers.

Brewer High School

BREWER – Brewer High School has been awarded a Teamwork for Kids grant, “Building Community Through the Arts – Brewer.”

Teamwork For Kids is a minigrant project offered to Maine school districts through the Maine Support Network in cooperation with Special Services, Maine Department of Education. The intent of the grants is to support pupil evaluation teams in creating a positive, cooperative and flexible team that shares in a design process for optimal growth of students and team members.

The primary goal of Building Community through the Arts, now in its fifth year, is to build a sense of community and trust in the high school classroom, using a strategy of creative collaboration in drama or dance.

At each participating school an experienced theater or dance educator, selected from around the state, comes into one or more academic classrooms for two weeks to help students during class time to create an original piece of theater or dance, and prepare it for performance.

The piece may be based on the students’ own self-identified social issues, a topic in their curriculum or both. The piece is developed collaboratively by all the students working together using improvisation techniques, and in large and small group work. No scripts are written.

The Maine Alliance for Arts Education coordinates the project annually for public high schools in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties.

All school districts are eligible to receive a $1,000 mini-grant, with an option to receive two additional $1,000 Ripple Grants over the next two years. Grants can be available for one school or districtwide project. The $1,000 may be split between teams in one district, or submitted regionally by several districts to increase the funds available.

Technical assistance is available to ensure that grant writers are successful.

For information about the Brewer grant, call Kristen Jacey at 989-4140. For a Teamwork For Kids Request for Proposals, call the Maine Support Network at 685-3171, or www.mainesupportnetwork.org.

Orono Middle School

ORONO – Orono teachers were among exemplary educators honored by the Maine Association for Middle Level Education at its fall conference at Sugarloaf USA. A highlight of the ceremony was the renaming of the Outstanding Middle Level Educator Award in honor of the late Janet Nesin-Reynolds, a teacher at Shapleigh Middle School in Kittery and considered one of Maine’s most influential educators.

More than 400 middle-level educators from Maine attended the recent conference, along with visitors from New Hampshire, Ohio, Massachusetts, Vermont and Pennsylvania.

Carol A. K. Duffy of Lamoine Consolidated School received the 2003 Janet Nesin-Reynolds Outstanding Middle Level Educator Award. Nominations from the membership and recommendations based on the core values determine the recipient of the award.

Exemplary Practice Awards recognize individuals, teams and schools across the state that are incorporating “best practices” into their curriculum and instruction. The 2003 award winners are:

. Ruey Yehle, Valerie Shinas, Dick Glueck and Deb Soderberg for “Sixth-Graders in Space,” Orono Middle School, Orono.

. Richard Woodbury, Anita Wright, Kris Mueller and Peter Snow for “Peace in the East?” Warsaw Middle School, Pittsfield.

. Surry School Middle Level Team for the Middle Level Robotics Program, Surry Elementary School, Surry.

. Mark Andreasen and seventh-grade social studies teachers for “Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg: An Integrated Civil War Re-enactment,” Bonny Eagle Middle School, Buxton.

The Maine Association for Middle Level Education is housed in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Maine. For more information about the awards or the association, contact Wally Alexander, executive director and assistant professor of education at Thomas College, at 745-9313, or e-mail wallace.alexander@umit.maine.edu.

Colleges

Conference, clergy day

BANGOR – Within the last three years, Maine has lost 22 percent of its manufacturing jobs. How church congregations can respond in tough economic times is the focus of a conference, “Searching for Hope in Times of Despair: Building Social Capital,” that will be held 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6, at Bangor Theological Seminary.

State Economist Laurie LaChance will speak about Maine’s economy, and local leaders will facilitate a discussion about the economic situation in various sections of the 2nd Congressional District.

After lunch, Dr. Gary Goreham of North Dakota State University will speak about community development, using the Nehemiah model and an asset-building framework.

The conference also will include workshops about what churches are doing to deal with emergency needs, housing, jobs and other social problems.

The cost to clergy for the conference is $15. Each participant may bring a guest at no charge.

The seminary also will hold a clergy day, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, “Islam from Within,” featuring Adil Ozdemir, professor of Islamic studies at the Muslim Theological School in Izmir, Turkey. The public is welcome.

Ozdemir has participated in Christian-Muslim dialogue for 25 years. After service as an imam, he has taught Arabic and the Koran to prospective imams for 20 years. In 1995 he spent a month at Bangor Theological Seminary as an interpreter.

The cost for the day is $10 and includes lunch. To register for the conference and-or the clergy day, call Sue Davenport at 942-6781, Ext. 124.