Three students who defended the right not to pledge allegiance in South Portland and four students who hung a ‘Black Lives Matter’ poster in Lewiston High School receive the organization’s Baldwin Award.

Glenn Cummings already has plans to fill a budget gap without academic cuts, recruit and retain students, heal the campus and build partnerships.

Principal Lori Smail, who has resigned, said the testing error was unintentional, but Department of Education letter says teachers purposefully hung posters in classrooms that forced the state to invalidate the results.

Students are exhorted to hold fast to their dreams, and hear messages both lighthearted and personal from their classmates.

Officials are given a petition signed by more than 560 residents who want the Hall Elementary School replaced but not merged with the Longfellow school.

Lori Smail, who led Farrington Elementary School and was a National Distinguished Principal of the year, says “the error that was made was unintentional.”