Dr. Glenn Cummings, Director of the Green Schools Program, Previously CEO & President of The Glickman Foundation and Prior to that President of USM.  He has Also Served in the Maine Legislature.

“This event represents what the future of Maine looks like, as we work together to ensure that our schools are healthy, cost-efficient and teaching our next generations how to protect our outdoors,” said Dr. Glenn Cummings, Maine’s Department of Education Director of the Green Schools Program, at the First Annual Green Schools Symposium.  The Symposium was held at Thomas College in Waterville earlier this month according to a press release issued by the Maine Department of Education late last week.

Hundreds of Mainers representing schools, nonprofit organizations and local businesses attended the event on Friday, November 7, 2025.  It’s a partnership between the Maine Department of Education (DOE) and the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF) that supports schools across the state in advancing sustainability in four key areas:  leadership, facilities, curriculum, and carreer pathways.

Throughout the day, attendees engaged in interactive workshops and attended sessions ranging from interdisciplinary approaches to climate education, to efforts to increase local foods in school meals and reduce food waste, to the expansion of growdth of green careers in Maine.

To end the Symposium, attendees engaged in a discussion about the vision of a Green Schools Network, a concept recently established through state legislaltion to support environmental education and initiatives within public schools and school administrative units.  Youth in attendance at the Symposium organized and ran a “Vision Lab” to brainstorm a wide range of concepts for the Green Schools Network, which will be designed using the input received.  In 2026, the Green Schools Network will issue a report to the Maine Legislature, including any recommendations for new legislation to help support the goals of the Network.