Maine's education commissioner resigns, Race to the Top details are revealed and the governor orders the teacher evaluation panel to get to work.

This was a busy week for those of us who try to keep track of Maine education policy. A few thoughts to sum it all up:

• Susan Gendron's resignation will usher in a period of uncertainty as the Maine education world tries to find out what it can about incoming Acting Commissioner Angela Faherty, especially at a time when so much is on the move.

"You’re always nervous about the unknown," Maine Education Association President Chris Galgay told me as we discussed Gendron's impending departure.

Steve Bowen of the Maine Heritage Policy Center seemed outright surprised by the announcement that Faherty would take over, at least until Gov. John Baldacci leaves office. "The commissioner is to be replaced by someone named Angela Faherty," Bowen wrote in his blog. "She is apparently the Deputy Commissioner, though I don't know that I've ever met or even seen her in all the years I've been hanging around in Augusta."

The governor's office announcement about Gendron's departure said Faherty -- who's served as deputy education commissioner for six years -- has experience as a classroom teacher at all levels and in a number of places, including New York City, Missouri and Salt Lake City. Faherty has also taught at the college level -- at the University of Northern Iowa, University of Southern Maine, St. Joseph's College and Walden University.

Curiously, the governor's announcement didn't mention more about Faherty's background in Maine. Before working at the Department of Education, she was special education director in Portland, then Falmouth. Later, she was assistant superintendent in Windham, where she worked under Gendron. When Gendron left Windham, Faherty became that town's interim superintendent.

• It seems like the uncertainty over whether Maine Attorney General Janet Mills will be able to sign the state's Race to the Top application, certifying that there's no legal prohibition against using student achievement data in teacher evaluations, is over.

Gov. Baldacci's executive exhortation to get the teacher evaluation panel -- the one with representatives from the Maine Education Association and groups representing superintendents, school boards, principals and special education administrators -- to work requires that the group approve by May 14 at least one permissible model for school districts to use.

That means Maine will have one such model on the books before it submits its Race to the Top application on June 1, addressing concerns that the way Maine law will be written leaves open the possibility that the teacher evaluation panel won't approve any evaluation models that incorporate student data.

The group will meet April 27, May 3 and May 12, according to letters sent to all its members.

• More next week about Maine's Race to the Top application, Gendron's new job and what the teacher evaluation panel will discuss when it meets.

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