For more than three decades, Derek Pierce ’84 lived the life of a school educator and leader. As the founding principal of Casco Bay High School in Portland, Maine, he helped shape a school culture that became nationally recognized for innovation, student voice, and community-driven learning. When he stepped away in 2024, it was not because he had grown tired of the work. It was because he wanted to take what he had learned and amplify it in a new direction.

      “I didn’t want to be the guy people whispered about—‘He used to be a good principal,’” Pierce says. “I knew I could never be a principal anywhere else, because it was just too great [at Casco Bay]. That phase of my life needed to come to an end.”

      That ending quickly became a beginning. After leaving Casco Bay, Pierce took time away to reflect, travel, and campaign for Kamala Harris in rural Wisconsin. He found himself thinking about the great work public schools do—and how rarely that work is celebrated. While the public conversation around education has grown increasingly negative, polarized, and focused on test scores, book bans, and politics, Pierce saw a different reality when he visited classrooms.

      “It felt to me that the stories that are told about schools are usually from a deficit model,” he says. “It’s about how the test scores are lousy, or who should be allowed to use which bathroom, or which books aren’t in the library. They’re very rarely about actual teaching and learning and what’s happening in classrooms and what teachers are doing with kids.”

      That concern became the foundation for Pierce’s next act: Learning from Maine, a video documentary project dedicated to showcasing exciting and replicable innovations happening in public schools across the state. The idea was not just to highlight extraordinary teachers or standout students, but to demonstrate what is possible—and repeatable—when a community believes in its schools.

      The project came together at the perfect moment. A statewide initiative, “Maine Loves Public Schools,” was looking to strengthen the positive narrative around public education, and Pierce had the concept and vision to make it happen. With support from the Maine School Management Association, local foundations, and eventually Maine Public Television, Learning from Maine launched its first season last year, featuring longer-form video stories with social media reach.

      Pierce’s belief in the power of inspiration runs deep. “From my own experience as an educator, I was most inspired when I could see another school doing something that I hadn’t done or that my school hadn’t done,” he says. “It was like a little loving kick in the pants—‘Wow, that’s possible.’”

      Today, the series is in its second season, now coproduced with Maine Public Television. Pierce and his collaborator, former journalist Robbie Feinberg, spend two to three days in schools filming interviews, classroom experiences, and community interactions. The goal: to show the innovations in teaching and learning through the voices of the educators and students themselves. They choose schools based on replicable programs, ideas that could be scaled statewide, and topics that reflect current educational challenges—from early literacy and universal pre-K to AI in the classroom.

      “We want to shift public understanding of what’s actually happening in schools—and what’s possible,” Pierce says. “If people see what’s working in one community, maybe they’ll want that for their own.”

      Screenings draw audiences. Universities use the films in teacher preparation courses. School boards discuss the ideas. For Pierce, that response reinforces his belief that stories can spark change.

      “In a world where media so often tilts toward the toxic, there’s a scarcity of stories that are joyful, real, and hopeful,” he says. “We need more of the good out there.”