From the newsroom of the Portland Press Herald, Portland, Maine, Wednesday, January 2, 2008 …..

By Portland Press Herald Staff Report

Larry Taub, the superintendent of the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf, will step down in March to become the new headmaster of the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf.

Taub is expected to make a formal announcement of his impending resignation at tomorrow’s meeting of the Governor Baxter School Board. The board will meet from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the school, located on Mackworth Island in Falmouth.

Taub was hired eight years ago after a period of instability in the leadership of the state-run school. He was the fifth superintendent in seven years at Baxter, and only the second deaf superintendent in its 132-year history.

At the time of his hiring, Baxter also was dealing with negative publicity concerning revelations of physical and sexual abuse of students in the 1960s and 1970s. The school’s educational program was also found lacking in terms of staff and curriculum.

However, during Taub’s tenure, Governor Baxter School for the Deaf worked on restoring its reputation and added The Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to its name to better reflect the services it delivers statewide. About 60 students receive services directly at the school’s island campus, but it also provides outreach services for about 600 deaf and hard of hearing students who attend school in their home communities throughout Maine.

Under Taub’s leadership, Baxter also won praise from the state for an educational turnaround and built a $2.3 million new middle school. Among other accomplishments, Taub has been leading an effort to get the state to pass an educational bill of rights for children who are deaf and hard of hearing. The Legislature is expected to consider the bill this month.

Taub could not be reached for comment this morning. However, in a letter to Maine’s deaf community, Taub said that while his new job will allow him to grow professionally,