HOWLAND – The state will continue investigating SAD 31 and its suspended superintendent when a three-member inspection team meets today on a fact-finding tour in Passadumkeag and Howland.

Edwin “Buzz” Kastuck, Angela Faherty and RoseMary Muir of the Maine Department of Education’s School Inspection Team will be at the Passadumkeag Town Office from 9 a.m. to noon before going to Penobscot Valley High School from 1 to 4:30 p.m.

Their goal: to meet with proponents and opponents of the 700-member petition they received calling for them to investigate Superintendent William Ziemer’s fitness and the school system’s management, Commissioner of Education Susan A. Gendron said Wednesday.

Another goal: to cool down the virtual war over Ziemer and an idea of school regionalization so polarizing that it contributed to the resignations of four SAD 31 board members over the last three weeks.

“Actually what we heard was that some individuals reported that they felt threatened by other citizens,” Gendron said during a phone interview from Eastport, where the State Board of Education was meeting. “There is a tension amongst board members, and that’s having a negative impact on the school district.

“We have great concern over the culture and climate there.”

Board Members Jana Pierce, JoAnn Rackley, Bonnie Bean and Shelly Crosby resigned or posted resignation letters in the last two weeks. Crosby and Bean were among board members who voted against the board’s decision to place Ziemer on leave pending the outcome of the state investigation.

Ziemer’s one-year tenure has been marked by controversy. SAD 31 was told to develop a consolidation plan with SAD 67 to provide secondary education, but consolidation talks have died. Some critics opposed to consolidation have targeted Ziemer

Crosby said the furor over consolidation was the biggest reason she quit.

“It was how the community was treating the board and at times the board treated the community,” Crosby said Tuesday. “There was a complete lack of respect all the way around … the order of business was pig roasting the superintendent. We weren’t even able to complete agendas because of the ‘he said, she said’ thing.

“Board members were going in there and just got threatened for trying to do business and conduct business in an open and fair-minded manner. It’s a mess and it’s going to continue to be a mess,” she added. “I just feel that there isn’t even a platform for the truth to come out any more and even if there was a platform, things would just get muddled.”

New board member Melissa Bowers, who does not support regionalization, agreed that the conflict is daunting, but most of the problem, she said, concerns board members.

“I don’t think the kids’ best interests have been put first … I just think that not everyone on the board has been upfront,” Bowers said.

The inspection team met Wednesday in Howland and will meet 9 a.m.-noon Oct. 19 at the Enfield Town Office and 1-4:30 p.m. at Enfield Station Elementary School.

Team members stress that people who meet with them should have specific, detailed information.