HOLDEN – Communication issues seemed to be the biggest concern during a focus group session held Friday as the first part of the Maine Department of Education’s review of SAD 63.

The Education Department’s inspector, who hosted the gathering, later said the meeting was productive.

“Look, they’re talking,” Edwin “Buzz” Kastuck, an inspection team chairman for the department, said while pointing to school board members and residents who gathered to talk after the initial review meeting concluded.

Superintendent Louise Regan, two school board members, a selectman from Clifton, a principal, and seven residents, mostly parents, gathered for the fact-finding meeting.

Regan, along with the SAD 63 board, requested that the department review the school district in August after hearing that some residents in the district’s three communities had started a petition requesting a review of their own. SAD 63 includes Clifton, Eddington and Holden.

At least three of the residents at Friday’s meeting have signed the citizens petition, which should be submitted to the department within the week.

“When you get to this state, I think it’s very safe to say things have gone off track,” Kastuck said. “What needs to happen is to get back on track.”

Both the citizens petition and the district administration’s request ask for a review of the district’s finances. Friday’s meeting was a chance to get additional issues on the table, Kastuck said.

Employee turnover and employment practices, special education, academic programming, curriculum alignment and operation of the central office were issues raised at the meeting and placed on the list of items the department team will review, behind communication and budgetary issues.

Several of the residents at the meeting said teacher and professional staff turnover are the reasons they signed the petition requesting the review.

“Both of my children have brand-new teachers because of teachers who left this summer,” Holden resident Kathryn Norris said. “The new fourth-grade teacher is now leaving … and I see my son missing out.”

Norris said she “has never been in a better school district,” but the layoffs “hit me hard, and I don’t understand why it happened.”

Now that the state has the parameters for the coming review process, the next step is to create a review team. The team will spend two or three days at the district interviewing staff, students and residents about their concerns, and then will create a report with any findings and recommendations for Education Commissioner Susan Gendron.

“All the interviews are confidential,” Kastuck said. “People have to feel that they can come in and speak their minds.”

An evening forum will be held, and private interviews with the public also will be conducted.

Interview sign-up sheets will be available at the school, and a letter informing parents of the meeting dates will be sent home, once dates are established.

Regan said she hopes people take the opportunity to voice their opinions.

“We would like people to access this process and not be afraid to say what’s on their mind,” she said.

After the interviews are completed, Kastuck will return to SAD 63 with the commissioner to present the final report to the public and the board.

SAD 63 Chairman Don Varnum said that once the district gets the report, the board will work to resolve any issues.

Two issues on the petition were settled during the meeting and are examples of how basic communication can resolve issues, Kastuck said.

The issues were raised during the meeting, and residents had their questions answered.

“It’s a constructive approach that can clearly identify and clarify issues,” he said. “These are not uncommon issues.”