SAD 31 probe nears end, official says Investigation of superintendent’s fitness prompted by 700 residents’ petition

HOWLAND – SAD 31’s investigation into the fitness of Superintendent William Ziemer should be finished and ready for the board in 30 days, the attorney conducting the probe said Thursday.

Edwin Snyder has interviewed about 35 residents, school staff, administrators and SAD 31 board members since starting the probe in early October, he said.

“I have done a number of interviews to date, and I may have a few left,” Snyder said, “and then I have a great deal of data” to process in preparation for board review and action sometime in December.

Snyder will not, he said, make any use of a state review team’s report released Wednesday that is critical of Ziemer’s leadership and what it called a lack of leadership, communication and focus within SAD 31, particularly at Penobscot Valley High School.

“I think that the work that they have done and that I have been employed to do are independent,” Snyder said, “and I am not going to be moved one way or another by the [state’s] analysis.”

The SAD 31 probe, and the Maine Department of Education investigation, come in response to a petition 700 residents signed in September calling for investigation.

The state investigators said the political infighting, lack of leadership and communications breakdowns with the board and the school system were enough to threaten SAD 31’s state approval, which could in turn threaten the state funding provided to the system.

The state’s approval, interim Superintendent Ann Bridge said, should not be confused with accreditation, which is a private practice carried out by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

The SAD 31 board’s Personnel Committee met Thursday night to discuss, among other things, Bridge’s tenure, which is due to end Jan. 1, and her possible replacement. Bridge was hired in October to temporarily replace Ziemer, who is on paid administrative leave until the investigations are resolved.

Until Snyder’s investigation is finished and the board has a chance to act on it, board members won’t know whether Bridge will be replaced by Ziemer or someone else, board Chairwoman Beth Turner said.

“We’re still on hold,” Turner said.

But Turner did not seem concerned. A search for an interim superintendent can take as little as a few weeks. A search for a full-time superintendent, however, can take as long as five months, she said.

In the meantime, planning for either the renovation of PVHS or the construction of a new high school is continuing, although no one knows whether the school will be rebuilt or built anew. Bridge said she plans to meet with the state official in charge of school construction by mid-December.

The board will also discuss forming a new ad-hoc committee to oversee school construction on Dec. 15, Turner said.