County school panel lets appeal continue

MADAWASKA – Without taking a formal vote Thursday night, the Madawaska School Committee agreed to let stand its appeal to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court of an Aroostook County Superior Court decision that called for a report on the Madawaska High/Middle School to be made public.

In April, the committee appealed a decision by Superior Court Justice E. Allen Hunter that said the panel violated Maine’s Freedom of Access Act by failing to release a report on a school department investigation of the administration of the superintendent’s office and the high school and middle school.

The March 23 ruling by Hunter ordered the school department to release the report written for it by Wiscasset lawyer Ervin Snyder. The Superior Court case was an appeal of the school board’s decision to keep most of the report secret.

Concerned citizen Paul Cyr of Madawaska had appealed the school board’s decision last fall. After that Cyr was elected to the Madawaska School Committee. On Thursday night, he asked the school committee, after stepping away from his seat, to withdraw its appeal to the supreme court.

“This was not the investigation of any individual,” Cyr said. “The investigation involved controversies at the Madawaska High/Middle School.

“This kind of report is not shielded by personnel law,” he said. “All your lawyer is doing is wasting time and money.

“Release the Snyder report,” he said. “Nothing in the report is secret. Withdraw the appeal.”

“It’s in the courts,” school committee member Albert Lachance said. “Let the courts decide.”

Yves Dube, a newly elected member of the School Committee and its new chairman, felt the same.

“It’s to protect an individual’s privacy,” he said. “An employee deserves to be protected by law.

“I would rather have the supreme court make the decision,” he continued. “This is a contested area of the law.

“It could alter a person’s life,” he added. “The law needs to be tested. The people here have made a decision.”

The Snyder report is a 15-page investigative study of the Madawaska School Department conducted by Snyder last summer. It has been kept private by the school department, which claimed it involved personnel and was protected under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act.

Cyr filed an appeal when the school department would not release the report. The Bangor Daily News also filed an appeal, but the newspaper settled for a redacted copy.

More than half of the report was redacted.

Hunter said the report was not compiled or maintained for employment purposes regarding any school employee. Deciding it was not a performance evaluation, Hunter said there was no evidence that the school treated the report as such.

The school department’s attorney filed a brief with the Maine supreme court 12 days ago. Cyr has 30 days to file his answer with the court before oral presentations are scheduled.

More than 60 people, including the past three superintendents, others administrators, teachers and central staff, several students and parents were interviewed by Snyder during his investigation.

The investigation was done after a particularly controversial period at the Madawaska High/Middle School.