Law Court negates report disclosure ruling

PORTLAND – The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday vacated an Aroostook County Superior Court decision calling for the public disclosure of an investigative report about the Madawaska School Department.

The 4-3 split decision negates an earlier ruling by Superior Court Justice Allen Hunter, who called for full disclosure of the results of an independent investigation performed by attorney Ervin Snyder of Wiscasset and funded with taxpayer money in late summer 2005.

“The Snyder Report,” a 15-page document that includes observations about the performance of department employees, including the superintendent, has been kept private by the school department, which claimed the report involved personnel and was protected under Maine’s Freedom of Information Act.

The state’s highest court said the law is clear in keeping employee information confidential to protect the person from public disclosure of their general character, conduct or personal history.

The Law Court did say, however, that a section of the Snyder report, “Recommendations to the Madawaska School Board,” should have been made public.

Justice Susan Calkins wrote a dissenting opinion to the majority in Thursday’s decision. She was joined by Justices Howard H. Dana Jr. and Donald G. Alexander.

“I would affirm the judgment ordering the disclosure of the Snyder Report,” she wrote in the 12-page decision. “The Madawaska School Department failed to prove that the Snyder Report comes within a statutory exception from disclosure.”

The case is being returned to the Aroostook County court for further proceedings.

L. James Lavertu, then-chairman of the Madawaska school committee, and Dr. Danny R.P. Michaud, then-superintendent of schools in Madawaska, maintained that the full report was a confidential employee document.

Instead, they made public a redacted copy of the report, leaving blank any reference to employees of the Madawaska School Department and resulting in more than half of the report being cut. Only two of Snyder’s 12 conclusions, and none of the nine concerns he raised, were made public.

Paul Cyr, then a Madawaska resident who has since been elected to the Madawaska school committee, appealed Lavertu’s and Michaud’s decisions. He won his case in Aroostook County Superior Court, but the school committee voted last summer to appeal Hunter’s decision to a higher court.

“I’m disappointed, but then this is why we have courts,” Cyr said Thursday afternoon. “I think this is a loss for the public’s right to know, and it may be like this all over … the country.

“One of my reactions is that this issue was decided on briefs, without oral arguments,” he said. “Since the decision was so close, it is obvious there were disagreements, and maybe they should have scheduled oral arguments, giving me my day in court.”

After reading the decision, Cyr said he believed the minority decision arguments seemed legally stronger than the majority decision.

“That may just be natural since I am on the losing side,” he said.

Cyr, who represented himself in the legal proceedings, did not wish to speculate Thursday on what the future holds for the issue. He said he will make inquiries on what the next step needs to be.

“I have just received an e-mail from our law firm that said we have prevailed,” Raymond Freve, interim superintendent at Madawaska, said Thursday afternoon. “We will adhere to the decision of the court.

“I was not directly involved in this issue, but, hopefully, this will end the story,” Freve continued. “Hopefully, we can move forward from here.”

Freve said he had not read the decision. He will have copies of it for the school committee at its special meeting Monday, Feb. 12.

The Bangor Daily News also had filed an appeal of Michaud’s and Lavertu’s decision, but the newspaper settled for a redacted copy of the report.

Snyder interviewed more than 60 people during his two-month investigation.

In the majority opinion, Justice Warren M. Silver wrote that evaluation of employees must be kept confidential.

“The fact that the School Board sought an evaluation of the employees’ performance through an outside source, and not through an internal employee evaluation, does not make the report any less than an employee evaluation,” Silver wrote.

He wrote that the Snyder Report was material contemplated as confidential by law.

During the controversial period before the investigation, the Madawaska school department was in an uproar. Conrad Cyr, Madawaska High-Middle School principal, resigned. Michaud accepted his resignation, and students walked out of the school.

Since then, Michaud has resigned as superintendent, and Cyr returned to his position as principal after the school committee agreed to have an investigation of the school department.

The school department since has had two interim superintendents and still is looking for a person to fill the position permanently.