I attended the school board meeting [Wednesday night] and still can not quite understand what I saw and heard. Rick Lyons, SAD 22 superintendent, basically does whatever pleases him at the moment. Mr. Lyons seems to forget that he works for the SAD 22 Board of Directors and the taxpayers of the school district [Hampden, Winterport, Newburgh].

Let’s talk about specifics. Mr. Lyons hired his friend Tom Winston to replace Tim Reed as athletic director at Hampden Academy. I do not know Mr. Winston and I am sure he is a fine person. However, let’s look at the process. Mr. Lyons explained to the board and the public present that he set up a four-person team to come up with four candidates. Then he involved the three-member Athletic Committee to help trim the choices to two. Mr. Lyons then chose the candidate that he wanted.

Mr. Lyons goes through all those recommendations and has the input of at least seven people to help him make his decision. Then he hires two people for highly paid positions without even interviewing them or anyone outside the system. I know one of these people and know she is an excellent educator. Does that mean she is the best person for the job? I guess we will never know.

Mr. Lyons also had the board interview his wife for a job in SAD 22 after she was not renewed in Hermon, even though a candidate had been interviewed and recommended for the job and the interview process had been closed. Guess who got the job?

What really gets me is the board never bats an eyelash or questions these decisions. Are they afraid of Mr. Lyons? When the former building principal and the former AD made a strong recommendation that SAD 22 renew Mike Webb as HA girls basketball coach after going 30-10 the last two years, Mr. Lyons says no, he will not take their recommendation.

Maybe he took the advice of the Athletic Committee members. Let’s see, I have attended approximately 30 girls’ games the last two years and have not seen an Athletic Committee member at any of the games I attended. How many games has Mr. Lyons attended in the last two years? Not many!

I guess I am confused as to how Mr. Lyons came up with his decision. What did he base it on? Could it be some parents of kids who did not play much wrote letters? If so, let’s find out the real reason Mr. Webb was not renewed. Was he abusive? Physically or verbally? Is he a menace to society? Maybe Mr. Lyons does want to call Mr. Webb after tryouts, and tell him he has to put several kids back on the basketball squads after being cut, as he did last year. By doing that last year, Mr. Lyons has in essence created a no-cut policy at Hampden Academy.

If you live in SAD 22 and your son or daughter wants to be on a team at HA, don’t worry about them being cut. If they are, go see Mr. Lyons. He knows how to fix that situation. It’s time the people of SAD 22 stand up and say, we are not going to take it anymore. It’s time for Rick Lyons to go!

Rob Neill

Hampden

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