This story will be updated.
School staff in the towns of Deer Isle, Stonington, Sedgwick and Brooklin have voted in large numbers that they have no confidence in the superintendent of the district that oversees them.
The workers held the votes Monday and Tuesday, according to an email that their union sent to Superintendent Daniel Ross of School Union 76, which was obtained by the Bangor Daily News.
While the votes themselves will not have any direct impact on Ross’ employment, at least one of the elected boards that oversees the district’s schools will be voting Wednesday on whether to limit his ability to act on its behalf.
Ross did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the email, a staffer of the Maine Education Association, Phyllis Hunter, said School Union 76 employees have made numerous accusations against Ross, including that he does not always tell the truth, is rarely present in the school buildings, that they have felt unsupported and “targeted” by him, and that students have been negatively affected.
Hunter also said that Ross has threatened “to use law enforcement as [a] disciplinary measure or to have people removed from buildings when they have every right to be there.”
Hunter did not provide more information, but, according to the Island Ad-Vantages newspaper, Ross called police on Aug. 9 to report disorderly conduct by school board member James Darrell Williams following a confrontation in the superintendent’s office. Williams was not charged with anything.
That came after two of the district’s administrators resigned just a couple weeks before classes started, prompting last-minute scrambling to fill the roles, according to Island Ad-Vantages.
The board for Community School District 13 — which oversees the Deer Isle and Stonington schools — will have an emergency meeting Wednesday night to hold a vote directing Ross “to refrain from conducting any business on behalf of CSD 13 until further notice,” according to an agenda.
“I am not able to comment on personnel matters, but want to assure our teachers that we stand with them in their concerns,” said Genevieve McDonald, a co-chair of the Community School District 13 board.
