Intercepts

EIA:

You do a great job generally, but let's be clear: the Madawaska Education Association is in no way involved in censoring the Snyder Report. As a matter of fact, they are the only entity involved in the entire situation which ISN'T interested in keeping the report out of the public eye.

The Madawaska School Committee was sued by the Bangor Daily News after the BDN requested release of the entire report through an FOIA claim. The Committee's attorney and the BDN's attorney settled on a redacted version of the report because of concerns about "confidentiality" (of the superintendent, I assume).

The only parts of the report which were released - out of fifteen pages - are about the Association and that was done with their approval. Nothing about the School Committee. Nothing about the superintendent. Nothing about the incident which caused the report to be initiated in the first place. No recommendations. No conclusions.

Please take a look at the Madawaska EA's website: www.madawaskaeducators.org and see what has happened over the past year to the students, community, teachers and support staff in Madawaska after the new superintendent was hired (June of 2004). Then, decide whether or not the union unduly or unfairly..."influenced the day-to-day operations" of this school system in far northern Maine.

Thanks,

Nancy Hudak
MEA UniServ Director

I encourage people to visit the MEA web site, as long as they have also read the Bangor Daily News story. I accept on your word that the redacted portions tend to justify MEA's actions in this case, but I can't comment on something I can't read for myself.

However, the fact remains that the MEA set out to get rid of the last two Madawaska superintendents, and both of them were gotten rid of. As critical of the union as the report was, no one at MEA will lose his or her job, or suffer any adverse consequences at all. Indeed, the MEA web site seems to indicate joy.

So, congratulations.