SCARBOROUGH (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- Parents say if they can't get rid of the Scarborough Superintendent, they will unseat the school board members who refuse to fire her. Wednesday night, the Scarborough Town Council will consider and discuss three petitions to remove three school board members.
"They’re talking about trying to get to the superintendent," said School Board Chair, Donna Beesley.
She is one of three school board members at the center of petitions created by the group, Road to Renewal. The group claims Donna Beeley, Cari Lyford, and Jodi Shea, are "incompetent."
“Given my background I don’t know how anyone could judge that I’m incompetent in this job," said Beeley. "Plus if you look back over the years the three of us have been on, we brought forward a lot of good important initiatives. For example, we’ve managed to get a good financial package that would allow all our kids to have computers....That took several years in order to get that through in our town.”
Several Scarborough parents organized to demand the removal of the superintendent. They are upset about proficiency based learning, late start times, and the final straw was the resignation of a popular principal.
Beeley has worked in education for 38 years as a teacher, principal, and guidance counselor.
“I have a really good understanding of how schools work.”
She has sat on the school board for six years. Three as chair.
Beeley believes she has worked with the town council to be transparent about the school budget.
“Right now through this process of attempting to unseat us, you’re also removing us at a time of the greatest importance which is we just started the school budget this last week.”
Jodi Shea, one of the people being petitioned to be recalled, has been the finance chair for the last two years.
“Now what do you do? Who do you bring in?" asks Beeley. "Especially during this budget season because we’re a minimum receiver from the state now so our tax payers have to come forward with additional money because we get very little from the state.”
According to Beeley, schools in the state of Maine are tasked with doing "very specific things" by law, including proficiency based learning.
"A very important initiative but it also entails a lot of extra work on the part of school personnel.”
She also says Scarborough High School had to go through a certification process that happens every ten years, and the board still awaits results from that.
In an interview with NEWS CENTER Maine, Beeley voiced her support for superintendent Kukenberger:
Regarding the effort to unseat three school board members, Beeley will have a chance to voice her stance on the matter at a hearing later this month. Regardless of what happens, she says she has no plans to run for school board when her term is up in November.