Superintendent leaves review with job intact, goals for the next year

School Administrative District 6 Superintendent Suzanne Lukas left a three-hour annual performance review Monday with her job intact, and received a statement of support for her handling of events during the Bonny Eagle High School graduation last month.

Lukas has been criticized heavily since the graduation, at which she refused to give student Justin Denney his diploma after Denney, while wearing a cord Lukas said was not approved, gestured to his mother from the stage. Denney’s actions came after two other students were removed from the stage for allegedly causing disruptions, which Lukas had been instructed by the School Board to stop following an unruly graduation ceremony in 2005, Chairman David Hopkins said.

“The superintendent of schools enforced the rules of graduation guidelines that the board adopted years ago,” said Hopkins, after exiting the meeting just before 10 p.m. “She simply was doing the job.”

While on stage at graduation, facing the prospect of another out-of-control ceremony, Lukas had only a moment to take action, said Hopkins.

“She had 5 seconds to make a decision and then the next person was coming across that stage,” said the chairman, adding that Lukas had his confidence in running the school district. “This person puts in 60 hours a week,” he said.

But before the School Board went into the private performance review, some members wondered whether the board’s actions would be enough to placate residents angry at Lukas for what they feel was a heavy-handed response to normal teenage hijinks. Around 300 people showed up at a meeting held the week after graduation, with all but two people who spoke criticizing Lukas. Many of the residents that night asked for Lukas’ resignation.

Lukas, who has been superintendent at SAD 6 since 2004, is now beginning the second year of a five-year contract that paid her $118,450 last year. It is scheduled to run through June 30, 2013.

Because the review of Lukas is a personnel issue, board members have been reluctant to talk about the events of graduation and the superintendent’s response. Board member Rebecca Bowley of Hollis said the board needed to make some sort of statement directed at the people critical of Lukas.

“The public would like some questions answered,” Bowley said. “We have never addressed that meeting in June. We just keep brushing it under the carpet … The longer we wait the worse it gets.”

Thomas Joyce, a board member from Buxton, suggested early in the meeting that the board schedule another hearing to give members a chance to state publicly their feelings about how graduation was handled.

“We listened at that special public meeting,” he said. “But the board has made no response to the public of SAD 6 or to anyone else.”

The motion ultimately failed, and members who spoke against it said it was ground that had already been covered.

“We already had that meeting. Why are we having it again?” said Michael Delcourt of Standish.

After Monday’s meeting, Lukas said the process to help heal any wounds caused by the controversy began at that meeting in June. The board and the administration listened to the complaints from residents, and will consider those statements as they move forward with a committee to review guidelines for graduation, Lukas and Hopkins said.

Lukas also outlined five goals that she set with the board for the coming year. As part of the plan, she will continue to oversee the implementation of a K-5 reading program and a K-12 math program, conduct strategic planning for the district, and promote a $12.9 million construction project at Hollis Elementary School.

Lukas will also help develop at public relations and media response plan for the district, which stood largely silent in the hectic days after news broke regarding the graduation and quickly became a national story. Lukas herself did not make a public statement until a week after the initial story was aired.

The district will not suffer from any residual effects of the graduation aftermath, said Hopkins. Lukas, he said, will be able to effectively lead the district, and the plan agreed upon Monday will give the district momentum for the next year.

“We have a good board, and a good direction,” said Hopkins.

School Administrative District 6 Superintendent Suzanne Lukas and David Hopkins, chairman of the School Board, address the media following the board’s annual review of Lukas’ performance Monday night. Ben Bragdon photo.