Community members are calling on the Readfield-area school board to take action after the district’s superintendent declined to renew a waiver that allowed a middle school principal to serve in his administrative position with only a teaching degree. 

Rick Sirois was hired in 2022 to serve as principal of Maranacook Community Middle School. He has spent about 25 years in the district, first as a student and then professionally as an educator.

Because of Sirois’ background in teaching, Regional School Unit 38 Superintendent Jay Charette waived his certification through the Maine Department of Education to allow him to serve as principal at the middle school. The waiver gives an educator a year to continue working to complete the requirements to be eligible for a conditional certification.  

Charette did not seek out an additional waiver for Sirois, which makes Sirois no longer eligible to serve as principal at the middle school.

It is unclear why Charette declined to submit the necessary paperwork; he declined to comment, saying that it’s a personnel issue.

Sirois could not be reached for comment.

A Change.org petition, created by a Maranacook Community Middle School parent, is calling on the school board to take action by reinstating Sirois as principal.

“Without his (Sirois’) visionary leadership, the school risks losing the very essence that makes it stand out. Parents, educators and students alike have felt the void left by his absence, concerned about the direction the school might take without him,” the petition states.

According the Maine Department of Education, the department had previously granted Sirois a waiver of certification.

The Maine commissioner of education may grant a waiver of certification to a teacher, educational specialist, or an administrator at the request of the superintendent through a form when the position is essential to the implementation of Maine’s system of learning results; the inability of the school unit to obtain a properly certified individual for the position was unforeseeable; or to be in compliance with state or federal laws, but only for the amount of time deemed necessary by the commissioner. However, certification can be waived more than once.

A waiver is different from a conditional certificate, which is valid for three years as an educator works toward requirements for a professional certificate. The only circumstance in which a conditional certificate may be extended beyond three years is if an educator is on family medical leave during the last year of that certificate, Chloe Teboe, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Education, said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, conditional certificates were routinely issued as teachers and administrators were hard to come by.

“The Maine Department of Education does collect data on whether individual educators are conditionally certified, as well as both the effective and expiration dates of that certification, to gain a greater sense of the number of active conditional certificates in Maine, with a breakdown by certification area,” Teboe said. “The department aggregates that data for the purpose of identifying teacher shortage areas to propose to the U.S. Department of Education for student loan repayment incentives. The data collected is not posted publicly in a comprehensive way.”

Maranacook Community Middle School is a unique school that encourages and supports its teachers to use a hands-on approach to learning. Last winter, middle school teachers created an ice carousel on Maranacook Lake as a science lesson and invited U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, to talk to students over Zoom about current events and how Maine’s history is tied into it.

Denise Churchill, who retired recently as a technology integrator at the middle school and as a union officer, said she doesn’t understand why Charette would not vouch for Sirois or do everything he can to help keep him around as principal. 

Churchill said in her time as a union representative, it has been common to have a conditional certification and usually, a superintendent can request an extension, she said. In Sirois’ time as principal, he handled a pandemic, the murder of a student and several facility issues, she said. 

“I can’t imagine a better principal for any middle school. In my eyes, he’s the best. I’ve known him for so long and he understands where kids are coming from, why they act the way they do. … Rick understands where they are coming from. He is committed to the research and philosophy on what’s best for young adolescents, he is about the whole student and not just the academics,” she said. 

RSU 38 school board Chair Shawn Roderick also declined to comment. Roderick said a school board meeting would be scheduled at “the appropriate time” but declined to say when that time would be. Hiring a new principal requires the vote of the school board at a public meeting.  

Charette said he would not answer any questions relating to personnel issues. The Kennebec Journal requested a copy of Sirois’ contract, which is a public document, via a Freedom of Access Act request. It was not immediately available Wednesday. Charette said the request will be filled in two to three days at most. It is unclear when Sirois’ contract is set to expire.

Despite the administrative silence, staff and community members are vocal on social media and have posted signs around the RSU 38 towns of Manchester, Readfield, Mount Vernon and Wayne to spread awareness of the issue.

After less than a week, 700 people have signed the Change.org petition; the goal is 1,000 signatures. In addition to the signatures, people signing it have also left dozens of comments in support of Sirois.

One commenter, Emil, said: “At a time when trust in our leaders and institutions is already eroding, the sudden removal of Principal Rick Sirois, without transparency or input from staff or parents, only deepens the divide. As one student bluntly put it, ‘The middle school is already struggling, and if he leaves, it’ll just get worse.’ Mr. Sirois is a trusted leader, respected by students and parents. His removal threatens to unravel the fragile culture of the school. I urge the school board to hold an emergency meeting to hear from the community and take corrective action before lasting harm is done.”

Another, Marybeth, who said she is a former teacher, said: “I taught for many years with Rick at Maranacook Community Middle School and would like to add my show of support to have Rick reinstated as principal. He is an asset to the entire Readfield educational community. I would echo what many others on this forum have said about this fine educator and administrator.”