April Damboise has resigned her seat on the Augusta Board of Education, citing her concerns over the chairperson’s management of board meetings.

Attendance at the Augusta Board of Education meetings has grown over the past year and at times has become heated or unruly, causing board Chairwoman Martha Witham to call for a recess to diffuse tension. In one instance, a member of the public was arrested for not adhering to the school board’s public participation policy, although he was not charged.

Damboise said she knows some speakers are passionate and outspoken about their values, but as a U.S. Army veteran, she’s worried that the action of halting meetings or calling the police silences the public and discourages people from speaking up.

For the most part, Damboise said she has enjoyed her time on the school board, but the way the meetings have gone in recent months started to bother her. She resigned in early December because of it.

“Do I love everything that goes on in the meetings or everything the constituents do? Not really,” she said. “But I’m a firm believer they should say what they need to say. They have the right to express themselves.”

Damboise joined the Augusta Board of Education in November 2024 as an at-large member.

At this time, the City Council has not decided whether to hold a special election to elect a new board member or to wait until the June election, Jared Mills, the city manager, said.

Under the city charter, if the vacancy extends beyond six months, a special election may be called. Neither the council nor the school board has the authority to appoint someone to fill the vacancy.

At the November meeting, board members discussed adding a clause in the public participation policy to require people to remain seated during the length of the meetings. 

The discussion was Damboise’s final straw. As she started to speak, Witham told her, “Not now.”

“I’m talking about ADA compliance and people with ADHD, people with Tourette’s, lumbar spine issues who do need to get up. I’m bringing it to light before the comments. I’m done for today. I can’t believe the meeting is going this way,” she said, grabbing her bag and walking out.

Damboise resigned a few weeks later. Her background as a veteran has especially concerned her and the right to protect the freedom of speech, saying that she fought in the Army for everyone to have a chance to speak without being silenced.

Meetings are one of the only ways the public can communicate directly to the Augusta Board of Education, she said. If an email is sent to a specific board member, board policy requires it to be forwarded to the chairperson for a response.

Several Augusta residents have said at board meetings they’ve never received any replies to their emails and have shown up to meetings for the answers they seek, but the board is not allowed to answer any questions or respond to public comments.

“It’s such a privilege to be a public servant, and it broke my heart that this position was not being treated like a public servant position,” Damboise said.

Witham said that Damboise’s concerns were not brought up to her.

“Motions to recess during board meetings were the result of motions made and recorded by board members,” Witham said, not commenting further.

Because a school board meeting is considered a limited public forum, the board has the ability to set its own public participation policy, which was created with guidance from the Maine School Management Association and is nearly identical to other school districts’ policies.  

In September, the Augusta School Department received a letter from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression that asked the district to comply with the First Amendment after several people were asked to shorten their comments, or stop commenting.