KENNEBUNK, Maine — Community members and parents in RSU 21 are raising concerns about the district's spending after school board members approved the hiring of a new HR director last week.
The district's communication director Matt Shinberg shared that Dawn Therrien was selected and approved a s the district's new HR director. According to Shinberg, the yearly salary for the role is $137,917.
"Compensation is determined through a comprehensive process that considers factors such as job complexity, required qualifications, and regional market data for similar positions in comparable districts," Shinberg wrote in a statement.
According to Shinberg, the district conducted a national search and hiring process, and Therrien was the only person to apply for the role.
When the school year kicked off, the district held a symposium with the theme of diversity, equity, and inclusion, community member Greg Cavanaugh said. He said because the district placed so much emphasis on DEI, he believes it should also be reflected in the district's hiring processes.
"How come we didn't have a diverse pool of people applying for this job," he questioned, baffled at the fact that Therrien was allegedly the only applicant. "I have a hard time adding up the dots to see how one person was the only applicant for this job that pays and compensates pretty well."
Cavanaugh said he has no issue with Therrien being chosen for the role if she was the most qualified to fill the position, but he said he questions how the district knows who was best qualified for the role if only one applicant applied, and if they did not work harder to extend or broaden their search.
He also said he would appreciate if the district explained why an HR director salary is nearly $140,000 a year.
Cavanaugh said he fully supports investing in the district, explaining that school districts need money to operate. He also said having a school district that excels increases the property value of the municipality and overall positively impacts the community, but he said decisions leadership makes and the way the district spends money has to make sense.
Kyle Keenan, the former principal of Mildred L. Day Elementary school, which is a school in the RSU 21 district, said he can't comprehend why the district would pay an HR director that much money after community members voted to reduce the district's administrative budget by $400,000 earlier this year over spending concerns.
"It was really a missed opportunity here in the district leadership to reevaluate," Keenan said.
Keenan explained that school budgets from neighboring districts show HR coordinator salaries that range from $60,00 to $100,000 annually.
Biddeford's HR coordinator receives an annual salary of $74,261. Saco's coordinator weighs in at $77,250 annually. Sanford coordinator's salary sits at $52,650 yearly, and Scarborough's coordinator makes $67,371. Westbrook pays its HR coordinator $96,933 and RSU 6 pays their coordinator $80,962.
RSU21 pays a salary that is exponentially higher than every other district in the neighboring communities.
Keenan also has concerns about the way that the school board approved Therrien for the role. Keenan explained that all teacher and administrative roles in the district have to go before the board for approval, and the approval must be added as an agenda item before the school board meeting.
When the school board approved Therrien for the HR director role, the approval was not originally listed in the details of the meeting agenda items. The approval was later added to the agenda on the day of the school board meeting, 15 minutes before the meeting started.
Keenan explained that when he and others questioned the district's leaders about their failure to communicate that the approval of Therrien for the HR director role would take place at the meeting, board members said the item was added last minute because it was urgent. Keenan said board members claimed that not filling the role immediately would negatively impact students and the district.
"What I look at it as trying to sneak in the hiring of one of the most controversial positions in the district by adding this person 15 minutes before a school board meeting on the Friday of a Labor Day weekend," Keenan said. "It really was almost like let's see if we can get this person on the agenda and maybe no one will notice. Which if they've been paying attention to what the community has been saying for months now, it's that we really... we do notice. And we really want a reconsideration of this massive expanding of spending at the central office positions."
Keenan said he finds the district's explanation for their actions as disingenuous, especially because since he resigned from the district in April of 2022 and his position as principal was not refilled until the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year.
Community members like Arianna Efstanthiou said that when she and others questioned the district, asking when the school board meeting was updated to reflect the new hire approval agenda item, they were told to file a Freedom of Information Access request.
"In the midst of all the tension that we have right now, it shows a lack of transparency, a lack of planning a lack of revision any number of all the things we've said we've been concerned about," Efstanthiou said.
In addition to Tuesday's school board meeting, there is an emergency virtual meeting scheduled for Thursday at 4 p.m. The district said community members will have 15 minutes set aside to express their concerns at the community meeting.