AUGUSTA – Ronnie Paradis did not get her contract renewed as a school nurse in Union 44 after two years. The reason: she just didn’t fit in, the principal told her.
It came at the end of her probationary period, so the district’s actions were legal, but they came as a complete shock to her. In two years, she said her supervisors never gave her an evaluation.
The Lewiston resident has found employment elsewhere, but said no one should have to go through the shock she went through, so she contacted Rep. Elaine Makas, D-Lewiston.
On Wednesday, the Legislature’s Education Committee, which Makas sits on, put the seal of approval on a bill that would require an evaluation for all school employees in their probationary years.
According to the bill, the review must be done by April 1, a point where the employee has a chance to correct any mistakes before May 15, the day administrators have to decide whether to renew the contract.
Makas said she assumed most schools had a policy for evaluations, and was surprised when Paradis contacted her. “She just wanted an opportunity to find out what they thought about her,” Makas said.
The bill has been through several changes, and the revised version extends to all school employees and has gotten the blessing of representatives from both the superintendents and principals’ associations.
Also, according to the bill text, criteria must be established for dismissing an employee.
Paradis said she resigned when she found out her contract wasn’t being renewed. After resigning, she did get a review – and it was glowing.
The Education Committee voted 10-3 to give the bill an “ought to pass” recommendation when it goes to the House and Senate floors.
Rep. Peter Edgecomb, R-Caribou, was one of the committee members voting against the recommendation. He said he was not against evaluations, but rather he was against the state telling schools how do administer them.
In the minority report, he recommended that the bill simply require school boards to have a policy. He does not know of a school that does not do evaluations, he said.
“This lady must have slipped through the cracks,” he said.
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