Lisbon Fire Chief Kindles Fire with School Issues

To: Council and Advisory Chair

From: Fire Chief Sean Galipeau

Subject: Review of School NEASC report

April 6, 2009

Mr. Bowie and Mr. Mains,

This letter is in response to the request by both of you to review the school board meeting in which Dr. Pam Bennet from New England Association of Schools and Colleges reported on the findings during their inspection of Lisbon High School.

In review I noted that Dr. Bennet had indeed documented a “range of concerns”. I agree that most of her concerns hold a definite value to education. I found none of her concerns to be an immediate life safety issue.

If I were to have to prioritize the concerns in order to prolong the life of the structure I would assure that the ventilation, heating, masonry, roof and flooring issues were top of the maintenance program.

The other concerns that Dr. Bennet notes such as a beam with padding, the close proximity of the bleachers to the playing surface in the gymnasium, the stairs leading to the locker rooms are all structural issues that a school that was constructed vintage 1960 would be dealing with. Standards change as do requirements. With that usually a large funding concern like a structure being changed would not be required to make the change, instead the facility would be grandfathered.

In my review of the report presentation I also had a couple of concerns. One being that Dr. Bennet stated that a majority of these “concerns” have been documented in previous inspections and it seems there has been no corrective action taken on the part of the school board. I find it hard to warrant replacement of a school through town funding when we could have been maintaining our facility. By maintaining, we as a town would be able to wait out the state funding for schools. The other point I would like to make is Dr. Bennet stated that being a member of NEASC is voluntary. I would take that as their findings are strictly informative, unless of course they report their findings to the Accreditation Board.

I hope I was able to shed some light on the findings.

As always proud to be part of the team.

Chief P. Sean Galipeau

Cc: TM Eldridge

Editor's Note:
The following letter is in response to the blind sided attack by the Town Council at their last televised meeting where the former chair, Wells, read a letter from Lisbon Fire Chief Sean Galipeau pertaining to the high school issues. Why did she read it? It wasn't even addressed to her.
Their continued behavior supports our contention that Lisbon officials are very much diversified with their efforts to make Lisbon/Lisbon Falls a better place. It does start with elected officials actions.
For those that question How we obtained these. We Asked For Them and Received them from the sources.



Good morning,

I am writing to all of you today to express in the strongest possible terms my outrage with the letter from Chief Galipeau which was read as the last act at Tuesday evening's Town Council meeting. We were certainly blind-sided by this because we had no knowledge of the request made by Councilor Bowie and Budget Advisory Chairperson Main to Chief Galipeau. It also seemed that the letter was read with a certain amount of glee following upon commendatory words spoken to Dr. Welsh in honor of her election as Superintendent of the new RSU # 5. Had we been told about it before hand we would not have been pleased but at least we would have been informed. At the very least, the Town Manager should have interrupted the reading and said the issue was not necessary to report fully. He ought to have said simply that Chief Galipeau had responded to the request for additional information. I believe that is one of the conclusions made by the Ethics Committee in their most recent report.

Certainly we would have willingly participated in information gathering since we have nothing to hide, have been much dedicated to getting the facts out, have been talking about the NEASC report since it was originally received, and now are at the point where we MUST do something to maintain our accreditation. No Council Member, not the Town Manager, and not the Fire Chief have attended any of the tours that we have conducted for the public to show the condition of the building. Mr. Main did attend but did not follow one of tours so did not hear the particular problem areas. I personally suggested that he catch up with a tour that was leaving as he entered; he declined.

While we are pleased to learn that there are no fire dangers, we are very upset, too, by the content of Chief Galipeau's letter to you where, in paragraph 5, he implies that the problems result from lack of maintenance. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the recent past we have had money in the budget to repair the heating system at a cost of 1.5 million, but that was cut from the budget; we have budgeted $500,000 for new windows, but that was cut from the budget, last year we included money to address the safety issue of our doors being unlocked at all times so that students could come and go from the portables, but that was cut from the budget; also last year we budgeted $500,000 to address the portable issue, planning to add classrooms to replace the portables and create some of the extra space mandated by the NEASC report, but that, too, was cut from the budget. We have attempted to do the maintenance issues cited but have been thwarted each time.

I hope that you are all well aware that the School Committee prepares what we see as a responsible budget but then we are ordered to cut. With these issues all having been proposed and budgeted for in the past 8 years, it is unfair at the very least to claim that the Superintendent and School Committee are guilty of allowing the building to deteriorate through lack of maintenance. The blame is not ours!

The Town Council and the School Committee are joined by fate and the voters in an existential relationship where the game of gotcha seems to be enjoyed by one side of the duo. On behalf of the Superintendent and School Committee, I am imploring you to adopt a more professional attitude toward those of us who have been duly elected to do one of the most important jobs, run a school system and make certain that our students are safe, protected, and have the best possible system that our taxpayers can afford. We are always mindful of what is needed and neither the Superintendent nor the School Committee is guilty of any malfeasance of duty.

I know that we are ready and willing to discuss any of these issues with you if you should desire. An open and honest relationship will go far to remove what has become a toxic relationship, one where we share no blame. The continued antics by the Town Council are returning the Town of Lisbon to days in the 1960s when John Jalbert and Lefty Lachance were engaged in a relationship of open warfare which made Lisbon the laughing stock of Maine. Please stop before Lisbon is put back into those days.

Sincerely,

Prudence Grant

Lisbon School Committee Chairperson

April 10, 2009