The dismissal hearing for a Wiscasset principal accused of several transgressions, including improperly authorizing the installation of a hidden camera, has been set for next week.
Wiscasset Middle High School Principal Gina Stevens was placed on leave last month and faces possible firing after Superintendent Kim Andersson alleged the principal also indefinitely removed a student against policy, mistreated students and staff, and didn’t inform her of a teacher vacancy.
Wiscasset Middle High School Principal Gina Stevens listens to the charges against her by Superintendent Kim Andersson, who called for her firing. At right is Stevens’ lawyer, Gregg Frame. Jason Claffey / The Times Record
In a rare move, Stevens requested her dismissal hearing be made public. The hearing will be held at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 20, at Wiscasset Elementary School.
“I have done nothing wrong,” Stevens said in a statement after she was placed on leave. “I have only done my job appropriately and in line with expected leadership responsibilities. … I pride myself on honesty, fairness and integrity, and I wish for this matter to be discussed in an open public forum.”
Such a hearing is usually conducted in a closed-door executive session. The hearing will resemble a trial, with attorneys representing the school department and Stevens given opportunities to present evidence and call witnesses. It was originally scheduled for this week; Andersson claimed it was postponed due a scheduling conflict with Stevens’ attorney, Gregg Frame, of Portland-based Taylor, McCormack and Frame. Frame denied that characterization.
“We have not been the cause of the delay,” he said in an email. “I wouldn’t normally comment on someone like this at all but the superintendent pinning this schedule snafu on me and Gina is in poor form and clearly designed to shift public opinion (and the School Committee) against Gina, which is not right.
“Gina looks forward to a fair hearing.”
Andersson has recommended the School Committee fire Stevens.
“She can no longer be trusted to do her job,” Andersson said at a committee meeting last month. “She still refuses to admit any wrongdoing or take responsibility for her behavior, which presents an unacceptable risk of liability for the school department and potential harm to its students and staff if she continues to be the principal.”
Andersson said the parent of the student that Stevens removed from school filed a complaint with the Maine Department of Education. The superintendent said the hidden camera also exposed the school department to potential legal fallout. Stevens said “requests were made” to install the camera after the school’s food pantry kept getting broken into. Andersson said on Oct. 3, the principal emailed the superintendent saying students had used the food pantry to change clothes against the principal’s directive. The superintendent said that was the first she learned of the camera and that the students used the pantry to change because Stevens had falsely accused them of vaping in a bathroom. It was not clear if the camera was filming at the time; that issue will likely be discussed at Wednesday’s hearing. Stevens claimed the superintendent knew about the camera in August.
Stevens and the superintendent both started in their positions in July.
The school department’s administrative team has been sharing principal duties at the middle/high school with Stevens out; the school’s assistant principal, Sarah Hubert, has been in charge of the building.
“Hubert has been doing a phenomenal job of running the day-to-day operations of the school as well as going above and beyond securing new grants to expand our co-curricular activities and successfully managing Athletics as well,” Andersson said in a email.
The School Committee is expected to decide on the recommendation to fire Stevens at the conclusion of the hearing Wednesday.
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