SALEM –- Thursday, Aug. 19, MSAD #58 school board directors will meet MSAD #74 superintendent Ken Coville and possibly other members of his board, and also consider a number of other issues.

The board will face a situation many other school districts across the state are confronting. Maine Department of Education acting commissioner Angela Faherty sent out a letter to all superintendents of schools explaining that in 2009 a law was passed to allow the DOE to conduct “Longitudinal Data Studies.”

To do this the department is looking to collect all of the students’ social security numbers in the Infinite Campus data system. The letter shows five bullets explaining how tracking the kids from elementary education through the adult work force could benefit its research and improve education.

Before parents hand over their students’ identity cards, they should read on where the DOE letter states that parents are not required to provide a social security number. “If a parent does not provide a social security number for a student, the child will still be enrolled in the school. Every student has the right to a public education, regardless of whether or not a social security number is provided,” the letter states.

In response to the DOE letter, the Maine Civil Liberties Union sent its own letter of concern. It has concerns of tracking kids from kindergarten through their professional lives. But is mostly concerned with the privacy implications turning over social security numbers introduce. They say that turning over a social security number could lead to breach, identity theft and further complications.

The MCLU says that the DOE letter should have explained in more detail about privacy implications, the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Social Security Administration’s own recommendation.

“The MCLU does not believe that the Commissioner’s suggested language in Administrative Letter 6 goes far enough,” said Brianna Twofoot, field director for the MCLU.

The MCLU also suggests that school boards pass resolutions to either try to repeal the law, or take other actions to inform the parents about the inherent dangers.

MSAD #58 superintendent Quenten Clark said he’ll leave this up to the nine board members. He did say that there was no need to hide information or the concerns of the MCLU or others over privacy issues.

“In this case too much information may not be a bad thing,” Clark said. “We’ll see what they want to do.”

In other news, Clark will inform the board that they received another letter from Bruce Smith, their attorney from Drummond Woodsum. Smith was again addressing the issue of the proper or improper election of a chairman.

An issue that has surfaced over several meetings was whether it was legal to elect a chairman by secret ballot voting. The board has a written policy that says that if two or more members are nominated, a “ballot vote” is required. The policy is a recommendation from the Maine School Management Association.

Smith explains that Maine has no court decisions on the legality of secret ballot elections for officers. However he did make correlations between Freedom of Access Act laws for executive session and secret ballots.

“A secret ballot vote is no different, for the purposes of the FOAA, than an action taken in executive session because the votes of the members are hidden from the public,” Smith wrote.

Members will go on to discuss implications of forming an AOS, future planning for the schools and timelines.

Clark said he had a many other things on his agenda, such as the Poland Spring contribution, FMH, cafeteria news, summer projects and possible federal funding for teachers.

The board will also look at a host of policies and potentially approve some school field trips Thursday.