Maine East to hire theater director/drama teacher after fears it might not

A Maine East High School teacher and theater director who plans to retire at the end of the school year took to social media to accuse Maine Township High School District 207 of having “absolutely no plan” to find someone to fill her role’s extracurricular activities in the future. However, a district spokesperson said the district never intended to let the role go unfilled.

Since then, the school district announced it has posted the job online for the 2024-2025 school year.

Theater Director Karen Hall, a teacher in the Fine Arts department at Maine East for 24 years, expressed outrage on April 15 on Facebook when she said that the high school’s administration decided that the school would not hire a new theater director. She said there was not an immediate plan for a staff member to pick up the extracurricular activities she oversees, which include taking students to theater festivals and writing college recommendations.

Hall told Pioneer Press that the Fine Arts Department became aware of the job situation at a meeting with the high school’s administration on April 6. Hall said the department’s boosters, a parent organization that helps support events and fundraising for the Fine Arts department, were alerted on April 12. Hall said she was able to tell students about the situation on April 15, and she also posted on Facebook.

The department was then told by email on the afternoon of April 16 that the job would be posted online and that occurred the morning of April 17, according to Hall. Hall said neither the school’s administration nor the district elaborated on why they were hiring, but that she was grateful that they did.

District 207 Director of Communications Brett Clark told Pioneer Press that the district never considered eliminating the role of the theater director at Maine East or sharing the director with another school.

Clark said the district initially had two options of hiring someone who would be the theater director and would also serve as the drama teacher, or to hire someone who would only be the theater director and have the drama classes taught by someone else. The district decided to hire someone who would be both the theater director and drama teacher, he said.

Clark shared a statement to Pioneer Press that was also shared with parents: “District 207 has posted (the job) for the Maine East Drama/Theater Director. We anticipate having someone in place for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year who will teach the drama courses at Maine East and also direct the productions there. The district is committed to supporting theater productions at Maine East and in all of our buildings.”

Hall said on her Facebook post that the school moving forward without having an employee to pick up her additional roles was a “slap in the face to the legacy of our program.”

In an amended post, Hall said, “Thank you to everyone who sent in emails and voiced your support online!”

The school’s administration was sympathetic to the needs of the students and had always been supportive of the department, Hall said.

Hall said she put up the post to let people know of the situation and to advocate for her students, but she didn’t anticipate having so much support from parents, students and alumni. “I am super grateful,” she said.