Citing 'No Violation,' Education Association President's Email Account Restored

Howard County Education AssociationPresident Paul Lemle's access to his Howard County Public Schools System's electronic communications service has been restored.

Superintendent Sydney Cousin ordered the account closed Thursday based upon a perceived violation of terms of use, according to school system emails obtained by Patch. The account provides a vehicle for email, emergency alerts and the ability to conference among small groups.

The account was restored Tuesday morning after a meeting between Lemle and Cousin.

Lemle, an outspoken critic of  to middle school reading instruction, originally said to Board of Education members Jan. 12.

He planned to testify that night at a public hearing regarding the middle school curriculum, and emailed his written testimony to board members before the meeting convened.

"The situation is resolved," Lemle said during a phone interview Tuesday. "I got here this morning to find a message that the superintendent could see me at 9:30 — I think this issue was a priority for him."

Cousin said that upon investigation, it was determined there was no violation of the email system's policies, and access was restored Tuesday morning.

"We had a good meeting, where we talked about communication now and into the future," Cousin said. "As far as I am concerned, the table is clear and we go on from here to do positive things."

Lemle said he was concerned that he didn't get an answer to why the account was suspended to begin with, but he appreciates the superintendent's quick response.

"Dr. Cousin declined to tell me why the account was shut down, but he expressly admitted that we didn't do anything wrong and disabling the account was a mistake," Lemle said.

Asked why the account was closed without a warning to HCEA leadership, Cousin said the decision was based in part on misuse of the communication system by a previous HCEA administration, but he would not elaborate further.

"This was easy to resolve because there was no violation, and it allowed us to talk about communications into the future," Cousin said.

Lemle is glad the problem is resolved, but concerned that access to such a vitally important communication system could be closed down without notice.

"The Collaborative Learning Community is much more than an email system," Lemle said of the school system's internal communications vehicle known as CLC.

In addition to email, CLC is also used to dispatch emergency alerts, allows small groups of staff members to conference and collaboratively plan with each other and serves as a calendar of events.

"Disabling the account isn't legal to do to anyone, but to do it to the HCEA president really impairs our ability to communicate with our members," Lemle said.

The association will continue its efforts to build an external email system through another provider to make sure its ability to communicate can never be hampered again, Lemle said.

"But I appreciate that Dr. Cousin went right to work on this this morning, and I'm glad it's resolved," Lemle said. "I look forward to working with him in the future, and to working with him on negotiations."