Multiple menus running at the same time - (Scene changes not working right?)

Hi, I’ve been using the Director class 1.4 to develop a corona game.

I’ve had issues in the past that I’ve solved, but this has just stumped me.  I have a main menu for the game that you start at and can purchase upgrades and items, etc. for the game and then a button to switch scene to the actual gameplay screen.  When you lose or complete the level, it changes scene back to the menu.

The problem is, the original menu.lua is still running, and then another instance of it just starts up, so I end up with 2 timers counting up (counting the seconds in the menu), and possibly images being placed over each other.  Is this by design of the director class?

Is there any way to completely isolate each scene?  As in, start the game scene, completely stop the menu, and wipe it completely, then do the same to the game scene for changing back to the menu?