Laconia school district set for return to court fighting DOL ruling

The Laconia School District is slated to return to court, endeavoring to overturn a Department of Labor decision directing it to pay $70,000 to a former administrator.
The district was successful in its appeal earlier this year of a DOL decision in favor of former business administrator Christine Blouin: The court found in September that the labor board used an incorrect legal framing, and required it to reconsider the matter. The DOL again sided with Blouin in November.
Claiming the Department of Labor failed to actually perform the reexamination required, the district has filed a second appeal in Belknap Superior Court. A hearing date has been set for Tuesday, Jan. 30.
“On remand, the hearing officer gave lip service to the Court’s above-referenced decisions, but did not, in fact, apply the standard this Court articulated,” the second appeal, filed on Dec. 11, argues. “Instead, the hearing officer committed the same errors of law that required the Court to vacate the first DOL decision.” The appeal asks the court to either overturn the decision in the district’s favor or again remand the matter back to the DOL.

Blouin filed a wage claim against the district in 2022. In the spring of that year, the school board found Blouin in breach of her contract and terminated it. Blouin asserted the district lacked proof for a finding of breach and that she was therefore entitled to a payout of her accumulated vacation time.
The Department of Labor characterized the district’s decision to find Blouin in breach of contract as “unwarranted.” Though the school board had provided a list of reasons when it informed Blouin her contract was terminated, the DOL  found both that the district was unable to prove that Blouin “as a historical fact, committed a material breach,” and that Blouin proved she performed her responsibilities sufficiently to be entitled to the payout.
When it vacated the DOL’s first decision, the court said the department had applied the standards for for-cause firing rather than for material breach of contract. The district’s new appeal reiterates the list of errors it found in the first ruling, arguing those same flaws continue in the second ruling, despite its statement that it was reached by “applying the standard set forth in the Remand.”
The appeal, Superintendent Steve Tucker said in a written statement to The Daily Sun, outlines the reasons the district “believes that the Department of Labor has again failed to apply the undisputed facts to the law and conclude that the District fairly and fully paid its former Business Administrator.”
Blouin declined to provide comment for this story because, as of Monday evening, she had not yet been notified of the appeal by the court.
The decision to file a second appeal, as with the first, was made without a formal vote of the school board, according to Chair Jennifer Anderson. After the first appeal, some board members objected, arguing the board should have had a say. The majority disagreed, with the chair stating the superintendent had kept the board sufficiently informed and the decision, made on the advice of counsel, fell under his purview. In a tight vote, the board later declined to consider adding a policy that would have given it more oversight over the district’s engagement of legal counsel.

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