NORRIDGEWOCK — A dispute between the town and the school district over a school board member seems poised to head to the desks of state officials, as both sides said they are willing to seek a final resolution for an issue that nearly led to a legal battle and ultimately came down to a close vote.

At issue in recent months has been whether Valerie Coulombe, a Norridgewock resident elected to the Maine School Administrative District 54 board of directors, can serve on the board while being employed by a bus company that contracts with the district.

The board of directors decided Nov. 7 by a vote of 476 to 416 that an “employee” does not mean an individual who provides services through the district as part of a contracted service. The decision effectively allows Coulombe to continue serving on the board while also being employed by the bus contractor. The board, composed of 23 representatives from six Skowhegan-area towns, uses a weighted vote system; meeting minutes show 20 of the board members were present at that meeting.

That vote supported the argument of the town, which has been representing Coulombe through its legal counsel because she is an elected official representing the town.

But Norridgewock town officials are pressing the issue and say they want clarity to prevent the dilemma from arising again — on the MSAD 54 board, or anywhere else in Maine.

“This isn’t a clash of personalities or anything else,” Town Manager Richard LaBelle said in a phone interview. “This is about bringing greater clarity to statute and the way that local governments, including schools, are run.”

LaBelle reported to the Norridgewock Select Board at its meeting Wednesday that he met with MSAD 54 officials earlier in the day, and they indicated they may be willing to seek an opinion from the Maine attorney general’s office.

Lynda Quinn, chair of the MSAD 54 board, said before the board’s meeting at Skowhegan Area High School Thursday that she is willing to join the town in seeking that opinion.

Lynda Quinn, chair of the MSAD 54 School Board, opens the public comment portion of a meeting in January 2020. (Morning Sentinel file photo)

Quinn said she could likely do that without a vote of the board of directors. Quinn is also a former member of the Skowhegan Board of Selectmen and the Somerset County Board of Commissioners.

MSAD 54 Superintendent of Schools Jonathan Moody said separately that Quinn could do so without consulting him or the board.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The question about Coulombe’s eligibility to serve on the MSAD 54 board emerged in September, according to LaBelle, Moody and public records obtained under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act.

The issue was brought to Moody’s attention when a parent called to ask him about it, he said in a phone interview.

A letter from Norridgewock’s attorney to Moody regarding the issue notes that just over a week before that phone call, Coulombe “wrote up four students who ride her bus due to their repeated poor behavior on her bus. The parent of one of the children confronted her, yelling and threatening her as a result of this incident.”

It is not clear if that is the same parent who called Moody inquiring about Coulombe’s position.

Coulombe did not respond to inquires sent in the last week to her official MSAD 54 email address.

MSAD 54 Superintendent Jon Moody says his understanding of the law regarding contract employees serving on the school board has changed since he began with the district in 2016. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel file

Moody said he knew Coulombe was employed by Mosher’s Bus Service, a transportation company based in Smithfield, when she was elected this spring as one of Norridgewock’s school board members.

But he did not think it was a problem. Coulombe had been elected to the board previously, in the years before Moody was hired as assistant superintendent in 2016, and the superintendent then told him then that Coulombe was not in violation of any rules, according to Moody.

Moody said after receiving the question from the parent, he checked with the school district’s counsel, Michael L. Buescher of the Portland law firm Drummond Woodsum. He also checked with the Maine School Boards Association.

“When I did that, I found out that technically it was in violation of the statute,” Moody said. “What I didn’t know at the time was that when Valerie was previously on the board, she worked for KVCAP, which is a subcontractor for MSAD 54 … but she drove for the adult version of KVCAP. She didn’t work directly for our kids. What’s different now is she’s a driver for Mosher’s Bus Service, and Mosher’s Bus Service provides transportation for our kids.”

After several conversations, Moody wrote to Coulombe on Oct. 18 informing her of what he learned about the statute.

The statute Moody referenced says, “A member of a school board or spouse of a member may not be an employee in a public school within the jurisdiction of the school board to which the member is elected or in a contract high school or academy located within a supervisory union in which the member is a representative on the union committee.”

An “employee” is defined earlier in the same section as “a person who receives ongoing monetary payment or benefits for personal services performed for a school administrative unit.”

“As I’ve said from the beginning, I’ve enjoyed having you on the board and am hopeful that you choose to remain on the board,” Moody wrote to Coulombe, according to a copy of the email he forwarded. “But where we are now is that you need to decide whether you’d like to remain on the board, or to get paid to drive a bus for MSAD 54.”

Another option could have been being reassigned to a different service operated by Mosher’s, Moody said, but Mosher’s does not provide transportation services for any other school district on a regular basis.

AN ULTIMATUM

Moody’s explanation and request prompted a scathing cease and desist letter from Norridgewock’s town attorney, Mark A. Bower of the Portland law firm Jensen Baird.

“The ultimatum that you have delivered unfairly requires Valerie to make the impossible choice between serving in her duly elected office as a School Board member and her gainful employment as a bus driver for Mosher’s,” Bower wrote in the letter to Moody dated Oct. 24. “Unfortunately, your actions — based on a misapprehension of both the contractual and statutory provision that are at play in this instance — are not only unwarranted, but unlawful.”

Bower offered his own ultimatum: either Moody withdraw his “demand” of Coulombe to make a decision or the town would file a legal challenge. Alternatively, he wrote, the town would be willing to seek an official opinion interpreting the relevant statute from the Office of the Maine Attorney General.

Legal invoices obtained by the Morning Sentinel through a public records request show that in the week after the letter was sent, staff at Bower’s firm spent several hours drafting a complaint and other court filings. LaBelle, the town manager, confirmed they were never filed with a court.

Quinn, the school board chair, then posed the question to the board Nov. 7: Should contractors be considered employees?

The board discussed the issue for about 30 minutes in a closed-door executive session before the vote, meeting minutes show.

Moody said he went into the conversation with an open mind, even though the school district’s legal counsel had made his opinion on the matter clear.

“This was never about not wanting Valerie on the board,” Moody said. “It always about, ‘We’ve driven down this road for years. The speed limit is 55. We thought it was 60. Now we found out it’s 55.’

“We have a choice: Are we going drive the speed limit or are we not? As superintendent, now that I know the ‘speed limit,’ I have to make sure that we follow that statute. When the board voted to do something differently, then I would follow the board’s direction.”

A LACK OF RESOLUTION

The vote allowed Coulombe to remain on the board. Officials in Norridgewock, however, still were not satisfied.

LaBelle, the town manager, said in an interview that town officials were concerned that if the composition of the MSAD 54 board changes, a similar issue could arise again, given the board’s close vote in November. He also said the school district never backed up its legal argument that Coulombe was not allowed to serve on the board.

“The town had asked on numerous occasions for a communication from the district or its counsel with its position, and substantiation of its position, primarily through precedence, or case law,” LaBelle said. “There was never a response to that.”

After the school board’s decision that allowed Coulombe to continue serving, the Select Board authorized LaBelle to seek reimbursement of $3,832.50 that the town spent on legal services related to the dispute.

“Our Select Board takes the claims seriously and remains uneasy about the resolution,” LaBelle wrote in the letter dated Nov. 21, obtained through a Freedom of Access Act request. “The Town does not wish to further litigate; however, the Board understands that this was a legal issue initiated by the District against an elected Board member and a member town. In the end, a majority of Directors determined that the approach taken by administration and District counsel was wrong.”

LaBelle told the Norridgewock Select Board Wednesday that someone gave him a draft response from Quinn, the school board chair, denying the request. Upset with receiving the message that way, he met with Quinn and Moody, he said.

LaBelle said the town is willing to drop its request for reimbursement, as long as the school district agrees to seek an interpretation of statute from the attorney general’s office. Both he and Moody emphasized they have had a good relationship with each other and there is no ill will behind this disagreement.

Sometimes, incurring legal costs is necessary to get a clear answer, LaBelle said.

“Whether it allows Ms. Coulombe to remain a member of the board or not,” LaBelle said, “this is something that, across the state, people are either ignoring or they’re not following or don’t know how to follow because of the vague language in the law.”