Monadnock legal battle keeps going - Wording of vote is latest divisive issue

SWANZEY CENTER - After facing numerous lawsuits in recent months, the Monadnock Regional School District is again being eyed by state officials.

Assistant N.H. Attorney General James W. Kennedy recently began examining the warrant district residents will consider at the election in March - specifically, he said, the part that deals with the teachers' contracts.

"We're conducting an inquiry regarding a complaint that came in last week regarding whether or not the correct process was followed concerning the notice of the warrant article," said Kennedy, who covers all election-enforcement issues in the state.

The N.H. Attorney General's Office did not disclose who filed the complaint against the district. But in a voicemail message to The Sentinel Tuesday night, Richard Bauries - of the watchdog citizens' group The Monadnock School Taxpayers Association - said he had instigated the action because of concerns about the warrant's wording.

This latest dispute is about an "evergreen" clause included in the proposed teachers' contract. It ensures that after the contract expires in 2012, annual pay raises would continue while a new agreement is negotiated. An evergreen clause is a provision that extends the term of a contract beyond its primary expiration date.

The school board supported this proposed contract in November and, at a meeting on Jan. 8, approved the wording of the article that will appear on this year's ballot.

But school board member James I. Carnie of Richmond recently cried foul because the words "evergreen clause" weren't included in the warrant language at that time.

These words did not appear in the warrant article until the public budget hearing on Jan. 10, according to school board Chairman Colline Dreyfuss and the district's attorney, Paul L. Apple.

At a Feb. 5 school board meeting, Carnie questioned how the change occurred, asked who was answerable to it, and said it could be grounds for resignation, according to meeting minutes.

However, before board members approved the warrant language on Jan. 8, Dreyfuss told them the evergreen clause was part of the proposed contract, according to meeting minutes.

Regardless, the school board attempted to nip the issue in the bud Tuesday night by re-approving the article for the teachers' contract - evergreen clause and all.

Carnie, who was not present at Tuesday's meeting, drew suspicion as the driving force behind Kennedy's inquiry because he had recently threatened to contact the Attorney General's Office on the matter.

However, in a voicemail message to The Sentinel Tuesday night, Bauries, referring to himself in the third-person, said, "It was Mr. Bauries who took Mr. Carnie with me to the Attorney General's Office."

The trip to the Attorney General's Office, Bauries said, was part of a multi-stop trip to Concord that included stops at the Department of Revenue Administration, the N.H. Retirement System, the state Supreme Court library and the Secretary of State's Office.

Bauries charged that school board members had approved the contract with only an overview of what it entailed.

His wife, Patricia Bauries, added that while the public was told at the Jan. 10 public hearing that the board supported the contract warrant article, the board had actually voted to support something different.

"They approved one thing - what they believed to be one thing - and it was another," she said.

School board member Douglas Lyman of Troy called the glitch a "clerical oversight" and said Tuesday's re-approval would allow the board to get back to the business of education.

Still, at Tuesday night's meeting school board member Jonathan Kenyon of Swanzey lamented the lingering negative effects repeated litigation could have on voters' trust in their elected officials.

In e-mails to The Sentinel, school board members such as Karen Cota of Roxbury and Eugene White of Swanzey, have also charged members of the Taxpayers Association with trying to sabotage the contract.

But Bauries showed no sign of letting up.

Despite Apple's belief the school board's re-approval would appease the Attorney General's Office, Bauries said the matter could wind up in Cheshire County Superior Court.

In the meantime, Apple said, legal fees are piling up, with this latest action alone costing the district thousands of dollars.

"You guys are getting to a point where ... you might want to consider hiring an on-staff lawyer," he told board members. "You've got enough to keep yourselves busy."