Grantham
Guillette said she checked other references but had been satisfied by favorable public comments the Hanover school superintendent had made at the time of Laramie’s departure.
By the time Hanover officials on March 31 publicly acknowledged questions had arisen about nearly $34,000 in “unapproved” expenses Laramie had charged to his school-issued credit card for what were supposed to be professional development activities, the Charlestown native had ended his stint at the Grantham Village School after four days.
Guillette said questions about the vetting process were raised this week by two of the three parents who attended an informal forum Tuesday night to meet the new substitute second-grade teacher who will fill in while a faculty member is on maternity leave.
Laramie, who was named New Hampshire’s 2011 assistant principal of the year for his work at Kearsarge Regional High School, and who previously worked as athletic director at Stevens High School and assistant principal of Lebanon High School, was in the news again last week when Canaan police said he had been arrested after allegedly soliciting an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute. Laramie was released on $7,500 personal recognizance bail and is scheduled to be arraigned on July 11.
Guillette, a former superintendent in Claremont and junior high principal in Lebanon, said Grantham was trying to hire a substitute for a second-grade teacher who was due to begin maternity leave in April but had her baby five weeks early in February.
Laramie contacted her in early March and offered to help.
“I said to Matt, ‘You haven’t taught second grade.’ He said, ‘No, but I know you are in a pickle, and I’m available.’ ”
Guillette said Laramie worked for four days between March 14 and March 20 — at $90 per diem — but quickly realized that the teaching challenge for that grade level was different from what he had anticipated.
“At the end of the second day, he said, ‘This is way more than I thought it was going to be. I haven’t taught second-grade before,’ ” she said, and he left by mutual agreement after four days.
In hiring Laramie as a substitute, Guillette said she had seen a Valley News story that Laramie had resigned in February from the Ray School, but was also reassured by the fact that SAU 70 Superintendent Frank Bass said at the time that “Matt left on very good terms with students, teachers (and) community members.”
Guillette said she and the Village School principal both talked with Laramie, and Guillette talked to six other people who had worked with or for Laramie as references.
But she said she did not call Bass because the departure from Hanover, at the time, seemed amicable and Laramie also told her he and Bass were in confidential negotiations.
“I don’t want to second guess myself, but I got good references from the people that I checked (with),” Guillette said. “I saw what (Bass) said in the paper, and it was positive.”
Guillette also said Laramie lived across from the school and had a good reputation in the Upper Valley.
“He has been a highly respected community member. They did coaching for the town,” she said.
Bass on Wednesday said that his earlier statement was technically true, and that he couldn’t have disclosed publicly Hanover administrators’ concerns about Laramie because the parties and their attorneys were in negotiations.
“We weren’t sure where this was going to end up,” Bass said. “Mr. Laramie’s attorney and our attorney were trying to reach an accord, so there really wasn’t anything more that I could say than what I did say at the time.”
Bass said that a few other school districts called him afterward to check a job reference on Laramie, but Guillette did not. A phone call to Laramie’s attorney wasn’t returned Wednesday.
In light of the revelations about questionable expenses, Guillette said she “would not have brought him in to sub had I known what” was reported at the end of March once Hanover school officials divulged more details.
News staff writer Rob Wolfe contributed to this report. John Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com.