Claremont
“I don’t treat people that way and I don’t expect to be treated that way,” Ferland, who is also a member of the Claremont School Board, said in a phone interview Tuesday from Four Pines Quilting, the business she and her son Brent, who is also a School Board member, own. “I don’t want people screaming in my face and calling me a liar.”
Ferland, who taught for 22 years in the Claremont School District, said School Board members Brian Rapp and Chris Irish were verbally abusive to her during the meeting.
“It is very disheartening to be treated in such an unprofessional way,” Ferland wrote in an email to all board members of the SAU, which includes Cornish and Unity. “I have learned that the best way to deal with a bully is not to engage. Therefore, I am resigning because the bully tactics of some members of the board are unprofessional and counterproductive.”
Irish said Tuesday the term “bullying” is a cop-out by Ferland.
“I do have an issue with the term ‘bullying,’ ” he said. “In my opinion calling out elected officials for acting inappropriately and potentially illegally is not bullying but holding them accountable. We can be sued.”
Board members said that things began to fall apart Monday when they began discussing whether the public should be allowed to criticize school district employees at meetings.
“Saying the board won’t allow the public to attack employees is not bullying,” he said
“In no way, shape or form is it appropriate to verbally assault teachers, paraprofessionals or the superintendent,” Rapp said Tuesday afternoon. “This has nothing to do with bullying.”
According to Irish, the discussion deteriorated when he brought up Ferland’s recent criticism of the superintendent on social media.
“This has been festering for a while,” Irish said Tuesday. “The underlying problem that provoked all the passion was that she made derogatory comments of public employees.”
In her email, Ferland acknowledged what she wrote but also said she supported the superintendent’s recent five-year contract extension.
“It is true that I commented that Dr. (Superintendent Middleton) McGoodwin had annihilated our school district but I also stated I supported his new direction that he presented on the first day of school,” Ferland wrote. “It is an exciting time. I went up to him after the meeting and let him know how refreshing and positive the presentation was.”
Asked whether she had also resigned from the Claremont School Board, Ferland said she plans to make a statement at that board’s meeting tonight.
Ferland said Irish accused her of having a “hidden agenda” when, instead of signing the approved contract extension for McGoodwin after it was approved last month, she contacted a staff attorney with the New Hampshire School Board Association.
“She just goes off and does her own thing,” Irish said. “She was not asked to do that by the board. She got caught and was called out on it.”
Ferland, again in her email, said she contacted NHSBA staff attorney Barrett Christina for a specific purpose and wanted to use Monday’s meeting to be sure all members were familiar with the contract and in agreement with the terms, which Ferland said Christina told her is her responsibility.
“As board members you have the right to suggest changes as you see fit to negotiate with Dr. McGoodwin or to accept it as written,” Ferland wrote. “This process is the same with all the contracts that are done with employees of the school district.
“After the discussion it was my plan to sign the contract under the direction of the board.”
Rapp said the board voted for the extension and did not want or specify any rewriting. He said Unity members were surprised to learn the contract had not been signed by Ferland.
No member from the Cornish School Board attended the meeting.
SAU 6 Vice Chairman Frank Sprague signed the contract Monday night in her stead after Ferland left.
Sprague, a member of the Claremont School Board, declined to comment on the conflict between Ferland and Irish and Rapp. Another Claremont board member, Patrick Adrian, faulted Irish and Rapp for how they handled the situation.
“I found it to be unnecessary anger and aggression toward another board member,” he said.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com
