Labor board again sides with former Laconia administrator in withheld payout of $70K

LACONIA — After Belknap Superior Court ordered it to reconsider a past decision, the Department of Labor again ruled in favor of former Laconia School District administrator Christine Blouin in a wage claim complaint. It has been ordered to pay nearly $70,000 in withheld vacation pay and damages.

“Claimant proved that Employer's delay in paying her final wages was willful and without good cause,” read a copy of the DOL decision obtained by The Laconia Daily Sun. 

“The DOL decision fails to follow the guidance on the law as ordered by the Superior Court in its review of the DOL’s initial decision that the District thought had resolved this unfortunate matter,” Superintendent Steve Tucker said in a written comment to The Daily Sun. “We will be working with counsel and the School Board on our next steps.” The window to file an appeal in Superior Court is 20 days. 

Reached via her attorney, Blouin declined to comment on the decision. 

In the spring of 2022, Blouin, then-business administrator, was dismissed and her contract terminated for breach by the district, meaning she was not entitled to a payout of her accumulated vacation time. Filing a wage claim, Blouin argued the district lacked proof she had violated her contract, and she accused the district of firing her in retaliation for her participation in an internal investigation into employee complaints against the superintendent. The DOL sided with Blouin at the end of last year, awarding her wages and matching damages totaling more than $68,000.

The school district successfully appealed that ruling to Belknap Superior Court, arguing the labor hearing officer had not applied a correct legal framing. The court found in September that the DOL had applied standards related to for-cause firing rather than for material breach of contract in its decision and remanded the complaint back to the Department of Labor.

After that reconsideration, the DOL came to the same conclusion as its first ruling. 

When the school board voted to terminate Blouin’s contract, the DOL said in its new decision, it made an “unwarranted conclusion” she violated her contract. 

The district, both when it informed her she had been fired and in court documents, has alleged that Blouin was insubordinate, created a hostile work environment, improperly shifted her responsibilities to others, spent “excessive” time on personal matters while at work, took unapproved time off, lobbied to have the superintendent fired and — an accusation the district’s court filings emphasize — had an intimate relationship with a young hockey player whom she housed and whom the ruling notes she later married.

The DOL found each of those accusations either falling short of breach, lacking first-hand evidence or unsupported by the evidence that was presented.

The district’s evidence “failed to rebut [Blouin]’s evidence of entitlement to the payout, as it did not show that [Blouin], as a historical fact, committed a material breach of the employment contract,” the ruling states. “Rather, [the district]’s case was found to be the product of a campaign by the superintendent to punish her for participating in the investigation of complaints against him.”

Blouin was one of nine staff members who participated in an independent investigation into complaints against Tucker — an investigation which found those complaints to be unfounded, according to court documents. She was also one of 17 administrators and district staff who departed the district during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years. 

The new decision notably states that, “[The Laconia School Board] apparently relied upon Superintendent Tucker's recommendation” in voting to terminate Blouin’s contract. “As explained in the Department's prior decision, Superintendent Tucker was not found to be a credible witness due to his demonstrated animus against [Blouin], which derived from her participation in the school board's investigation of complaints against him. No evidence of Superintendent Tucker's actual presentation to the school board was presented.”