An official at Claremont-based School Administrative Unit 6 resigned last week after newly released documents indicate Fall Mountain district administrators found he engaged in sexually harassing behavior against female colleagues while working at Fall Mountain Regional High School in Langdon.
The SAU 6 School Board accepted Richard T. “Rick” Elliott Jr.’s resignation as curriculum director on Thursday, board Chair Arlene Hawkins said in an email Friday evening.
A video of the Thursday school board meeting shows Patrick O’Hearn, SAU 6’s acting superintendent, saying that there had been an “abrupt resignation from our curriculum director.”
His comments came after the school board emerged from a non-public session.
O’Hearn didn’t provide a reason for Elliott’s resignation. But he told the board that, given financial problems facing the Claremont School District, which is part of SAU 6, there is no need to immediately replace Elliott.
The district is facing a multimillion-dollar deficit, audits are underway and there have been layoffs and spending freezes.
“I think there’s time that we need to take and diligence and care to consider the efficiencies or lack thereof of the SAU 6 office,” O’Hearn said.
The board later voted unanimously to eliminate the curriculum director position.
SAU 6 administrators did not immediately provide information on Elliott’s resignation letter, his salary level, his employment dates and details of any separation agreement via a public records request from The Sentinel Monday.
Before becoming curriculum director, Elliott was an assistant principal at Stevens High School in Claremont.
He took that position after resigning as a math teacher at Fall Mountain Regional High School in July 2022.
Documents released Aug. 28 as a result of a lawsuit by The Sentinel indicate Fall Mountain district administrators found Elliott engaged in sexually harassing behavior during his long tenure at the high school in Langdon.
The determination followed a lawyer’s investigation that cites three staff members’ complaints about unsolicited and unwanted sexual comments by Elliott.
During the course of her 2022 investigation, the attorney notes, she was informed that two former staff members had also experienced such comments.
The documents contain allegations spanning many years, as well as letters of warning and counseling to Elliott from then-Principal Thomas Ronning in 2015 and then-Superintendent Lori Landry in 2016.
Elliott resigned from Fall Mountain Regional High School with a separation agreement that he would receivea nearly $18,000 payout and that school officials would not tell prospective employers about the investigation into his actions, according to documents the district released by order of the N.H. Supreme Court.
The district also paid $17,480 for the investigation and covered 80 percent of his health insurance through Oct. 31, 2022.
Elliott has declined to comment, including on Monday.
In connection with the Claremont School District’s financial problems, two other SAU 6 administrators have been put on leave.
SAU 6 Superintendent Chris Pratt has been placed on a non-disciplinary, paid administrative leave. SAU Business Administrator Mary Henry has also been placed on paid administrative leave. Henry is a former Fall Mountain business administrator and school board member.
Rick Green can be reached at 603-352-1234, extension 1435, or rgreen@keenesentinel.com.
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