MONROE – Two teachers who claim they left their jobs at Mount View Middle School as a result of a “hostile” environment created by another district employee had their formal grievances denied by the Regional School Unit 3 board of directors Monday night.

But while the teachers and the roughly 25 friends, family members and colleagues who waited through two-plus hours of closed-door deliberations in a show of support, didn’t get what they were after, several sources familiar with the process said the outcome was not surprising. And probably not final, either.

The grievances were initiated independently by sixth-grade language arts and math teacher Eileen Ellis, and former middle school physical education teacher Ron Simmons in April and May 2012, respectively, according to the teachers. Superintendent Heather Perry would not confirm the initial dates but said the grievances reached the more formalized second stage, during which she reviewed them, in July. The district did not identify the employee.

Jeff Keating, the grievance officer for the RSU 3 Teachers' Association, said the board, in cases like this, would be unlikely to overrule the superintendent, whose interpretation they regularly seek on the details of policy or government regulation.

“It’s a flawed system,” he said. “The board has to say the superintendent is wrong, and that the employee is wrong.”

That determination was made potentially more difficult by the nature of the complaints.

Speaking after the meeting, Ellis, a teacher for 26 years, used the word “bullying” to describe the actions of the employee that led her to file her initial grievance in April. At that time, she took a medical leave of absence due to stress symptoms she said were related to the conditions identified in the complaint. She has yet to return to work.

Ron Simmons, who has taught in the district for the last 17 years out of a 28-year career, was teaching phys-ed at the middle school when he lodged his complaint against the same employee roughly a month after Ellis. He subsequently took an equivalent job at Mount View High School. Simmons declined to give specifics about the nature of the grievance, but both he and Ellis used the word “hostile” to describe the treatment that led them to seek recourse.

“They’re identical in that way,” Simmons said.

The board voted to deny Ellis’ grievance with three members abstaining, then denied Simmons’ grievance with one opposing vote from board member Jesse Hargrove.

After the vote, Simmons acknowledged that he'd hoped for a different outcome, but said he respects the board's decision. 

Referring to the reasons he filed a grievance, he said: "As an employee, you expect to be treated appropropriately. I guess that's the way I'd say it."

Ellis said she was disappointed with the board's decision and frustrated at the amount of time that had passed between appeals.

“I thought that I would be going back to work," she said. "But it’s a process, I’m told."

Others seemed to be aware that things might continue beyond the board level.

Mark Dierckes, who played no formal role in the negotiations but was one of several people advising Ellis during the public portions of the meeting, was already looking ahead to a next step, which he anticipated would involve outside mediation. As he saw it, the first three levels in the grievance process required judgments by people either too close to the situation, personally, or not knowledgeable enough about labor law to see things objectively.

“You get a person in Bangor who doesn’t care if a person in Brooks likes them or not…” he said, filling in the end of the sentence with a shrug that seemed to say: wouldn't that make more sense?

Perry declined to comment on details of the grievances.

Keating said the hearings held on Monday represented only the third time in his six-year tenure that he could recall a teacher's grievance reaching the school board level. Most complaints, he said, are resolved much earlier in the process.

“You’re never really asking for anything huge,” he said. “Sometimes, you’re asking for a job back, but usually you’re asking for some understanding between two parties.”