GRAY – SAD 15’s Director of Finance and Operations Brian McDonnell was placed on leave from his duties last month by the district’s Interim Superintendent Vickie Burns.

Burns confirmed last week McDonnell’s leave, but refused to discuss the type of leave that McDonnell was taking. She only acknowledged that it had no set duration. Burns would not answer whether she or McDonnell initiated the leave that began about five weeks ago.

McDonnell, a member of the four-member district management team, is responsible for the district’s finances, transportation service, food service, technology and maintenance departments. The other administrators on the team are the director of special education, the superintendent, and the director of teaching and learning.

Burns was named interim superintendent by the school board last July after the departure of Michael Wood, who moved out of state. Prior to that she was the director of curriculum and learning.

Burns said McDonnell’s duties are currently assigned to other administrators within the educational system for Gray and New Gloucester.

School board chairman Dan Maguire of Gray, when called, would not discuss McDonnell’s leave and referred the issue to the superintendent.

McDonnell on Monday said the superintendent placed him on leave with pay for “insubordination and not being sensitive to her needs.” He said he has no idea about the length of the leave, though he was contacted last week to set up a meeting with the superintendent.

In early September, a group of three citizens filed a formal complaint against the district, the school board and McDonnell for his behavior at a hearing based on a decision not to pick up students at a private day care center about 250 feet from busy Route 100, Portland Road.

In the past the district used the site to turn the bus around and drop students off at a dance studio after school. McDonnell told day care operator/owner Lee Sullivan of Gray the district would impose a $1.90 daily fee to the center for door service, but rescinded the decision when Sullivan requested a ruling from the Department of Education who referred the issue to Department of Motor Vehicles to determine if the fee was legal.

Other complaints surfaced that involved McDonnell last spring when the district’s food service director Dave Philbrook was handed a letter by McDonnell congratulating him on his upcoming retirement, when Philbrook in April signed a letter of intent to return to work for the district this year.

McDonnell, who is the first business manager for SAD 15, said during the past six years he has improved operational efficiency, saved taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars and every year demonstrated that year-end balance goals were met or exceeded.

In the past several months McDonnell was instrumental in orchestrating a major consolidation plan for the district’s elementary schools that required moving everything out of two school buildings for an extensive asbestos abatement program, before school opened at the end of August.

McDonnell is paid $67,778 this year in a contract that expires on June 30, 2005.

McDonnell’s contract spells out “leave” in two ways: sick leave of 10 days per year cumulative to 120 days; and other leave as entitled to two non-accumulative personal leave days per year to conduct business matters that cannot be transacted at any other time.

He is also entitled to bereavement days for immediate family and up to two days for other occurrences.