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– The Jamestown School Board held a special meeting Wednesday night to discuss communication between the school district’s attorney and the attorney for teacher Richard Laqua, who has been accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl.

The board met in executive session for most of the meeting, discussing a phone call that took place between Laqua’s attorney and the school district’s attorney.

“During that 30 minutes, approximately, that we were in executive session, we discussed a communication that our attorney had from Mr. Laqua’s attorney,” Superintendent Bob Toso said. “I can’t go into what that discussion was or what the communication was about, but we did spend approximately half an hour discussing that.”

Laqua is entitled to a hearing before any decision to discharge him occurs. Toso suspended Laqua with pay on Nov. 9, pending the school district’s internal investigation, after Laqua was charged with two Class C felonies.

Laqua, age 54, is accused of inappropriately touching the teenage girl and sending her sexually explicit text messages. Laqua is a construction technology teacher at James Valley Career and Technology Center, and a 23-year veteran teacher in Jamestown Public Schools.

Toso says the next stop is having school district attorney Ken Dalsted notify the administrative law judge office in Bismarck, which will then set a date for a “contemplative discharge” hearing.

He says they have no idea when that hearing would occur. In the hearing, the administrative law office would effectively act as judge, and the Jamestown School Board would effectively act as a jury, determining the fate of Mr. Laqua.

On Nov. 18, the school board approved a recommendation to consider discharging Laqua. The board had to approve the recommendation before Toso could share information with the board about his investigation into the matter.