Former Havre superintendent faces drug charges in North Dakota

A former Havre Public Schools superintendent whose severance package raised some eyebrows in Havre now faces criminal charges in North Dakota.

David Mahon, who the Havre School board hired as superintendent in 2009 only to have him resign in January 2010, faces misdemeanor charges in Bowman, North Dakota, of drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia and two felony counts of endangering a child for allowing two teens to smoke marijuana in his home, court documents allege.

The school board in Bowman voted unanimously to place Mahon on paid administrative leave indefinitely from his superintendent position there and is seeking counsel and will continue to re-address the situation as needed, the Dickinson Press reports.

The Havre School Board hired Mahon in 2009 under a three-year contract to replace outgoing superintendent Dennis Parman, who took a job in Helena as a state deputy superintendent of public instruction.

Then the board unanimously accepted his resignation Jan. 20, with Mahon citing "personal reasons" for his resignation in his resignation letter.

Shad Huston, chair of the Havre School Board at the time, declined to give specifics about the reason for Mahon's resignation, citing privacy issues, but said no misconduct was involved.

The resignation had been negotiated for several weeks, Huston said at the time. He declined to give specifics of the benefits package negotiated, although they were provided after the Havre Daily News filed a freedom-of-information request.

The benefits package negotiated for Mahon's resignation included the Havre district providing him a letter of reference for future employment, paying the remainder of his $97,000 salary through the school year ending June 30, 2010, along with his benefits for that year, and making four additional payments through 2012 to provide him another year's salary, $97,000.

Havre Superintendent Andy Carlson took over as interim superintendent after Mahon's resignation, then was hired as the standing superintendent.

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Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.