Lehighton board divided over information release

A vote to allow the board president to authorize appeals or responsive pleadings in between meetings divided the Lehighton Area School District board of directors once again Monday night.

While five board members approved the motion and four opposed it, the official outcome was immediately unclear.

Eric Filer, who was sitting in for regular district solicitor William Schwab, said it was his opinion the board needed six affirmative votes to pass the motion since it involved spending money, while board President Larry Stern called for an official legal ruling.

Lehighton Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said he asked for the motion based on concerns he had over quick turnarounds in responding to right-to-know requests and court proceedings.

“We’ve never dealt with the level of right-to-know requests, at the cost of the taxpayers, as we are right now,” Cleaver said. “We want to make sure we’re doing our due diligence and making deadlines.”

According to the motion, any appeals or responsive pleadings authorized by the board president would need to be ratified by the board at its next meeting. Otherwise, the solicitor would withdraw the action.

“You’re allowing the solicitor to get paid to do a job you think is OK, but if the board finds out it’s not OK, you’re going to pay him a second time to undo what he just did through this very self-serving motion,” Director David Bradley, who voted against the motion, said. “It violates so many state laws and board policies to allow an individual to act as the board in between meetings.”

Cleaver said Bradley’s RTK requests are at the root of the issue. Recently, the district appealed an Office of Open Records ruling that would require the release of thousands of emails to and from Cleaver, high school Principal Sue Howland and high school Assistant Principal David Hauser.

“We’re not blocking anything we feel is legal and obligated to be released,” Cleaver said. “We’ll give out any contract anybody wants. But how does requesting all of those emails make anyone a better board member? It is absolute nonsense. We are trying to keep the personnel information of our staff, administration and students protected.”

Bradley estimates the district has only spent “several hours at best” reviewing the “several years worth” of RTK requests he has made.

“Why spend so much money on a solicitor blocking transparency rather than embracing it as written in law?” Bradley said.

On the matter of requesting the emails, Bradley told Cleaver, “If you know people are looking over your shoulder, maybe you would make better choices in what you write.”

Parents and staff, Cleaver said, trust the district with keeping privileged information safe, which is something he said he intends to keep fighting to do.

“There is a lot of student information shared from the administration to staff to parents, and those people trust us with keeping that confidential and not posted on social media sites,” Cleaver said.