8 apply to fill Lehighton school board vacancy
Thursday marked 30 days since a vacancy was created on Lehighton Area School District’s board of directors and with the post still unfilled, district residents can now ask a Carbon County judge to take action.
As of presstime, eight people had already filed a petition to fill the vacancy.
Former school board members Gloria J. Bowman, Duane Eidem and David Krause have filed a petition.
Francis Flickinger and Richard Beltz Sr., both of whom ran but were defeated in November’s general election, have tossed their name in the ring.
Other applicants are Rita L. Spinelli, Timothy M. Wagner and Nathan Foeller.
Flickinger got 9.53 percent of the vote for a four-year term, while Beltz Sr. got 22.77 percent of the vote for a two-year term. Both changed their registration to Libertarian between the 2017 primary and general elections and received enough signatures to get their names on the November ballot.
The vacancy was created after Gail Maholick won both a four-year and a two-year term in November’s general election and chose to take the four-year term at Lehighton’s reorganization meeting on Dec. 4.
Remaining board members deadlocked 4-4 on the appointment of Beltz Sr. Directors Larry Stern, Wayne Wentz, Andrew Yenser and Steve Holland opposed the appointment, while Maholick, Joy Beers, David Bradley Sr. and Richard Beltz Jr. were in favor.
Lehighton’s board found itself in a similar situation in 2016 following the death of director William Hill Jr.
At that time, President Judge Roger Nanovic heard from five candidates and ultimately chose David Krause to fill the seat.
Comments
last election? Isn't that WHY they are former School Board Directors? Seems to me the voters have spoken. Hope the Judge takes into account the will of the voters.
their right to vote made the decision. The others could have chosen to do so but did not. In my opinion, if you don't go out and vote, don't
complain.
They're too late.
The high school renovation is basically done. Same for the middle school. The elementary center is about to be completed. And the old schools are sold off.
If they wanted to be effective they needed to be on the board five years ago. They're too late. The plans are made. The buildings, for all intents and purposes, are constructed. The financial deals all in place.
The only things these miscreants can accomplish now is screwing up the education process even further, or taking our their misguided aggression on the teachers and staff. I wouldn't put it past them.