Hearing on suspended Palmerton principal’s future concludes; decision expected on April 16

On night 15 of her termination hearing, suspended Palmerton Area High School Principal Paula Husar got a chance to defend more than 20 charges levied against her in 2017 by Palmerton Superintendent Scot Engler.

She has been suspended without pay since September 2017.

An emotional Husar spoke of her love for the school and said had it not been for an unsatisfactory evaluation in 2016, she would likely be gone from the district and not fighting for her job.

The evaluation from Engler contained zeros in all categories and, according to Husar, came after several criticisms of the superintendent, including his communication style, during a meeting with the school board in March 2016.

Husar said despite getting all zeros, the scoring mechanism called for her to have a rating of “needs improvement” and not the unsatisfactory rating she received.

“If he just would have given me a needs improvement, I would have been gone from here,” Husar said Tuesday night. “None of this would have happened. I wouldn’t be in debt up to my eyeballs and the taxpayers wouldn’t be paying for this.”

With the evaluation, Husar said, her career was ruined.

The evaluation rating was eventually changed after Husar took Engler and the district to court.

Multiple times throughout the hearing, Husar got emotional while addressing the school board.

“I love the kids here,” she said. “I love my staff. I worked hard for this district. Some of you people I thought were my friends.”

Prior to meeting with the board about Engler, Husar said she received all fives, the highest score possible, on her evaluation in 2014 when she was principal of the junior and senior high schools.

She read from the evaluation in which she said Engler called her a “proactive planner who helped transform the climate in the junior and senior high school with a strong focus on students and student achievement.”

Husar said in March 2016 she was asked to meet with the school board to discuss Engler’s job performance. Despite assurances to the contrary, she said she was worried what she said would get back to him.

“I knew if I was going to do it that I would be honest, and I knew if I was honest that it might not work out so well for me,” she testified. “I wrestled with it for a while before I finally did it.”

In her testimony, she said she told the board she viewed certain members of the administration as becoming a “good ol’ boys club.”

“I was working in isolation and it was starting to impact my job,” she said.

Husar’s attorney, Mark Bufalino, walked her through many of the charges levied against her Tuesday night to get her take on each one.

One of the charges was “attempting to blame Engler for the late release of class schedules by telling other personnel she was waiting on superintendent approval of the welcome back letter. According to the district, Engler had only received the letter for approval that same day.”

Husar testified that there was talk of changes to the foreign language programming, namely eliminating German offerings, which held up the schedules in the year in question.

“Was it later than other years? Absolutely,” she said. “But as soon as I could, I got them out. As far as getting approval, I had to get the letter approved by Mr. Engler, but I never said he was to blame for the class schedules.”

Husar was also charged with countering a directive from Engler about student parking by allowing juniors and seniors from Carbon Career & Technical Institute to park in the construction area during the first week of school as opposed to seniors only in 2017.

“I was told by facilities director Joe Faenza that CCTI students were included in the count as far as students who were able to park there,” Husar testified. “The first few days of school I went out and counted the parking spaces available. There were sometimes 30 spaces available. I felt bad a lot of kids weren’t able to park when there were spaces available.”

Much of the discussion over multiple hearings dealt with the charge of “multiple visits to a class taught by high school math teacher Pam Wuest.”

Wuest testified Husar never told her the reasons behind the visits.

“We did a pre-observation conference and a post-observation conference,” Husar said. “There were times I talked to her in the morning before school started and during her prep period. It was constant that we were talking about it because I was getting heavy parent and student complaints about that class. I didn’t do anything different with her than I would have with everyone else.”

Husar told the board of administrative team meetings when she claims Engler told her that “he had been vindicated” and “the board has seen through your lies.”

Multiple fellow administrators testified they never heard Engler raise his voice at anyone in their presence. Husar challenged their comments on Tuesday.

“The fact that they can sit up here and say he never yells and is never disrespectful, cut me a break,” she said.

During cross-examination by district attorney Shawn Lochinger, Husar admitted to giving tobacco back to a 17-year-old following a field trip in 2016. Husar said the student told her he was 18. The student was never disciplined.

“I had intended for discipline to take place, but I was jumping through hoops at the time trying to do report after report that I was asked to do on the field trip incident,” Husar said.

Lochinger also asked Husar if it was true she left a previous position at Chichester School District after receiving a vote of no confidence.

“No,” Husar said.

Husar was the final witness to testify.

Hearing officer Robert Yurchak said both attorneys were given until April 10 to file a maximum five-page closing argument.

A vote is expected at Palmerton’s April 16 board meeting on whether or not Husar will be reinstated as high school principal.

A two-thirds majority, or six votes, would be required for dismissal.