Lehighton moves administrators, eliminates STEAM coordinator
Several Lehighton Area School District administrators will soon find themselves back in familiar places.
Lehighton’s school board approved multiple reassignments Monday night following the resignation of assistant high school Principal David Hauser, who was recently named secondary assistant principal at Northern Lehigh.
Floyd Brown, the middle school principal for the past year, will return to the high school to replace Hauser. Most of Brown’s 17 years in the district have been spent as a special-education teacher at the high school.
His resume also includes a three-year stint as assistant supervisor of special education, six years as district assessment coordinator and two years as a department head. He is currently Lehighton’s high school wrestling head coach.
The board set Brown’s salary at $75,000.
Due to Brown’s reassignment, Dr. Mark McGalla will begin his second stint as middle school principal in Lehighton. McGalla was middle school principal before being named an elementary principal in 2017.
Melissa Volcskai, who was the district’s STEAM education coordinator, will replace McGalla as principal of grades 3-5 at Lehighton Area Elementary Center.
Her salary was set at $80,000.
As part of the reassignments, the district is eliminating the STEAM coordinator position.
“We are able to redistribute some of those assignments and duties so that Melissa will still be doing some of the STEAM items, but we’re also very fortunate through this transition to have people that are very familiar with where they will be going,” Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said. “Floyd obviously knows the high school well, Mark is going back to the middle school to a program he is very familiar with and as STEAM coordinator, Melissa worked hands on in all our buildings and was an integral part of curriculum changes at every level including the elementary school.”
Cleaver said all three administrators have a knack for relating to teachers, a quality he is confident they will bring to their new assignments.
“This made sense not only from a financial piece,” Cleaver said, “but also from the fact that we just keep moving forward due to their familiarity with the district, our schedules, etc. We all collaborate with each other on a number of different things as an administrative team and so these moves really just make for that natural transition.”
At Monday’s meeting, Hauser said he appreciated the “great working conditions, wonderful colleagues and amazing students” he encountered during his time with the district.
“Tribe Pride is not just a slogan on a shirt,” he said. “It means something. It is something you encounter every day here.”
Hauser brought with him a folder he said contained 275 pages of emails, social media posts, transcripts, meeting minutes and documents of what he described as “false allegations, propaganda and non-sensible accusations” he faced in the last 13 months.
In April, the school board accepted a report from Bethlehem attorney Brian Taylor that said Hauser was falsely accused by district board member David Bradley of illegally strip-searching a student in 2018 and of distributing an illicit sexual photo involving minors.
Taylor prepared the report following a closed-door hearing.
“That has zero to do with my resignation,” Hauser said. “You have to go against bullying in a professional manner and I hope that is a lasting lesson I have left with the students.”
Comments
Good evening. Very funny. Thank you for the comments. Civics may not be your strong point, but glad to see at least you recognize the difference between me acting in my individual capacity and me as an elected director in a properly advertised public meeting involving a quorum. A distinction I felt the hearing failed to recognize. Maybe we can get Mike to pipe in, I am sure he will be next to comment.
Since you asked, my opinion was that the strip search was immoral, not necessarily illegal. Apparently the people, the ones that should be in control of this government, let this district create laws that allow staff to strip search their children, and not provide the accused with an education of their actual rights prior. Give us time.
As for the re-tweeted gestures, they were vulgar and demeaning to women. Hopefully, our government will use discretion and choose not to look at a vulgar tweet of students related to a school director and then slap the district's approval on it by re-tweeting using the district's twitter.
So when is vulgarity that demeans women "Tribe pride"?
As for the hearing, I heard it was a bit of a farce, but that is just, like, my opinion man.
Sincerely,
Citizen David F. Bradley Sr.
Acting in my individual capacity.
These comments are not authorized by the board of school directors. Directors, by a matter of law, have no authority to act as government outside a properly organized meeting with a quorum. Only then are they "government" taking actions for or against the best interest of the stakeholders.
For an example of an action for the people look to ths vote for live streamed meeting, as for an action against, in my opinion, look to the five that passed an unsustainable budget with a huge tax increase.
Why didn't the five pass the balanced budget with a tax decrease? Mike? Tom? Moe?
Crickets...
The strip search and the retweet were both admitted events, and not in dispute.
One and done. I am a firm believer in term limits. Your comments are welcome, without them people would only hear my conservative side and the documented use of common sense. Thank you for presenting an opposing point of view.
- Davey Boy, lacking the dog goliath, will slay the corruption in government from my glass house.
Sincerely,
Citizen David F. Bradley Sr.
Do you remember Tim Tkach's comments in the meeting referring to the Sunshine laws an all that BS? Request to get Tkach's email correspondences related to applicants. For that matter, someone should ask to get the resumes of all the applicants to these publicly funded government positions.
Try getting a copy of the Veteran hiring policy, or hiring procedures. This district's government is a total mess. We still have lots of work to do to remove the corruption in this government.
Sincerely,
Citizen David F. Bradley Sr.
Ha ha ha
Ho ho ho
And a couple of tra la las
That's how we laugh the day away In the merry old land of Oz
Tell Napoleon hello.
Not sure what you are referring to, but when it comes to the Lehighton district government all I hear is the endless stamping, stamping, stamping of rubber stamped tax increases. The administration shills ignoring their oath of office, creating a legacy of debt for our children.
Do you hear what I hear, do you know what I know, a song, a song high above the trees with a voice as big as the sea, TRANSPARECY coming to L A S D.
I wish you a good 'tax reduction' night by offering the balanced budget ignored by those accepting campaign contributions. You know the difference between a putz and puppy? Well first, the putz is not a puppy, and a puppy is born loyal. Imagine if loyalty to the oath was a requirement . Do you think warrants should be required on USA soil prior to strip searching a student?
Priceless stupidity should not be rewarded as priceless, but exposed a having no value, or price-less.
Sincerely,
Citizen David F. Bradley, Sr.
Parents Resisting Increased District Evil.
As a district we need to:
Add moral governance
Add a reasonable time for handbook review
End warrantless searches
End tweeting demeaning tweets
Add Student rights
End restrictive graduation hurdles
End Special needs legal fights
End the failure of using State Standards
End the favoritism
Add more Bus safety, and busses.
End the failure to follow the School Code
End the Intimidation
Bring back smaller classrooms
End flipped classrooms
End Quiet lunches
End Selective enforcement
End tossing of School lunches into the trash
End Lack of veteran policy
Find the missing funds
End Lunch payment penalties
Add full legal transparency
End the failures to follow School Policy
Add a rotating PTO representative to the board
End abdication of board authority
End the Blind trust of the administration
End the waste of educational funds with the Solicitor.
End the baseline budgeting
Add the EOE policies
End the 'private' personnel meetings
Why do Larry Stern, Wayen Wentz, Steve Holland, Rita Spinelli, and Andrew Yenser create actions of government that cause so much turmoil?
I knew an old town
That swallowed a lie
I don't know why
They swallowed the lie
I guess they will cry
I knew an old town
That floated a bond
They floated the bond
To fix the lie
I don't know why
They swallowed that lie
I know they will cry
I know and old town
That built a new school
They thought it be cool to build a new school.
They built a new school
To consume the funds
They borrowed the funds to
Cover the lie
The created a lie I don't know why, but this town has begun to cry.
Debt piled high to cover the lie,
Upon our children and upto the sky.
This board keeps spending without a clue, the predictions of pain all came true.
Thank you for reading this far. Theatrics garner attention and sometimes we all need a good poem to open the conversations.
They started with a lie, and hid the truth. Transparency is coming, but slowly as they are blaming me and the other guy. I created a balanced budget with a slight tax decrease, it meets all the State requirements for this government be solvent.
Now, for the blunt truth. If we look at the district as a government of, by and for the people, we can meet the educational requirements without going insolvent. The path they are on is riddled with despair. A government can't actually go bankrupt, since they have taxpayers to pay for all their mistakes. The bond documents show these rubber-stampers were fools with our money. They pledged the full taxing authority of the government to the bond holders. The interest rates are escalating and the PSERS are crushing most about every district.
Purveyors of a peaceful reform we ask for their apology and resignation.
Let the wiser heads transparently make decisions with community oversight and approval. Together we can reform this back to a government of, by and for the people again. Rigid principles, and moral guidelines can navigate us to a sustainable community. The system is set up that the taxpayers control the board, the board controls the administration and the administration handles the day to day.
We have a real budget, with a slight tax decrease, but can not move forward while the government is controlled by these rubber stampers. The five that make up government gave their blind trust to the administration. They are blocking reforms with their block votes. Evil or stupid, the facts are the facts. And I say evil since we warned them repeatedly with facts upon facts.
Talk to your neighbors, talk to your friends. Unsustainable consumption is a hard for the corrupt to correct. However, it is easy for those with character willing to serve the public.
Contact me at dbradley@lehightongovt.org
I welcome your input.
Sincerely,
Citizen David F. Bradley Sr.