Locked door issue halts Palmerton principal hearing

Night two of a termination hearing for suspended Palmerton Area High School Principal Paula Husar ended almost as fast as it started Wednesday.

Palmerton Superintendent Scot Engler was scheduled to continue testimony he began last month. Before the hearing could proceed, however, Husar’s attorney, Mark Bufalino, voiced a concern over public access to the first night of testimony in January.

“It came to my attention that the door to the building was locked at 6 p.m., when the hearing was scheduled to start, and a note was put on the door that the room was filled to capacity, which clearly it was not,” Bufalino told hearing officer Robert Yurchak. “I would like an investigation of how the note came to be and why the door was locked. This is a direct violation of the school code and my client’s rights.”

Before 6 p.m. on Jan. 31, the public was allowed into the building and the hearing began with around 20 people in attendance.

Husar, who is suspended without pay and was walked out of the high school by district administrators in September, requested a public hearing in front of the Palmerton school board after Engler recommended her dismissal based on over 20 charges.

The charges include a multitude of false statements about Engler, blaming him for the late release of class schedules, trying to discredit him in an email to staff and failing to follow through on a directive to develop a long-range plan for the high school’s foreign language program, among other allegations.

John Audi, an attorney representing the school district, argued that there was no evidence anyone was denied access to the hearing on Jan. 31.

“It has no relevance to the proceeding as to whether or not Mrs. Husar should be dismissed,” Audi added.

After numerous conferences, Yurchak ultimately decided to recess the hearing, giving Bufalino 10 days to provide a legal argument as to how Husar was prejudiced by the locking of the doors and offer a remedy if it is determined she was negatively impacted.

Yurchak also called for the district to look into what happened with the locking of the door and the printed note and submit a report to him for review.

“We’re not going to make a public spectacle of this,” Yurchak told both sides Wednesday night. “We’re going to proceed in an orderly fashion.”

The issue of the locked door also came up at Palmerton’s school board meeting Tuesday night with several residents questioning why it happened.

Upon being questioned by a resident, Engler said he did not give the directive to lock the door at 6 p.m. Audi said it was his understanding that Yurchak asked for the door to be locked. Wednesday, however, Yurchak said he was not aware of what happened until after the hearing recessed in January. He has requested that the door remain open for the rest of the hearing.

The hearing is scheduled to resume at 6 p.m. March 29 in the Palmerton district board room.