Jim Thorpe board votes down superintendent’s contract

Jim Thorpe Area School District’s board of education voted down a motion to reappoint Superintendent Brian Gasper on Monday night.

The contract called for Gasper’s reappointment for a term of three to five years, with other terms of the contract to be negotiated.

Gerald Strubinger attempted to table the vote, but his motion died on the floor without support.

A roll-call vote yielded six votes against Gasper’s reappointment, and three in favor of it.

Dennis McGinley, John Ciavarella and Clement McGinley voted yes.

Glenn Confer, Pearl Downs-Sheckler, Raniero Marciante, Michael Principe, Wilmer Redline and Gerald Strubinger voted against the contract.

Downs-Sheckler, policy and personnel chairwoman said the vote against the contract was because members had not been able to evaluate the new contract thoroughly.

“The contract has not been gone through from A to Z, that’s what the problem is. They presented it for us, but I haven’t seen it,” she said.

Downs-Sheckler also said that the vote is in no way indicative of the board’s decision on whether they will keep Gasper as superintendent.

“It’s to be determined. There needs to be a conversation. It’s not stating that we’re going to keep him, it’s not stating that we’re not,” she said.

While Gasper did admit to being somewhat surprised by the decision, he was not overly concerned.

“I don’t know what exactly happened here tonight, but there’s plenty of time, My current contract doesn’t run out until June of 2019,” he said.

The board also voted down a motion to approve the minutes of last month’s regular board meeting due to a wage error.

Downs-Sheckler said that newly hired custodial workers were approved at a rate of $12 per hour at the meeting, though the correct hourly rate, according to the collective bargaining agreement, is $11 per hour. The names of the workers have not been released.

“It should have never been brought. It should have never been in the minutes, it should never have been done,” Downs-Sheckler said.

Downs-Sheckler also pointed out that the hirees had not attended a policy and personnel meeting, and that no board members had attended any interviews.

“It was plainly stated that when someone is hired in this district, the board is invited to the interviews. Somebody from the board should be at the interviews. There was no invitation, there was no board representation,” she said.

Business manager and secretary Lauren Kovac said that the error could have been resolved during Monday’s meeting if any of the board members had listed the names of the custodial workers, and then made a motion to correct the hourly rate.

Solicitor Gregory Mousseau agreed to that course of action, and plans on discussing it with the board next month.

“We can make a corrective motion, which I’m going to suggest. It’s going to be $11 per hour, because we can’t violate the collective bargaining agreement. It was a scrivener’s error. There was a 12 rather than an 11,” Mousseau said.