Lehighton SD Business Administrator taking post closer to home
Brian Feick
Lehighton Area School District will soon be in the market for a new business administrator.
Brian Feick, who has been in the position since May 2014, was hired for the same role Monday night by Schuylkill Valley School District, where he will start in March.
Contacted Thursday morning, Feick said the decision did not come easy.
“I felt it was an honor to serve the Lehighton community,” he said. “They welcomed me like I was family, and I will miss them.”
The decision, he added, came down to the commute.
Feick, a Berks County resident, said during November’s snowstorm, it took him 6.5 hours to get home from Lehighton. His commute will drop from 63 miles one way to 22 miles.
“During that snowstorm, I was sitting in traffic for an hour and a half in front of Schuylkill Valley District offices and looked at their website,” Feick said. “Low and behold the position was open.”
Schuylkill Valley hired Feick at a salary of $120,000. According to his most recent contract extension at Lehighton, he was set to make $121,100 in 2019-20.
At Lehighton’s meeting on Monday, Feick said he would be recommending a 2019-20 budget without a property tax increase. It would be the fifth straight year Lehighton did not have a tax increase.
Before coming to Lehighton, Feick served as chief business administrator at Chester Upland School District.
In addition, he has also served as vice president/CFO/COO at Datastrip, as well as finance director for the borough of Pottstown.
Comments
Good morning. We felt Brian was helping with the lawful transparency. He will be missed.
The board's creative use of the fund balance to meet the budget shortfalls is duly noted as an accomplishment for not raising taxes.
Someday, with a government board that choses to spend only what it collects, and not more like we are today, we will stop sinking.
The excessive fund balance was created by the board's tax increases in years with a budget surplus.
Coasting on the massive increases is coming to an end. Removing waste, and renegotiation of the massive debt is still needed. Lehighton had years showing surpluses of more than $3M being collected from high tax rates, and then NOT being used to maintain our district schools, including safety items listed on the feasibility study as required. Those slumlord years, and borrowing one hundred million dollars created a looming interest burden. Our district went from spending nearly zero dollars for interest on debt to now, spending millions per year on interest to bonds not education. The board had big eyes spending the children of the future's monies today, creating a legacy of debt.
We wish Brian well. He did what he could with a board that was focused on spending as much as they could as fast as the could with no regard to the generations they burdened to pay the bill.
Sincerely,
Citizen David F. Bradley Sr.