Board member seeks access to bills

A Lehighton Area School District board member again Monday night said he was being blocked from reviewing bills he was being asked to approve.

Director David Bradley, as he has in past months, voted against paying bills for November 2019 totaling $6.29 million, arguing the board abdicated its authority for oversight of the payments.

On Monday night, Bradley sparred with administration over what he said was a double payment to WB Mason, which the district has used for furniture purchases in the past.

Lehighton Business Administrator Patricia Denicola said the situation dates back to 2016, before she began working for the district.

“All I know is in 2016 there were three credits sitting at WB Mason, which was money owed to the district. We utilized those credits from 2016 to make payment on the September 2018 invoice. If there were overpayments, they were in 2016 or prior.”

District resident Barbara Bowes questioned whether the same person who was in charge of accounts payable when the overpayment occurred still is today.

“Mistakes happen and I know that, but we need more oversight,” Bowes said. “It’s our money and it’s supposed to be educating our children.”

In addition, Bradley said the district had past due invoices from WB Mason. On Monday, the board approved a payment of $1,568.54 to the company.

Denicola explained the payment process, saying invoices aren’t presented to the board until the items are received.

“We ordered a bunch of items at the beginning of the year and those invoices are not paid until we received the goods,” she said. “When the 2018 invoice was brought to my attention that it was unpaid, I researched that we did actually receive the stools we ordered and then had WB Mason apply those credits to the invoices to make sure they were not overpaid.”

Bradley urged the board to table the November bill payments for further review. Board President Larry Stern said directors are able to ask questions on individual bills in advance of meetings, but that Bradley asks for a review of all bills.

“Your requests are unreasonable,” he told Bradley. “You wreak havoc at board meetings. There is havoc everywhere with you.”

Paying bills over holiday break

Later in the meeting, Bradley opposed allowing the business administrator and treasurer to pay all bills within their discretion due to the gap in meetings during the holiday season. All bills would be ratified the next time the board meets.

“It is the responsibility of the board to oversee and pay all bills and we should not be abdicating that during this period of time,” Bradley said.

The vote to give the business administrator and treasurer the authority to pay the bills passed 5-4 with Stern, Andrew Yenser, Wayne Wentz, Rita Spinelli and Stephen Holland voting in favor, and Bradley, Joy Beers, Gail Maholick and Richard Beltz opposed.

Nickolas Smith, a Lehighton Area High School freshman and student council representative in attendance, called Monday’s meeting more of a “verbal war” and encouraged more civil conversation between board members.

“As a student, I’m ashamed of what I just witnessed,” Smith said. “None of this is setting an example for our youth. I understand there are problems and arguments, but the one thing this world lacks is peaceful conversation. It is upsetting you can’t have that here.”

Other area districts typically have a similar motion on their agendas during the holiday period.

Feick letter

By a 6-3 motion, the board voted to review certain assertions in a Nov. 3 letter penned by former Lehighton business administrator Brian Feick. Feick said he was blamed with leaving the district with a $3.8 million deficit and not telling them about $3.5 million in medical bills, both of which he said were false.

“The medical bills were on every list of bills approved by the board,” Feick said. “In a subsequent meeting, the new business manager said she would have posted to a different account. Far different from what was publicized. Also, it was stated that medical was going to be over by $2.5 million. The reports given to the board in August only showed benefits to be over $200,000, and that was probably due to not receiving stop loss reimbursement yet.”

In regards to claims of overspending on supplies and other areas of the elementary center project, Feick said a lot if items were pulled out of the bid documents and were to be supplied by the district in order to keep construction costs under what was approved in state filings.

“Examples of the items pulled from bidding include security cameras, clock system, bell ... classroom projectors, Wi-Fi access points, and servers to name a few,” Feick said. “All of these items had to be paid for out of the general fund.”

Contacted after sending the letter, Feick confirmed he wrote it and said he was, “tired of being a political pawn.”

“Keep me out of your political shenanigans,” he wrote to the district in the letter. “The defamation must stop now.”

Voting to review the assertions in the letter were Bradley, Maholick, Beers, Beltz, Stern and Holland. Wentz, Spinelli and Yenser voted against it.