During a special meeting last evening, the Lehighton Area School Board hired two head basketball coaches and an Athletic Director.

Former Northern Lehigh basketball coach Richard Oertner was named the Indians' head boys' basketball coach."We're very excited to get someone of his caliber," said School Board President David Krause."Oertner enjoyed a tremendous amount of success at Northern Lehigh ."Oertner's career record is 161-99 in 10 seasons. His Northern Lehigh basketball teams won three league titles. The 2007-2008 team won the District 11 Class AA Championship - the first for the Bulldogs since 1954.Oertner, who was a 1,000 point scorer during his playing days at Northern Lehigh High School, will have his work cut out for him as he takes over a Lehighton Indians team that has won just two games over the past three seasons. The Indians compete in the Mountain Valley Conference where some of the other schools more than double the enrollment of Lehighton.Also hired last evening was Raymond Bressi as head girls' basketball coach. A disciplinarian at Panther Valley High School, he previously was an assistant womens' basketball coach at Susquehanna University and assistant mens' basketball coach at Lycoming College. In his one season as head boys' basketball coach at Pottsville Nativity, Bressi led his team to the District 11 Class A finals and into the second round of the state playoffs.Both coaches were hired on a 9-0 vote.At last month's meeting, the school board tabled the motion to hire Kristin Black for the position of director of student services and facilities planning. Last evening, the motion to hire Black was defeated by a 5-4 vote. Instead, the school board hired Kyle Spotts in a 7-2 vote at the pro-rated annual salary of $47,000 - effective June 13, 2011.Spotts, a former quarterback for Kutztown University with a Master's Degree in Sports Management, replaces Shawn Hindy who resigned from the position of director of student activities/athletic director.According to Krause, "We went through an extensive interview process and are very confident with our selections."In other business, Daniel Williams was re-hired as head wrestling coach on a 9-0 vote and the school board accepted the resignations of Michael Lusch and Bill Stoudt as assistant football coaches.