Panther Valley school board on Thursday stepped up a disciplinary action against an employee one board member has previously identified as JROTC director Kenneth Markovich.

The employee, identified only as employee #598, was placed on paid administrative leave on Feb. 28. As the board readied to act on the motion, school director Roy Angst shouted out Markovich's name.Angst had also suggested Kenneth Markovich was the employee in question in his online blog, published at 12:33 a.m. Feb. 27.On Thursday, as the board prepared to put the employee on the unpaid leave, retroactive to March 15, Angst, saying he was not voting, asked President Jeff Markovich if it "is the same employee that I blurted the name out the last time ...?"Markovich, who is Kenneth Markovich's brother, said "I can't confirm that."Angst then said he would not vote on the matter because "I don't want to vote in the blind."The other board members, with David Hiles absent, voted in favor of the unpaid administrative leave.Efforts to reach Kenneth Markovich for comment have been unsuccessful.Markovich, a retired Army major who is Senior Army Instructor of the district's JROTC program, had until recently been out for several months on medical leave.