Former Lehighton Area School Board president Rocky Ahner has disputed a report by a state auditor that the school district spent $46,490 unnecessarily for a superintendent.

The allegations were explained in an article in Wednesday's TIMES NEWS.It involved the retirement of James A. Kraky as superintendent with his last day of work being March 31, 2012.However, the district paid Kraky his salary and benefits for April, May, and June of 2012, and hired a part-time consultant.Ahner, who was school board president at the time of Kraky's retirement, stated:"When Mr. Kraky announced his retirement for June of 2012, the district hired PSBA as a consultant to do a search for a replacement for the superintendent. At that time Mr. Kraky had considerable vacation and personal days that he wished to take before leaving the district."PSBA advised us that it would be difficult to find an interim and should look for one as soon as possible. In March Dr. Maher, a former Lehighton administrator, was hired as a consultant to continue stability after Mr. Kraky left in June."Mr. Kraky signed all documents required by the Pa. Department of Education during the time he worked at home and also officiated over graduation in June."Through the PSBA search, an internal candidate was hired at an approximate savings of $17,000 to the district. If there were an extra cost to the district, it would have been in the hiring of the consultant at the cost of $16,500, not the combined cost of both, making this a breakeven plus situation for the district."During this time, the district always had the best interests of the students, employees and taxpayers of Lehighton Area School District at heart, while the transition of a superintendent occurred."The auditor for the state got its figure by combining Kraky's salary and benefits totaling $29,840 and the part-time consultant's fee of $16,500, which actually adds up to $46,340.