The principal of Palmerton’s S.S. Palmer and Parkside Elementary schools has been suspended since October, as the school district’s superintendent seeks her dismissal.

Mary Brumbach has led the downtown Palmerton schools, which share an office, since 2010.She is facing termination for filing reports with the district claiming that she oversaw three fire drills at Palmer that did not happen.The school board held a due process hearing in the district board room Wednesday to determine if the charges are valid, and if they merit her firing. The board will make its decision at its next meeting, scheduled for Jan. 19.Brumbach said throughout the hearing that she did not knowingly falsify documents, or intend to do any harm to the school district. She has been suspended since Oct. 23.Superintendent Scot Engler testified he was not happy to have to seek Brumbach’s dismissal, but that he felt it was necessary because of the seriousness of the charges, and Brumbach’s lack of contrition regarding her decisions.Joseph Faenza, the district’s director of buildings and grounds, testified that in June, July and August, false reports for S.S. Palmer to make it look like she held a fire drill each month. He said he became aware after Brumbach told him in an email that she was going report that a fire drill held Sept. 1 actually happened Aug. 31.State law requires every school in the commonwealth to hold monthly fire drills.After learning about reports, “I shared my concerns, knowing that I do sign a form to the state verifying that we do these drills,” Engler said.At Palmerton, principals sign and submit a paper report on their fire drill, listing the time, number of participants, and how long it took to evacuate the school.Faenza said he compared her reports with the records from the school’s alarm company, showing every time the system was activated. On July 14 and June 10, two other days Brumbach reported holding a fire drill, Faenza said he could find no record of the alarm being activated at Palmer.Brumbach testified that she had planned to hold a fire drill at Palmer for the month of August on Aug. 31, but had to postpone it until Sept. 1 because of issues with the designated area where the students go during the evacuation. Brumbach said that just before the fire drill, the curbs at the designated area had been freshly painted yellow, and she was concerned about the students’ school shoes.“I intended that to be the August fire drill and we had an additional fire drill in September. I didn’t know it was wrong,” Brumbach said.In regard to the July fire drill, Brumbach said that 2015 was the first year where a July fire drill was required. She said Faenza told her that she could just do the paperwork, as there were only five staff and no students in the building.“I was told I could just fill out the paperwork, I was not told to falsify the fire drill,” Brumbach said.Faenza later returned to the stand and vehemently denied that he made the suggestion to falsify the report.After learning of the reports, Engler called the district solicitor and PDE officials for their opinion. “Based on those conversations, there was a course of action I had to take ... that I needed to notify Mary of the charges,” Engler said.In regard to the June report, Brumbach insisted that there was a fire drill held on the last day of school, which was June 9. She said that the June 10 date on the report was an error, and she could not explain why the alarm activation had not appeared in the report from the alarm company.The building’s secretary was subpoenaed to testify by Brumbach’s attorney. She confirmed Brumbach’s account of the Aug. 31 drill. She said that around that time, Brumbach told her that they needed a fire drill report for July, so they created one.She could not recall however, the fire drill that reportedly took place on the last day of school. John Audi, attorney for the school district, asked her if it was possible that someone else prepared the report. She said that typically only she created the reports, but that it was possible that someone else could have prepared it.“It wasn’t a matter of not just getting the drills done. It was the falsification of safety documents that we also send to the state to verify they’re done. I didn’t see any other option,” Engler testified.