A Carbon County judge last week rejected Lehighton Area School District’s claim that its former superintendent’s contract was illegal and unenforceable due to language semantics.

President Judge Roger Nanovic issued an order May 5 denying the district’s preliminary objections to a lawsuit filed by Jonathan Cleaver seeking reinstatement and monetary damages after his contract was terminated in December.

The district argued that Pennsylvania allows for “contract extensions,” but requires a “contract renewal” after a maximum of five years have passed. Cleaver was hired under a three-year contract with Lehighton on June 18, 2012, running until June 30, 2015. Since his contract was “extended” in 2014, 2017 and 2021, and not “renewed,” according to the firm, it became invalid. The argument, however, was based solely on the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Basic Education Circulars, an opinion Nanovic disagreed with.

“We see no legal or logical basis to distinguish between retention of a superintendent for a further term by a contract which extends his existing contract versus a new contract renewal for the period of extension,” he wrote in his May 5 opinion.

Lehighton voted 7-1 in December to pass a resolution terminating Cleaver’s contract.

Nanovic wrote that, “Cleaver was terminated not for anything he had done or failed to do while acting as superintendent, but on the basis that the written employment contract he held with the district, prepared by the district’s attorney, duly voted on and approved by the majority of the former school board directors, and pursuant to which he had been commissioned by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Bureau of Certification, was illegal since it extended, rather than renewed, his existing contract.”

Joy Beers, Barbara Bowes, Walter Zlomsowitch, Jeremy Glaush, Richard Beltz, April Walker and Kerry Sittler cast the seven majority votes, but Nanovic did rule that they are covered by immunity and could not be individually named in the lawsuit.

Cleaver is asking the court to “declare the resolution void and reverse any action taken pursuant to the resolution, declare him the incumbent superintendent of the district and grant any other relief deemed proper including attorney’s fees.”

He is also asking for judgment against in an amount to be determined at trial, inclusive of all economic losses such as back pay and attorney’s fees, and all damages for the embarrassment, humiliation, anxiety and all other suffering, prejudgment interest, plus costs of suit.

In February, Bloomsburg Area School District hired Cleaver as superintendent on a five-year contract.

Nanovic gave the district 20 days from the day of the order to file a responsive pleading to the complaint.