Best wishes to Christina Fish, Lehighton Area School District’s new superintendent. She is earning a little over $550 per day in her new position while acting Superintendent Jack Corby is helping her transition into the job at a rate of $600 per day. In addition, the previous superintendent, Jonathan Cleaver, will most certainly be paid his daily rate of over $625 per day when his contract is deemed legal under his lawsuit against the district. His pay will continue until June of 2024. Such a deal to have three supers for one position and pay a whopping $1,775 per day.

You see LASD’s Superintendent Cleaver was initially hired as superintendent on July 1, 2012, and then got a three-year contract extension last June, guaranteeing his time with the district through the 2023-24 school year, thus ensuring he would have hit the decade mark and continue providing stability for our taxpayer dollars.

This is a profession where the school boards hire the superintendents, so therefore the whims of an elected school board member control their destiny and the board is his or her boss. Some fun that job is in a dysfunctional school district!

Big Philadelphia law firm Fox Rothschild’s attorney Jeffrey Sultanik was hired to evaluate the validity of Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver’s contract, and one of the firm’s first responsibilities was to “investigate the legal validity of his contract status as superintendent.” It may just be a coincidence that it “appears” he was promised the solicitor position within the district in reciprocation for this engagement to find a way out of Cleaver’s contract and that it merely “appears” to violate state ethics laws, moral principles and is a classic example of quid pro quo.

It is my opinion these actions will cost the district a substantial amount in Philly-sized legal bills and settlement money that would be better spent on our students … but perhaps the school district has a promise from the law firm that they will pay the lawsuit if the advice they gave was erroneous … FAT CHANCE TAXPAYERS!

Joseph J. Bennett

Lehighton