A week after a walkout halted an earlier vote, the Lehighton Area School District board appointed Denise Hartley to a vacant seat Monday night, but not before an hour long delay caused by questions over whether a director had properly filed a state-required financial disclosure.

Hartley was appointed by a 5-2 vote. Directors Joy Beers, Richard Beltz, David Bradley, Jeremy Glaush and Duane Dellecker supported the appointment. Barbara Bowes and Heather Neff voted no. Kerry Sittler was absent.

The vacancy stems from the resignation of April Walker, whose departure became effective at the close of business Nov. 18.

Monday’s appointment followed a failed attempt Wednesday, when Bowes, Sittler and Neff left the meeting before the vote, eliminating the quorum required to proceed.

The board on Monday first encountered a procedural stoppage unrelated to the vacancy itself. Moments after roll call began, Bowes questioned the recently-appointed Bradley if he “filed a statement of financial interest this year?”

“You can’t vote until you do,” Bowes told Bradley. “That’s state law, and that’s also Policy 827.”

The board recessed for an executive session and reconvened just before 8 p.m.

When the board returned, it addressed the delay publicly.

“I apologize for the delay,” Bradley said. “We had an administrative issue. Thank you Barb for catching the way the oath of office was administered. It was corrected. My apologies to everybody that the oath was provided before the paperwork was done, so we had the notary come back to do it again.”

Once the procedural matter was resolved, the board moved directly to the vacancy created by Walker’s resignation. Eight residents submitted letters of interest: Brooke Kennedy, Nicole Collier, Kirk Henritzy, Lou Accardi, Walter Zlomsowitch, Nathan Foeller, Hartley and Kasara Weinrich.

Hartley, who ran in the primary but did not advance to the general election ballot, said she pursued the position because of her history with the district.

“I grew up here, graduated here, left and came back,” she said in an interview after the vote.

She said she intends to approach the position with a focus on students as well as taxpayers.

“One of the things I value is that our kids are our future, and we need to support them. This is one of the ways we can do that — making sure policies benefit them,” Hartley said.

She added, “I’m also a taxpayer, so I recognize that we have to balance the funds and what’s best for our kids. I want to do that.”

Hartley said she is looking forward to the work ahead.

“I look forward to working with the students and the taxpayers and listening to everyone, working together as a team,” she said.

The seat places Hartley on the board ahead of its early December reorganization. At that time, the board will consist of Hartley, Beers, Glaush, Bradley, Neff, Tim Tkach, William Howland, Alex Matika and Lory Frey.

Hartley and Bradley were recently appointed to two-year terms to fill vacancies and will serve through December 2027. Glaush is in the middle of a four-year term that will be up in 2027. Beers, the board president, was re-elected earlier this month to a four-year term along with newcomers Tkach, Matika and Frey. Howland was also a 2025 general election winner for a two-year seat.