Lehighton Area School District’s board voted unanimously Monday night to hire a new elementary school counselor, but the search that produced her drew concerns from one director about a thin applicant pool.

The board approved Alexia Sieger as a school counselor at the elementary center at an annual salary of $55,835, prorated for the remainder of the 2025-26 school year, effective March 10. She was the only fully certified applicant in the field.

Director David Bradley raised the issue immediately after the vote.

“There’s got to be a way to find more than one candidate,” Bradley said.

He went further, questioning whether the district was actively guiding current employees toward the certifications they would need to fill specialized positions before those vacancies arose.

“Are we offering those to our staff, so that they can go get that certification, whether an opportunity exists currently or not, so that they can develop their skills better because they’re our employees,” Bradley said.

Superintendent Jason Moser explained that earning a school counseling credential is not a simple process. It requires completing a full graduate program, not an add-on test or single course — a path that could take two to three years for an individual starting from scratch.

“You can’t just test into it,” Moser said. “Of all the positions in the district amongst professional faculty, it’s probably the most niche. There tends to be fewer applicants in most places for school counselors, as opposed to if you’re hiring a math teacher.”

A school counselor position also does not constitute a promotion in the traditional sense, Moser noted. The role falls under the professional teachers contract, meaning a teacher interested in the path would essentially be moving laterally out of the classroom — something relatively few pursue.

Other candidates did apply but without the required state certification. One was approximately a year from completing a counseling program; another was two to three years out, depending on whether they had yet begun, Moser said.

“It’s a key member of the team to be a counselor,” Bradley said. “If our bench is that weak, we should probably be reviewing opportunities to help people know that might be an opportunity, especially if they have a proclivity to say, ‘I want to get out of the classroom and I want to do this job instead.’”

Moser agreed the district could be more deliberate about identifying and encouraging teachers early.

“I think it’s one of the things we should do; identify teachers early on who have a proclivity to being successful in the field like school counseling,” he said. “Could we have those conversations with younger teachers and say, ‘Hey, this is an option that’s out there, it could give you a different path’? We certainly could do that.”

Board member Denise Hartley pointed to a labor shortage that extends well beyond Lehighton.

“There’s an employment gap in general, whether it be for our school district or in the community,” she said. “There are social workers, mental health advocates and others that are needed, and unfortunately there aren’t as many people going into that field as are needed. It’s difficult to find people going into that area.”

Several of the uncertified applicants came from mental health-based practices and impressed administrators on their merits. Under Pennsylvania Department of Education guidelines, however, a district must hire a fully certified candidate over one working toward an emergency certification whenever a qualified applicant exists.

“We actually had a couple of candidates who were great candidates, they just did not hold professional qualifications,” Moser said. “PDE outlines that, should you have a qualified candidate, that’s who you hire over emergency certification.”

Despite Sieger being the lone certified applicant, administrators were clear the hire was made on merit.

“It’s a very important job,” Moser said. “I would not recommend somebody just because they’re the only candidate if they were not a strong candidate. This is a fantastic candidate in all three rounds.”