Palmerton Area School District’s Board of School Directors voted 7-1 Tuesday night to formally approve a paid administrative leave agreement for Superintendent Dr. Angela Friebolin, two weeks after the arrangement was announced at a workshop session.

District officials refused to publicly disclose the reason for the leave even as one board member said he did not know why they were voting on it.

The motion, listed on the agenda only as a “mutual agreement for paid administrative leave for employee #735,” was made retroactively effective April 2. Board solicitor David Conn announced the leave at an April 7 workshop, describing it as a joint decision.

“The board of school directors and the district superintendent have jointly decided that the district superintendent will be on a paid administrative leave effective April 2,” Conn said at the time. “This leave is in no way disciplinary and does not reflect any judgment by the board regarding the superintendent’s performance, but is simply to allow greater flexibility to navigate next steps for the parties.”

Conn added that assistant superintendents Dr. Daniel Heaney and Ryan Kish and building principals are “fully prepared to make sure all district functions continue without interruption through the leave period.”

Earl Paules, the lone no vote, questioned the item Tuesday and was told the matter could not be discussed in public.

“We do not discuss personnel in public,” Conn said when pressed.

Paules responded, “So how am I going to vote on something when I don’t even know what I’m voting on? There’s nothing in the agreement that I get as a board member that states why she’s being put on leave.”

Conn said the matter has been discussed multiple times behind closed doors.

“There have been at least three discussions and executive sessions about this,” Conn said.

Paules, reading from the agreement which is available through a Right To Know request, noted the arrangement carries a price tag of $550 a day. Under Friebolin’s current contract — a three-year agreement that runs through June 30, 2027 — her starting salary was set at $135,000 for the 2024-25 school year, with yearly increases of 3.5%. At the current contract rate, Paules said, the leave could cost taxpayers roughly $33,000 through the end of June.

Friebolin was hired in October 2024 with a 7-2 vote after coming from Whitehall-Coplay School District, where she served as director of personnel. The two dissenting votes were cast by Paules and his wife Danielle, who argued the district had a stronger in-house candidate.

At Tuesday’s meeting, resident Ken Sutton urged the board to reject the leave agreement and argued against compensating Friebolin in any potential contract buyout.

“If she wants to resign, resign, leave, and that’s it, and go on forward. Don’t put a burden on this community anymore,” Sutton said.

Resident Danielle Jones came to the microphone Tuesday night to defend Friebolin, placing the situation squarely in the context of the district’s turbulent past year.

“She was highly qualified, with 25 years of experience as an educator,” Jones said. “She got the job because she was passionate about her work and wanted to do everything she could to advance our students and our school district. In return, she had to deal with Earl Paules and his lewd and objectifying behavior. She filed a complaint, as she should. It’s what I would tell my daughters to do in the workplace if they were being objectified.”

Jones said the community had failed Friebolin and warned that the district would pay a long-term price for it.

“Here we are again — leave of absence, more lawyer’s fees and another buyout,” Jones said. “We have a reputation now in this school district, and it’s not a good one. Who, qualified, in their right mind is going to apply when they know that (Paules) is still on this school board, when they know the community is not going to back them, when they know that we couldn’t even vote to censure him?”

Contract terms

Under the terms of Friebolin’s contract, the district may terminate the agreement for cause under Section 1080 of the Pennsylvania Public School Code, or the contract may be terminated by mutual consent — in which case the district would be required to pay all aggregate compensation, salary and benefits earned through the agreed-upon termination date. The contract also stipulates that if terminated by mutual consent, the board shall not negatively evaluate or provide any negative job reference regarding the superintendent’s work performance.