In two unanimous votes Tuesday night, the Palmerton Area School District board formally notified Superintendent Dr. Angela Friebolin that her contract may not be renewed and approved Assistant Superintendent Ryan Kish to run day-to-day operations. Friebolin remains out on paid administrative leave that now runs through the end of the year.

The board voted 9-0 to notify Friebolin that other candidates will be considered for superintendent when her contract expires June 30, 2027. Minutes later, the board voted 9-0 to approve Kish as substitute superintendent at $130 a day, effective Wednesday.

District solicitor Shawn Lochinger was careful to frame the Friebolin notice as a required procedural step, not a termination.

“If there’s a possibility you won’t renew, and it doesn’t necessarily say right now you’re not, but if there is a possibility, you have to notify her, and you can’t notify her until that last year of the contract,” Lochinger said.

Friebolin was hired in October 2024 on a 7-2 vote with Earl and Danielle Paules opposed. She came from Whitehall-Coplay School District where she served as director of personnel, and took over Dec. 2 on a three-year contract running through June 30, 2027, at a starting salary of $135,000 for the 2024-25 school year, with 3.5% annual increases to follow.

In November 2025, a divided board voted 5-4 to approve a new five-year contract for Friebolin, calling for her to make $142,830 in 2025-26, with 3.5% raises annually through 2030-31. MaryJo King, Erin Snyder, Alyson Krawchuk-Boschen, Stacy Connell and Rob Moyzan voted yes, while the Paules’, Sherry Haas and Brandon Mazepa voted no.

Magin Gursky then won Moyzan’s seat in the November general election. When the board reorganized in December and voted on rescinding the five-year contract, Gursky joined Earl Paules, Danielle Paules, Haas and Mazepa to vote yes on rescinding — while King, Snyder, Krawchuk-Boschen and Connell voted against it.

Friebolin was placed on paid administrative leave effective April 2, with district attorney David Conn describing it at the time as a joint decision between the board and the superintendent.

“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 said. The board voted 7-1 to formally ratify the leave agreement on April 23, making it retroactively effective April 2. The leave was originally set to end June 30, but the board extended it through Dec. 31 at its June meeting.

According to the district, Friebolin has received $53,391.08 in salary payments since the leave began. That figure does not include benefits.

“Angela’s getting paid $562 a day, and now it’s another $130 on top of that,” resident Danielle Jones said during Tuesday’s meeting.

Earl Paules confirmed Friebolin’s daily rate. He then pivoted to Kish’s, arguing taxpayers were getting a bargain.

“Just so the public knows — other people in the past wanted $130 an hour to do this,” Paules said of an interim/substitute superintendent role. “The $130 per day is the same rate that Ryan got two years ago, and he’s getting the same rate now. That’s a big savings.”

Jones was unmoved.

“So we should be grateful as taxpayers that it’s just $130 a day and not $130 an hour — on top of the $562 a day we’re paying our superintendent to not be here?” she asked.

Board President Sherry Haas framed the Kish appointment as a matter of operational necessity with school starting in full next week.

“It was done in order to have one person in charge of the district, as far as a point person and point of contact for our staff, our community and our students before the school year starts,” Haas said.

Kish, who has served as the district’s assistant superintendent for finance and facilities, was also a finalist for the superintendent position in October 2024, when the board voted to hire Friebolin.