The Lehighton Area School District Board of Directors voted 7-1, with one abstention, Monday to formally approve a resolution declaring Superintendent Jason Moser met all five of his performance standards for the 2025-26 school year.

Director David Bradley, who cast the lone no vote, delivered a pre-vote speech warning his colleagues they were grading the superintendent without the homework in hand.

Bradley moved to postpone the vote, arguing the state still hasn’t released verified PSSA and Keystone exam scores that he said are necessary for an objective evaluation. The motion died without a second.

“When this board pretends to create, publish, and certify an objective superintendent evaluation as mandated by state law and the superintendent’s contract, it is in essence claiming it can build bricks without straw,” Bradley told the board during public comment earlier in the meeting. “The proper evaluation at this junction would be published as incomplete.”

Before the vote, he renewed his objections from the floor.

“When our district has a large percentage of students failing to meet the state assessment standards, and then a much higher percentage of students advancing in grades and a much higher percentage receiving diplomas, the people should be asking questions — as should this board,” Bradley said. “The board should be asking questions, demanding objective data, and acting with fidelity.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Education has put the public release of official statewide PSSA and Keystone results on hold while the comparison data is still being analyzed. Individual districts received preliminary, unverified school-level data in June, but the verified figures are not expected until later this fall, according to Bradley.

The resolution, adopted in public session Monday, confirmed the board conducted Moser’s annual performance evaluation Sept. 14 in executive session. It stated the board “determined that Superintendent Moser met all five of the mutually agreed-upon objective performance standards for the 2025-26 school year.”

The five standards called on Moser to communicate with the school community to build relationships based on transparency and respect; create the conditions for increased student academic achievement; support a data-informed decision-making mindset; lead a collaborative visioning process for school improvement; and promote professional development and deliver board-approved goals annually.

The resolution directs the district administration to post the evaluation results — including the standards, the Sept. 14 assessment date and whether the standards were met — on the district’s public website, as required under Section 1073.1 of Pennsylvania’s Public School Code. The law does not require posting of the full evaluation itself.

Board member Joy Beers abstained, saying she had not attended the Sept. 14 meeting.

Board President Alex Matika pushed back on Bradley’s claims at the close of the meeting.

“Contrary to Dave’s claims, according to our solicitor, the board has been in lawful compliance with the superintendent evaluation process,” he said.

Bradley warned the board that proceeding without the data could expose the district to legal liability — and could harm Moser himself.

“All this rubber stamping and blind trust can be construed as potentially defaming our superintendent and exposing the government to liability,” he said. “If you grade this man as 100% greatest in the world, you’re not doing a service to the people. And if you do anything less than that, without knowing, because you don’t have the objective data, you could be defaming this man.”