A disputed Palmerton principal will be back on the job come Jan. 25.

The Palmerton Area School District School Board reinstated Mary Brumbach by a 7-0 vote as principal of S.S. Palmer Elementary School and Parkside Education Center. School board members Susan Debski and Darlene Yeakel were absent.According to the resolution, Brumbach is suspended without pay from Oct. 20, 2015, to Jan. 19, “due to negligence and willful violation of or failure to comply with the school laws.”She is suspended with pay from today through Friday, and will return to her job on Monday.She has been the principal at the two schools since 2010.Brumbach was suspended following an investigation into an alleged falsification of records stating that three fire drills were conducted when alarm company records didn’t show any activation of the alarms.A due process hearing was held on Jan. 6 to discuss the charges and if they were valid enough to terminate Brumbach. Throughout the hearing, she insisted that she did not knowingly falsify documents or intend to do any harm to the school district.Joseph Faenza, the district’s director of buildings and grounds, testified that false reports for S.S. Palmer were filed in June, July and August to make it look like fire drills were held each month, but were not. State law requires schools to conduct fire drills every month and record when they were held, the number of people evacuated and the length of time it took to evacuate the building.Records from the alarm company showed that the alarm in S.S. Palmer Elementary School was activated on June 10, the day after the last day of school; not at all in July; and on Sept. 1, instead of any time in August.Brumbach said during the hearing that she did activate the alarm on June 9 and thought she was allowed to activate the alarm on Sept. 1 to qualify for an Aug. 31 check.She said she had to postpone the Aug. 31 alarm because curbs had been freshly painted yellow in the area where the children would be standing.She activated the alarm a second time later in September to qualify for that month’s requirement. As far as July, Brumbach acknowledged that she did not activate the alarm, but said Faenza told her she could just do the paperwork, since July fire drills were new in 2015. At the hearing, he denied telling her that.Following the school board meeting, Superintendent Scot Engler declined to make a comment about the resolution.