A new administrative assistant will be starting in Lehighton Area School District, but it didn’t come without controversy as a split board clashed Wednesday night over the hiring process.

Janine Partenio will succeed Melissa Wagner as administrative assistant to the superintendent at an annual salary of $47,000 following the 5-4 board vote.

A Lehighton resident, Partenio comes to the district after over five years as administrative assistant to the superintendent and assistant superintendent in Northwestern Lehigh School District. Before that, she also worked as a constituent outreach specialist in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

“I look forward to the opportunity to support the staff and students of my own community and hope each of you can take time to get to know me personally,” Partenio said during Wednesday’s meeting.

Voting in favor of the hire were Larry Stern, Wayne Wentz, Nathan Foeller, Rita Spinelli and Stephen Holland.

“I reviewed her qualifications and believe Janine will be an excellent fit for the job,” Foeller said during his vote.

Before the vote, however, directors David Bradley, Gail Maholick, Richard Beltz and Joy Beers questioned the hiring process, saying they were only presented with one candidate for the position despite the fact that 20 people applied.

“We didn’t get a chance to look at everyone who applied,” Bradley said.

Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said when a position in the district is open, an interview committee is formed followed by the screening of resumes and usually two rounds of interviews before a recommendation is sent to the board.

“When we hired our previous business manager, Mr. Bradley posted resumes with cellphone numbers and private addresses to the point where a candidate threatened us with legal action,” Cleaver said.

Board President Larry Stern said there was an attempt to present Partenio’s resume and qualifications in an executive session before the meeting.

“We couldn’t get that accomplished because someone kept taking over the meeting,” Stern said.

Several residents joined director Joy Beers in asking if a group of 3-5 candidates could be presented to the board instead of just having one recommendation come from the administration.

“I haven’t seen the other resumes,” Beers said. “We have no other choice. Boards should be the people hiring employees and the administration should not be involved with that.”

Foeller, however, said he is comfortable with the way the process currently works.

“There is a paper screening and multiple rounds of interviews before a recommendation for the best candidate is made,” Foeller said. “I think it would be a disservice to drop five candidates in front of the board and hope they pick the best one.”

Also on Wednesday, the board approved the resignation Meghan Christman, confidential secretary to the business administrator, and approved the elimination of the position.

“Meghan did a great job in that office and helping with the transition from our former business manager to our interim manager and we are going to miss her,” Cleaver said. “We will do some realigning and shifting within the office. When we hire a full-time business manager, we thought it would be best to see what their recommendations are as far as staffing.”