A Monroe County resident has been tabbed as Palmerton Area School District’s assistant to the superintendent.

Palmerton’s board unanimously hired Jamie Schuler on Tuesday night to a role that will include human resources responsibilities and K-12 curriculum development and oversight.

Schuler, who will make $95,000 per year in the administrative post, comes to Palmerton from Athens Area School District, where she is currently the director of curriculum and instruction.

Having been born in Palmerton, Schuler said she welcomes the opportunity to come back to the area.

“This is a great opportunity to bring my educational experience to Palmerton, grow in the area of human resources and work with this administrative team,” Schuler said.

The job title is new to Palmerton, but the duties within it are not.

“We previously had a human resources director position that we are now combining with some curriculum and instruction related duties,” Superintendent Dr. Jodi Frankelli said of the job. “There is no new money being put toward this. We took the salary the previous human resources director was getting and there is also some money saved from other positions. This was already in the budget.”

Tom McLaughlin, Palmerton’s previous human resources director, left the district in July to become superintendent at Saint Clair Area School District. Dan Heaney, the district’s technology director, has also been the director of curriculum and instruction.

“Curriculum and technology are two big parts of what districts should be focusing on right now and it is a lot to pile on one person,” Frankelli said. “We didn’t want the curriculum end to suffer because technology is so much in the forefront right now. Dan has done an amazing job thus far juggling both of those, but we thought it was a good time to reposition some of our roles and responsibilities.”

Schuler spent 17 years in the Pleasant Valley School District, during which she worked as a reading specialist and special education teacher before taking the administrative position with Athens.

“We were looking for someone in this position who has a broad range of experience in K-12 and (Jamie) comes to us with that expertise in the elementary arena and secondary arena,” Frankelli said. “She also has that central office experience so we are very excited for her to get started.”