Palmerton Area School District’s board solicitor announced Tuesday that Superintendent Dr. Angela Friebolin has been placed on paid administrative leave, effective April 2.

“The board of school directors and the district superintendent have jointly decided that the district superintendent will be on a paid administrative leave effective April 2,” board solicitor David Conn said during the board workshop. “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.”

District leadership, Conn said, remains in capable hands.

“The assistant superintendents (Dr. Daniel Heaney and Ryan Kish) and building principals are fully prepared to make sure all district functions continue without interruption through the leave period,” he said.

While the leave started Thursday, no end date was provided during the workshop. While a majority of the nine-member board has to agree to place an administrator on leave, no public vote was taken on the matter.

Tuesday’s announcement offered little explanation on its own, but arrives against a backdrop of prolonged institutional turmoil.

Title IX investigation

Friebolin’s allegations of sexual harassment and professional misconduct against director Earl Paules sparked a Title IX investigation last year.

A 15-page report issued to the district in early December from attorney Katherine H. Meehan of the law firm Raffaele Puppio, found Paules responsible for 16 of 19 allegations, partly responsible for two and not responsible for one, related to conduct that occurred between December 2024 and July 2025.

According to the determination, Friebolin first raised concerns about Paules’ conduct during an executive session of the school board on July 15, 2025.

The written determination, issued Dec. 1, concluded that former Palmerton Area School District board President Earl Paules engaged in “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive” conduct toward Friebolin.

According to the findings, Paules frequently commented on Friebolin’s appearance, clothing and body. On one occasion, the report states, in March 2025, Paules stood uncomfortably close to Friebolin in her office and told her she had violated policy because she was “way too good-looking to be a superintendent.”

The investigation cataloged numerous text messages sent by Paules that were deemed unprofessional.

In May 2025, according to the report, he texted Friebolin, “You’re my girl,” and in July wrote, “never fall in love with your superintendent, but the hair extensions almost got me.”

Paules said the “never fall in love with your superintendent” line was in reference to the relationship between board members and a previous Palmerton superintendent.

“If I hadn’t been treated in such a bizarre and inappropriate way, I would never have made the complaint to the board,” Friebolin said at a January school board meeting.

“I have dealt with hard things for 25 years, but never have I been abused. I think if you as a district want a revolving door in the superintendency then this is how you do it.”

Paules has steadfastly denied the sexual harassment claim and took issue with Dec. 1 written determination, which he said did not match interview transcripts with four different witnesses.

The determination was made based on a larger report from Grand River Solutions, who interviewed four witnesses in addition to Paules and Friebolin regarding the claims. The witnesses included district employees who worked closely with both individuals.

“Witness 1” said Paules made comments describing Friebolin as an “attractive woman” and referenced her appearance, though she did not characterize the comments as overtly sexual.

Other witnesses, according to the Grand Rivers report, said they did not directly hear some of the alleged comments but were informed about them by Friebolin or others.

Paules was found not responsible for one claim: that he created a hostile work environment after Friebolin allegedly rejected romantic or sexual advances.

The report states there was no clear point at which Friebolin expressly declined Paules’ behavior in a way that resulted in a change in his conduct. Instead, the determination concluded that tensions escalated during disagreements over district operations.

Contract reversal

A former Whitehall-Coplay School District administrator, Friebolin was hired in October 2024 when the board voted 7-2 to approve a three-year contract running through June 30, 2027, at a starting salary of $135,000 for the 2024-25 school year.

A divided board voted 5-4 in November to approve new five-year contracts for both Friebolin and Heaney, moving ahead with a resignation-and-reappointment structure that drew public criticism over timing, transparency and whether the board should act during a lame-duck period.

Friebolin’s new five-year contract called for her to make $142,830 in 2025-26 with a 3.5% raise each year that follows through 2030-31.

Following the general election, however, the board reversed course in December, voting 5-4 to rescind the new five-year contracts, restoring Friebolin and Heaney to their original three-year agreements.

Voting in favor of rescinding the contracts were Earl Paules, Danielle Paules, Magin Gursky, Sherry Haas and Brandon Mazepa. Meanwhile, MaryJo King, Erin Snyder, Alyson Krawchuk-Boschen and Stacy Connell voted against it.

The November approvals had passed by the same 5-4 margin although Rob Moyzan, who was on the board at the time, was replaced by Gursky, who won the seat in the general election.

Since then, Gursky and Krawchuk-Boschen resigned, and Moyzan was reappointed to the board along with Kris Schaible, another former director.

“I have been advised not to comment on the reversal of the contract motions at this time,” Friebolin said at the time.

No further comment

No directors spoke regarding Friebolin’s administrative leave status and Palmerton does not take public comment during the workshop.

“This will be the only statement the board will make at this time since this is a personnel matter,” Conn said in an email earlier Tuesday.

Friebolin, reached via text message Tuesday night, declined to comment on the leave.