Lehighton Area School District will measure Superintendent Jason Moser against hard numbers this year.

The school board on Monday approved five objective performance standards for 2026-27 that set specific percentage targets for reading, academic growth, attendance and graduation. Last year’s standards asked Moser to build relationships, support a data-informed mindset and lead a visioning process.

Board President Alex Matika moved to approve the new goals after they appeared on the agenda as an informational item. The motion unanimously passed on a voice vote. Board member Joy Beers was absent.

“We recently sat down with Jason to discuss the objective performance standards that are built into the superintendent evaluation,” Matika said. “Together, certainly driven by Jason, we put together quite a robust list of five objective standards to be met and evaluated for the 2026-27 academic year.”

Goals

The targets are specific.

Under Goal 2, at least 80% of second graders must score “At Benchmark” on the end-of-year Acadience DIBELS literacy assessment in spring 2027. Intervention plans for students identified as below benchmark were due in place by Nov. 1. Moser must deliver a mid-year progress report by March 1 and final results by June 1.

Goal 4 requires at least 55% of students in grades 2-8 in reading, and grades 7-8 in math, to meet or exceed individual Fall-to-Spring growth targets on NWEA MAP Growth assessments. The district must also post an overall Conditional Growth Index above 0.25 across all grades and subjects.

Goal 5 sets a 92% attendance rate across all grade levels and a 92% four-year cohort graduation rate. It also caps at 2% the share of students who may graduate through a state-allowed superintendent waiver.

The remaining two goals require planning documents rather than test results.

Goal 1 directs Moser to deliver a Three-Year Strategic District Staffing Plan covering 2027 through 2030, due to the board by May 1, 2027. The plan must project headcounts for every district department, cover both professional and support staff, and justify each proposed addition, reduction or reallocation with documented metrics such as Chapter 14 special education caseload limits or custodial square-footage ratios. It must also carry a three-year expenditure model showing personnel costs stay within revenue ceilings and Act 1 Index limits “without creating an unsustainable structural deficit.”

Goal 3 requires a Three-Year Facilities Capital Maintenance Plan covering fiscal years 2027-28 through 2029-30, due April 30, 2027. A preliminary project list with cost estimates and prioritization rankings is due Jan. 15, and must identify projects that could be deferred along with the risks of deferring them.

Collaborative effort

Board member Jeremy Glaush noted Moser was not required to accept any of it.

“I’d like to thank Jason for accepting this, because this was not part of his contract. He did not need to agree to these,” Glaush said. “We had a different evaluation process contractually. This is certainly much more specific and detailed.”

He said building the list together was worth the effort.

“It was a great exercise in meeting and discussing things as a group,” Glaush said. “I think we came together quite well.”

Director David Bradley tied the exercise back to a dispute that consumed much of the board’s fall.

“The reason this was done was because we weren’t necessarily following the law before,” he said.

Pennsylvania’s Public School Code requires districts to include objective performance standards in a superintendent’s contract, mutually agreed in writing, and to post those standards publicly. The board’s handling of that requirement drove a monthslong fight. Bradley accused colleagues in August of blocking the evaluation process, then voted alone against the 2025-26 evaluation resolution on Sept. 28, arguing the board could not grade Moser without verified PSSA and Keystone results the state has not released.

That resolution, which passed 7-1 with one abstention, committed the board to developing 2026-27 standards collaboratively with Moser.

Matika said the result compares favorably to other districts.

“If you look around to other districts, I don’t think you’re going to see a list anywhere near as robust as this one,” he said. “I think it aligned the needs and the vision of the district very well.”