Two Palmerton Area High School secretaries and a high school math teacher testified Wednesday night as the district’s administration continues to build its case against suspended high school Principal Paula Husar.

Husar is hoping to keep her job after Superintendent Scot Engler recommended her dismissal on over 20 charges handed down in September 2017.

Palmerton’s school board will vote on whether to dismiss Husar or put her back on the job following the hearing, which has been ongoing over the past year.

On Wednesday, high school secretary Terry Freed described to the board what she called “inconsistent discipline actions.”

Students leaving school

“We had students who would just leave school,” Freed said. “Nothing was done about it.”

Freed said after a student is disciplined by the principal, she gets a form noting what the discipline is and inputs that information into a PowerSchool program.

“We never got a referral back to log any discipline into PowerSchool for this situation,” Freed said.

When the students were suspected of leaving school, Freed continued, an announcement was made throughout the building for them to come to the office, only they never showed. One of the students, Freed said, had been caught leaving school in the past and commented, “I never got in trouble for doing this last year.”

Upon questioning from Husar’s attorney, Mark Bufalino, Freed said no witnesses ever saw the students outside the school that day.

Bufalino also indicated that Husar, who has yet to testify, contacted the students’ parents to further investigate the situation.

Freed testified about other situations, including during the 2015-16 school year, when there was a problem with a group of boys going into one of the bathrooms and “smashing apples all over the place and urinating on the floor.”

“We had students who identified the people doing this and it was never addressed,” Freed said. “Not one student ever had a single consequence.”

Freed also said Husar failed to investigate reports of students smoking in the bathroom.

“When students would go into her office for a disciplinary matter, they would get a piece of candy when they went in and before they left,” Freed said.

Objections

Bufalino raised several objections throughout Wednesday’s testimony, arguing that the specific matters the administration was bringing up were not listed in the charges against Husar.

“You can’t just be broad and say well it’s everything in her personnel file,” Bufalino said. “This is another attempt to throw in whatever they feel is appropriate.”

The district’s solicitor, Shawn Lochinger, said it follows a pattern of “objecting when testimony is going to come that they don’t want to hear.”

Diane Smelas, guidance and athletic secretary, answered questions regarding the timing of a back-to-school letter to students along with their class schedules several years ago.

According to Smelas, she asked Husar for a week to two weeks when the letter would be ready to send to students. Husar said she was waiting for approval from Engler. On Aug. 21, one week before school was set to start, Smelas said she questioned Engler about when the letter would be approved.

“He showed me his phone with an email that he had just received it from Husar that day,” Smelas testified.

The letter ultimately was sent out the next day and most students received it the Friday or Saturday before school started, Smelas estimated.

“I had a line out my door that first day of school with students who had not received them and I had to reprint their schedules for them,” she added.

School board member Earl Paules said the one page back-to-school letter should have been easy to approve and the schedules could have been sent out earlier even if the letter was delayed.

Smelas also testified that Husar asked her to drive to junior high school Principal Rich DeSocio’s house to see if “a meeting was being held.”

“I declined,” Smelas told the school board. “I didn’t even know where he lived.”

According to Smelas, school board member Sherry Haas asked her if she had “any information that could be used so Engler would not be rehired as superintendent.”

Bufalino said that exchange had nothing to do with Husar’s situation.

National Honor Society

Alex Knoll, high school math teacher and National Honor Society adviser, was questioned at length about a situation that ultimately led to the revamping of the school’s NHS induction criteria. According to Knoll, a parent asked for a clearer “line in the sand,” particularly when it came to the number of volunteer hours required for induction into NHS, after her son did not gain admittance.

“I felt every year we were grappling to make proper adjustments to the criteria and never seemed to get over the hump,” Knoll said.

Knoll said he sympathized with the parent, but added that any changes to the criteria rested with Husar as the building’s principal.

On cross-examination, Bufalino argued that Knoll had made initial suggestions for changes to the criteria, which were implemented, but the parent was still not satisfied.

Eventually, Knoll said, Engler became involved and recommended rubrics from other districts as a guideline to what Palmerton should be looking to do.

“In the last two years, we’ve had zero complaints from parents,” Knoll testified.

Bufalino asked Knoll if he had ever been recommended for suspension or dismissal for his involvement with the NHS criteria updates.

“I have not,” Knoll said.

The termination hearing could wrap up within the next month.

The district’s administration said Wednesday it plans to call two more witnesses, and Husar’s attorney, Mark Bufalino, said he plans a rapid defense that could only span two nights.

The next two hearing dates are set for Feb. 20 and 25.