5 perfect reasons why school board should table any renewal of Saucon superintendent contract
It’s on the agenda for the next Saucon Valley school board meeting for Tuesday, Nov. 11. It’s a big problem.
Election and Approval of Employment Contract for the Superintendent of Schools
1. Motion to elect in accordance with 24 P.S. 10-1071 and 10-1073,
Jaime Vlasaty as Superintendent of Schools for a term commencing
on July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2031. In approving this motion
to elect Mrs. Vlasaty, the Board of Directors is also hereby approving
a new employment contract with the Superintendent for the same time
period.
That this measure was crammed, at the 11th hour, onto new business two weeks before two new school board directors are sworn in is an utter disgrace. The backdoor “November Surprise” manner of it all gives the appearance of subterfuge and treachery. It should be immediately tabled.
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Here are five perfect reasons why:
It will poison relationships. It will cast an indelible shadow over the relationships between the majority of the re-organized incoming board of directors and the administration and other board members. No director wants to be stuck with a superintendent they had no say in weighing in on for five years. Such a weakened relationship, built on disrespect, will hamper the efficiency of the district’s job to educate children. Relationships matter!
It’s undemocratic. For the superintendent to be given a new five-year contract, she needs five votes of the nine directors. Two of those five votes would come from outgoing board members who haven’t faced voters in four years. They’ll be gone in two weeks. The public voted dramatically for the new board members. One of them, Meaghan Lomangino, was the top vote-getter. The other, Christian Tatu, beat the board vice president’s vote tally and saw off the other competition handily. Voters are asking for a new direction in Saucon, clearly. We ignore them at our peril.
It’s wholly unnecessary. If directors believe this superintendent is the best for our school district, surely that greatness will not end in two weeks. If she’s so good, they should be able to wait a few more days. Rushed governance is almost always bad governance.
Loyalty and sentiment matter. Among the most concerning arguments I’ve heard in support of voting to renew the contract for five years is that it’s going to pass anyway—so why hurt the relationship by voting against it? I’ll tell you why. Because two years ago, voters put me and my three running mates on the board because they wanted to see change. Votes mean something. Nothing is ever inevitable on the board. Numbers and data matter, but sentiment matters, too. Abe Lincoln said “public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed.” Our campaign in 2023 was called Saucon Choices for Change. We were supported by teachers and thousands of local citizens who demanded a new, non-partisan approach in Saucon schools. They not only helped financed our campaign, they knocked on thousands of doors. They stayed up late and worked to the bone to help bring about a better school system. We need to remember how we got where we are and who got us here. We promised change.
There’s a better way. There are many logical and potentially powerful alternative approaches to ram-rodding a new contract through in a fit of paranoia and cynical contempt for voters and fellow board members. A shorter contract with performance incentives and constructive targets that gives new board members a say on things is the best and most pragmatic one, I suspect. It would ease the pressure off everyone and give every body a bit of a win and breathing room—and time to get it right.