Some of the Jim Thorpe School board’s newest members clashed with the board’s most senior member Monday over filling vacant custodian positions.

Glenn Confer, who has 28 years of board experience, drew the ire of his junior colleagues when he proposed two new hires which weren’t on the agenda.

First-term board members said Confer was bypassing the committees set up to propose new hires.

They ended up voting down his proposal 5-3.

“It bothers me that you don’t follow rules and committees. This isn’t Glenn Confer’s rule,” board member Scott Pompa said.

The heated exchange occurred after another board member abruptly left the online meeting after accusing Confer of bullying her.

Confer said he proposed the hires because the building and grounds director is facing a shortage in manpower. Two custodians retired in July and another two are retiring in January.

Pompa said Confer could propose the hires during the policy and personnel committee report. The committee, which Pompa heads, makes recommendations to the full board on hiring decisions.

When Confer said the hires would cost much less than the turf field project he opposed, Pompa responded by alluding to past allegations of board members, including Confer, dining on the district dime.

“This is a terrible backyard deal. This is politics at play,” Pompa said. “Just like you had a luncheon out at Trattoria that none of us were invited to.”

Building and Grounds director Ted Larizzio said there was no dealing. He said Confer asked him about manpower, and he responded that his department will be down four full-time workers and one part-timer when two custodians retire in January.

“He asked for facts, and I gave them,” Larizzio said.

Pompa and Larizzio accused each other of failing to communicate. However they admitted that they had communicated, but disagree about filling the positions.

Pompa said he wants to fill two vacancies, then use the money saved from the other positions to hire full-time HVAC workers.

First-term board members want to cancel an expensive maintenance contract for HVAC systems and handle the work in-house.

“We can bring HVAC and electrical help in here at a much cheaper rate and save our taxpayers a great deal of money. Get on board,” Pompa said.

The board agreed to discuss the positions at an upcoming policy and personnel meeting. However, when the board reached the “new business” section of the agenda, Confer made a motion to hire them anyway.

An attempt to table the motion failed. During discussion, they again clashed over who can recommend hires. Pompa and Paul Montemuro said they should go through the committee.

Confer responded, “You rookies don’t know what you’re talking about. So shut up.”

Early on in the meeting, another first-term board member left the online meeting and cursed Confer because she said he was bullying her.

Confer had claimed that during a previous meeting Cindy Lesisko-Henning said that the district was owed $1 million by a company who previously owned the land where the Penn-Kidder Campus is located.

Lesisko-Henning said that he was lying and a bully.

“I’ve (expletive) had enough of this. Glenn you do this all the time, and I’m tired of it,” she said, leaving the meeting.

Paul Montemuro said the board meeting minutes should note that Confer was bullying Lesisko-Henning.

“That’s why she left the meeting, because of the bullying of him,” Montemuro said.