A Lehighton Area School District board member will get a second run at the board treasurer position during the upcoming fiscal year.

Joy Beers was elected to the position last week for the year running July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022.

By the time the item came up on the agenda, which was over four hours in to Lehighton’s May 24 meeting, Beers had left the Zoom, but she garnered six votes for approval with Wayne Wentz and Stephen Holland abstaining.

It will be the second time holding the post for Beers, who was voted board treasurer for 2019-20, but resigned midway through the year.

“Some of the things I’ve been hearing over the last month about students being harmed upset me so very much,” Beers said at the time of her resignation. “I’m not part of the board majority and I don’t feel like I’m making decisions here. I am no longer comfortable with my signature being applied to documents here.”

Beers’ approval last week came after a vote to appoint Rita Spinelli deadlocked at 4-4. Spinelli did not vote for herself, but later did cast a positive vote for Beers.

“I thought she should have had the job in the first place,” Spinelli said. “I nominated her years ago. She did walk away, but I will vote for her to try again. If she can do the job, I’m all for it. I was all for it in the beginning.”

District resident Barbara Bowes said she had a chance to talk to Beers after her resignation in early 2020 and she believes this time will be different.

“She explained why she resigned,” Bowes said. “I believe our current business manager will be far easier for her to work with. He is far more transparent and helpful when I have questions.”

During public comment before the vote, resident Ryan Bowman said he’s hopeful Beers gets a chance to do the job the way she wants to.

“She’s a fine person and as long as the board supports her, she’ll do a great job,” Bowman said.

The vote was preceded by around a half-hour of discussion, with most comments coming from Bradley about how he wouldn’t vote for Spinelli, repeatedly referring to her as a “rubber stamper.”

Bradley’s comments were met with criticism from several meeting attendees.

“It’s after 11 p.m. and some people actually have to work in the morning,” Kerry Sittler said. “Dave, you keep talking about how you’re a voice for the people, but I think you’re doing the people a disservice by making the meetings run hours and hours. You’re losing a lot of the people. They don’t want to listen to these meetings.”

After Bradley called himself “a force of good against evil,” Sittler referred to him as a narcissist.

“I’m not a narcissist, Bradley responded, “I just want to stop government from doing illegal and immoral things. Whether the community is behind me or not, is irrelevant, they really just need to be behind lawful actions.”