Jim Thorpe Area School District is turning to one of its current teachers to fill an anticipated five-week gap between special education directors.

The district’s school board said during a workshop Thursday night it plans to vote next week on appointing Avery Hower as interim special education director at a stipend of $600 per week.

“Avery just got her special education certificate and while we would not be taking her out of the classroom, she would be available for things like IEP questions and handling outplaced students,” Superintendent Robert Presley said. “Otherwise things will fall by the wayside. It would be much easier to pay a stipend to Avery than it would be to pay for a lawsuit because something slipped through the cracks.”

Lehighton hired away Thorpe’s special education director Sandra Michalik last month as its new director of student services, which includes overseeing special education matters. Michalik was hired at Lehighton at an annual salary of $112,500 and will start March 4. Michalik was Jim Thorpe’s director of special education since 2017.

Jim Thorpe, also last month, hired Fawn Meli as its new director of special education at $103,000, but she will be held by her current employer, Colonial Intermediate Unit 20, for the allowable 60 days.

Olympian board members said having Hower take those responsibilities during the gap period is a must.

“This is a job where there is a lot of litigation and issues,” director Mary Figura said. “It is something you can’t do without.”

Meli’s first day is expected to be March 28.

New positions

Two other current Jim Thorpe employees will be getting new titles, Presley said, should the board move forward with his recommendation to create the positions.

The new positions include assistant to the superintendent and director of K-8 curriculum and Title I services.

“I do not feel we are set up to be successful when we talk about curriculum and things like that because our current people are stretched right now based on their job titles,” Presley said.

Presley recommended to the board changing Kathy Doll’s title from coordinator of academic resources to assistant to the superintendent, and Kimberly Zoba from Title I coordinator and K-8 reading and math coordinator to director of K-8 curriculum and Title I services.

The move would take Zoba from Jim Thorpe’s teachers contract to the Act 93 contract for administrators.

“I think we’ll get a lot more bang for our buck than we currently do,” Presley said. “Sometimes we spin our wheels because we aren’t using Kim’s administrative certification so Kathy has to pick up that duty. Right now Kim does Title I work but she can’t observe and do evaluations because she is on the teachers contract. This is much more effective to split the positions into two new ones.”

Jim Thorpe directors met in executive session following Thursday’s workshop to discuss how the change in titles would impact salaries for Doll and Zoba.