Lehighton Area School District will continue its membership with the Pennsylvania School Boards Association following a 5-2 board vote last week.

Director David Bradley advocated for the termination of the membership, for which Lehighton pays $11,000 a year, citing one of the organization’s draft policies that was successfully challenged in court in Pennsbury School District.

One of the main perks of PSBA membership is the school board policy update templates they draft and send to districts. Districts then review the policies and often pass them as is or tailor parts of them to meet their individual needs.

A group of four men, however, filed a lawsuit against Pennsbury, claiming they were censored during public comment portions of school board meetings based on the district’s implementation of Policy 903, which was crafted based on a PSBA template.

On Nov. 17, a judge issued an order prohibiting school board members from enforcing the rules in the policy.

Bradley has repeatedly blasted PSBA in public meetings, calling them lobbyists and accusing boards around the state of rubber stamping their policies.

“They really don’t do what they need to do and they should be fired on the spot,” Bradley said.

Timothy Gilsbach, attorney with Fox Rothschild, told the board that PSBA membership has its benefits, including advocating for school boards on the legislative front in Harrisburg, and he wouldn’t base a decision based on one policy that was challenged in court.

“In my experience, we’re in agreement with their policies for the bulk of the time,” Gilsbach said. “With minor tweaks, I generally don’t have any significant concerns. At the end of the day, it’s up to the board to decide what is best for them.”

By ending the membership, Gilsbach said, policy writing for Lehighton Area School District would most likely fall to his office, but Fox Rothschild lawyers would not be able to use any draft PSBA policies for fear of copyright violation.

As the legal firm representing over 40 Pennsylvania school districts, many of which are members of PSBA, Fox Rothschild could face a challenge when writing a policy from scratch.

“I don’t even know that Fox Rothschild would agree to that because their solicitors are all intimately familiar with PSBA policies,” board President Joy Beers said. “It would be virtually impossible to pretend they didn’t see it and write policy in a void. I don’t think it makes sense to ask them to do that.”

Lehighton resident Ryan Bowman raised concerns that the district is paying double since its membership dues cover PSBA draft policies, which are then sent to the solicitor who gets paid to review them.

If his office had to start from scratch, Gilsbach cautioned, the bill could be a lot higher.

Bradley and Richard Beltz were the lone board members to vote for terminating the PSBA membership.

“I’m not necessarily for them,” Director Barbara Bowes said, “but I’d want to know if there is an other organization who does this before I make a change.”