A former Northern Lehigh School District administrator will wear a different hat.

On a 6-2 vote, the school board at a special meeting on Monday appointed retired district co-director of business affairs Rhonda Frantz to fill a vacant seat on the board. Directors Michelle Heckman and Chad Christman were opposed.

Frantz was one of four candidates listed on the agenda to be interviewed.

The other candidates were Lauren Ganser, Justin Jachowicz and Natalie Snyder.

Before the vote, board President Mathias Green said Ganser dropped out.

“I understand her rationale is that she is a District 11 official who from time to time does Northern Lehigh events, and she felt that would be kind of crossing the line if she was an official and did a Northern Lehigh track meet (somewhere) either home or away,” Green said.

Superintendent Matthew J. Link then posed the same three questions to each of the candidates: Why they are interested in being on the school board; what they feel they can offer the school board; and what they feel is the biggest challenge of education right now.

Following their responses, the board opened it up for nominations.

Director Gary Fedorcha nominated Frantz to fill the vacancy.

Christman nominated both Snyder and then Jachowicz, separately.

After a roll-call vote, the board selected Frantz.

Director Donna Kulp said that many years ago when she applied, she didn’t get on the board the first time either.

“Thank you for your interest in the board,” Kulp said. “Please don’t think just because you didn’t get on this time, you won’t have a chance in the future, because things change, people move out.

“And I didn’t get on the first time either when I tried to get on either, so I just wanted to share that with you. I went through this situation here (in the past), and I did not get chosen.”

Frantz retired from the district on Dec. 31 after almost 39 years.

She was hired full-time on March 15, 1983 as a bookkeeper in the administration office.

During her time in the bookkeeper position, she was contracted to fill in as the business manager over two years.

On Sept. 12, 2011, Frantz was hired as the co-director of business affairs/employee payroll and benefits.

Last month, the school board on a 7-0 vote accepted the resignation of veteran Director Robert Keegan, Jr., effective Aug. 15.

In his resignation letter, Keegan said he resigned so that he could spend more time with his family.

Keegan had been a board member since 2014.

Frantz will serve until December 2023. If she wants to continue serving, she must run in the municipal election.