Attorney Samuel Falcone, the solicitor of the Pittston Area School District, sits beside Assistant Superintendent John Haas as reads his report.
Sydney Allabaugh | Sunday Dispatch
The Pittston Area school board reviews agenda items at Tuesday’s meeting.
Sydney Allabaugh | Sunday Dispatch
The Pittston Area School Board voted 6-2 Tuesday to bring unnamed employee #040377 back from paid administrative leave, effective Wednesday, April 22.
The vote “authorizes the employee’s return to active status in accordance with the terms of the employee’s contractual agreement and applicable district policy,” according to the agenda.
Board members Marissa Chiumento and Katherine Healey voted no. Board President Frank Serino was absent.
Assistant Superintendent John Haas and other school officials have repeatedly declined to identify employee #040377 or confirm whether the employee is Superintendent Kevin Booth.
Haas said after Tuesday’s meeting he “can’t comment on personnel issues or any matters of personnel.”
Employee #040377 has been on paid administrative leave since Oct. 14. The board approved the leave at the Oct. 21 meeting, the first meeting led by Haas in Booth’s place.
Booth has not led a board meeting since his Oct. 6 arraignment on a misdemeanor charge of simple assault and a summary offense of harassment stemming from a domestic dispute in which he allegedly choked his wife, according to court records.
Booth admitted himself to an in-patient rehab facility following the incident, according to a civil court record.
The charges were dropped on March 3 after his wife declined to proceed. A temporary protection-from-abuse order filed by her was withdrawn Dec. 16.
Assistant Luzerne County District Attorney Julian Truskowski said March 3 that Booth has been in an anger management program.
At the March 24 meeting, Haas declined to comment on Booth’s employment status.
The school district partially denied a Right-to-Know request submitted by the Times Leader seeking records related to the unnamed employee put on administrative leave, as well as communications with its medical insurance provider regarding inpatient rehabilitation.
