ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown School Board approved a conflict-of-interest policy for themselves and district administrators Thursday ahead of a state review.
Policy 827 provides standards for board members and administrators to avoid “potential and actual conflicts of interest, as well as the perception of a conflict of interest.”
As defined in the policy, a conflict of interest exists when a school director or staff member uses the authority of their position or confidential information from it for private financial benefit to themselves, their businesses or their family members.
“If we vote on it tonight, then that means if somebody or anybody here is not in compliance with this, it may very well become an issue. It may be an issue that we cannot financially afford personally.”Allentown School Director Lisa Conover
School Director Lisa Conover said she thought there should be two conflict of interest policies: one for board members and one for ASD administrators.
Because school directors govern administrators, there should be separate policies, she said.
Conover also said she would consider having her personal attorney look at the policy. She suggested the board take more time to review the policy before final approval.
But the board approved the policy as proposed.
“If we vote on it tonight, then that means if somebody or anybody here is not in compliance with this, it may very well become an issue,” Conover said.
“It may be an issue that we cannot financially afford personally.”
Proposed policy reflects state law
ASD solicitor Jeffrey Sultanik said the policy is simply a compilation of all Pennsylvania legal requirements governing conflicts of interest for elected board members.
“It’s not creating any additional obligations,” Sultanik said.
He said there was no reason to create two separate policies for board members and district administrators because they are both considered public officials in the state legal statutes governing the matter.
“I’m kind of at a loss to understand why there is a desire to have a different set of rules for the board versus the employees, who would under the state ethics act be deemed to be public officials,” Sultanik said.
Director Nick Nicholoff, who works in human resources, agreed with Sultanik that it wasn’t necessary to create two separate policies.
If the district or an individual were investigated for a conflict of interest, state law would trump any district policies, Nicholoff said.
“We would be subject to that whether we made a separate document" or not, he said.
The policy was approved as proposed by directors Nicholoff, Phoebe Harris and Anna Tiburcio, as well ASD board President Andrene Brown-Nowell and Vice President Audrey Mathison.
Conover was the only school director to vote against it. The remaining directors were absent from the meeting.
State review prompts new policy
School directors discussed potential conflicts of interest on the board in July because some board members have day jobs that interact with ASD.
Sultanik said at the time there were no legal conflicts of interest.
“We don’t want the district to have any type of negativity or citation around its finances. We worked really hard to ensure that we used our resources in the manner in which we should have — for the benefit of our children.”Allentown Schools Superintendent Carol Birks
The board sent a letter to the State Ethics Commission to seek more clarity on the matter, but it had not received a response, Brown-Nowell said Thursday.
When a response is received, it will be shared publicly, she said.
But the conflict-of-interest policy was not prompted by school directors’ jobs or conversations from the summer.
It was instead the result of preparation for an upcoming state review next week as part of the pandemic relief funding process.
Districts received Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds during the COVID-19 pandemic that had to be spent by September 2024.
Districts that haven’t had a conflict-of-interest policy on the books during their ESSER reviews have gotten citations from the state.
The district's solicitor said such a citation could lead the state "disallow" certain ESSER funding ASD has already spent.
“We don’t want the district to have any type of negativity or citation around its finances,” Superintendent Carol Birks said.
“We worked really hard to ensure that we used our resources in the manner in which we should have — for the benefit of our children.”
