The Williamsport Area School Board approved the resignation of High School principal Roger Freed, almost a year after he had been found not guilty of charges of having inappropriate sexual contact with a former student.

According to district officials, Freed has been suspended without pay since the summer of 2022. At the time of his acquittal, the district had issued a statement saying that in light of the court’s decision, “the district must now complete its own internal review and due diligence in accordance with our established policies and procedures. At this time, Dr. Freed will not be returning to the district. This process ensures that we carefully and thoughtfully assess all relevant factors before making any final personnel decisions.”

His resignation was effective Dec. 11.

In other personnel business, at this week’s meeting, the board approved the retirement of Mary L. Miles, full-time food service worker and the resignation of Casey M. Murtagh, full-time special education teacher at Jackson Primary School.

The board approved hiring the following certified substitute teachers at the rate of $150 per day: Lois M. Maneval, Rachael A. Murawski and Nicole C. Topka; and Marguerite W. Anderson-Royal, as a certified retiree substitute at $160 per day.

Non-certified substitutes approved at $125 per day were McKenna L. Bahr and Amanda M. Chapple.

Guzel S. Androvette was okayed as a substitute health room technician (RN) at $32 per hour and Diane D. Burns as a substitute administrative support person at $24.60 per hour to assist with graduation duties for the 2025-26 school year.

The hiring of Lynne E. Piotrowski, Teresa M. Snook and Rebecca N. Umstead as substitute aides at a rate of $15.25 per hour was also approved.

In his report to the board on the stadium construction project, Dale Crans, director of maintenance and facilities, said that everything is moving along “fast and furious.” at the site, “but it’s all good.”

In conjunction with the work the board approved authorizing the superintendent and/or business administrator to approve change orders related to the addition and renovations to the high school stadium and tennis court project up to $25,000 so that the project can continue to move forward to the expected completion date. These change orders will appear on the next board agenda for retro-active approval.

Four change orders from J.C. Orr & Son, Inc. related to the high school welding lab were approved. Three, $15,095, $6,405 and $2,871 were additional charges. One for $3,200 was a savings for the district.

Two Commonwealth University courses, technology for teaching and intro to music were approved for students at the high school. The board also approved a training service agreement with The Pennsylvania College of Technology for the Advanced Manufacturing Pre-Apprenticeship.

Other curriculum items on the agenda included: the sale of MacBook Air 13-inch laptops to Teksavers, Houston, at a minimum return of $92,300 to a maximum return of $130,000; the retroactive purchase of ac adapters from Chromebookparts.com, Saint Paul, at a cost of $26,853; the purchase of 400 Dell 3120 touch screen Chromebooks with Google licenses and 800 Dell 3120 non-touch Chromebooks with Google licenses from GDC IT Solutions, Mechanicsburg at a cost of $344,080; and the 2025-26 IDEA section of 619 EI pass through fund agreement with BLaST IU 17 in the amount of $10,150 to be used for the provision of special education and related services to five-year-old students with disabilities enrolled in kindergarten.

The board agreed to enter into an agreement with Curvepoint, Sewickley for Wi-AI perimeter threat detection specifically for k-12 schools. The High School and Middle School will participate in the Founder’s Circle Program for implementation. A licensing fee will be set when the acceptance criteria established in the agreement is successfully completed.

The purchase of two new roll thru refrigerators for the high school from Hubert Company at a total cost of $28,721 and the authorization of the district’s participation in the Cooperative Purchasing Program of the Keystone Purchasing Network for the procurement of copy paper to replenish warehouse stock at a cost of $30,808.00 were approved,

Following the business portion of the meeting, a question from a board member asking for the district’s policy concerning interactions between students and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, prompted a response from Superintendent Dr. Timothy S. Bowers, that although there is no specific district policy governing those types of situations, “We are here to protect kids. So you know we’ll do everything in our power to make sure that those kids remain protected no matter who wants to come in and talk to them.”

“PDE does put some guidance out to families who are concerned about that. You can get that guidance from the PDE website, but I can tell you that all of our principals have been notified as to what to do if someone from the agency knocks on their door and wants to come into their building,” Bowers said.

“We have a great relationship with all the rescuers and SROs, whether with city police and state police and you. Certainly we will treat that with the utmost protection of kids,” he added.

The next board meeting will be at 6 p.m. Feb.10, at the District Center, 2780 W. Fourth St.