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<p>HANOVER TWP. &#8212; Educator Chester Dudick sat in the audience Monday night as members of the Hanover Area School Board passed him over for a teaching position with the district.</p><p>Dudick, a private school teacher, watched as the panel voted 5-2 to give the job to Jared Jones, son of Superintendent Bill Jones.</p><p>&#8220;I thought my interview with officials from the Hanover Area High School went really well,&#8221; Dudick said. &#8220;I left feeling very positive about the job.&#8221;</p><p>After all, Dudick, 33, has seven years of teaching experience. He also is a veteran of the Army National Guard.</p><p>Jones, according to his father, was a substitute for the district &#8220;for all of last year.&#8221; That&#8217;s what the superintendent said when asked about his son&#8217;s experience Monday night.</p><p>With that experience, the younger Jones not only beat out Dudick, but several other candidates as well.</p><p>Bill Jones has insisted he had no hand in the process. The school board president said the same thing.</p><p>John Mahle reiterated Wednesday night that he and the board took the recommendation for the social studies teacher hire from the panel that interviewed the candidates.</p><p>&#8220;Just like as Jones said in the school board meeting, he had no part in the hiring of his son or the other candidates,&#8221; Mahle said. &#8220;He wasn&#8217;t involved because it would be a conflict of interest.&#8221;</p><p>Dudick noted he met with Hanover Area Junior/Senior High School principal Daniel Malloy, vice principal John Sipper and the social studies department head. The superintendent was not present for the meeting.</p><p>Dudick and wife Jolyn said they attended Monday night&#8217;s meeting after receiving tips that Jared Jones was going to get the job.</p><p>Members of the Times Leader staff also received anonymous calls before the meeting suggesting that &#8220;the superintendent&#8217;s son&#8221; was going to get hired.</p><p>&#8220;I know the decision is not going to get reversed,&#8221; Jolyn Dudick said. &#8220;But my friends, who are educators, have experienced the same thing as my husband.&#8221;</p><p>She continued: &#8220;Most of them left the area because of the nepotism. We never experienced this ourselves until this week.&#8221;</p><p>Chester Dudick said he enjoys his current job, but as a township resident he had an eye on his future, hoping to move to a bigger level and make a positive impact in his community.</p><p>&#8220;I live in the district. I know that someday my kids are coming to this district, and I want to make it the best in the area,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This is where I live.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Hanover Area School District school board President John J. Mahle Jr., center, offers remarks during a meeting Monday night. Mahle told the Times Leader that Superintendent Bill Jones had no participation in the hiring of his son, Jared Jones, as a teacher. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/web1_TTL091118HanoverSchoolBoard_2-4.jpg</photo0><caption0>Hanover Area School District school board President John J. Mahle Jr., center, offers remarks during a meeting Monday night. Mahle told the Times Leader that Superintendent Bill Jones had no participation in the hiring of his son, Jared Jones, as a teacher. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dan Stokes</p><p>dstokes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Dan Stokes at 570-991-6389 or on Twitter @ByDanStokes</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Teacher speaks out after being passed over in favor of Hanover Area super’s son