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<p>HANOVER TWP. &#8212; Stymied by the threat of sleet and freezing rain that canceled a special meeting Tuesday night, the Hanover Area School Board will meet with the sole purpose of appointing an acting superintendent at 5 p.m. Friday in the high school auditorium.</p><p>Superintendent William Jones was put on leave following the discovery of overpayments for van services to Frank J. and Dorothy Ciavarella. At the Feb. 5 regular meeting, Solicitor Jack Dean said the payments last year should have totaled about $136,000 but the district paid $250,000 more than that. He said accurate mileage numbers had been submitted to the district, but incorrect numbers were entered into a computer program that calculates the payment for those miles.</p><p>At that meeting, the board canceled the contract effective March 1 with a promise to line up a new provider by then. No comment was made regarding Jones. But by the weekend, the board was advertising a special meeting Feb. 12 to name an acting superintendent, done when a current superintendent is no longer fulfilling duties and a search for a replacement is conducted. Elementary School Principal Terry Schnee is handling superintendent duties for now.</p><p>A threat of snow, sleet and freezing rain that canceled school across the county also canceled that special meeting, which is now rescheduled for Friday.</p><p>While the fate of Jones may be sealed, there remains a largely untouched question of Board President Frank Ciavarella, the son of Frank J. and Dorothy Ciavarella. The younger Ciavarella abstained from voting to award the contract to his parents in 2017, explicitly noting they were his parents. The contract ran through June 2022. As board president, Frank Ciavarella also recused himself from the vote to terminate the contract Feb. 5.</p><p>But school board minutes suggest he voted to approve payments to his parents since the contract took effect July 1, 2017.</p><p>Like many area districts, Hanover Area does not list detailed payments approved at each meeting in either the agendas or the approved minutes. But agendas do routinely include a motion to &#8220;ratify the following PNC check registers&#8221; for one month, as well as approval of the treasurer reports on the general fund, payroll and capital projects.</p><p>Those and other items are lumped under the heading &#8220;financial,&#8221; and a single vote is held for all items in the category. A review of minutes posted on the district website for the board&#8217;s regular meetings from July 2017 through December 2018 shows Ciavarella voted yes at those meetings.</p><p>Asked Feb. 5 if that meant Frank Ciavarella was approving payments to his parents for van service, Solicitor Dean said that was likely. Asked if that was a violation of state ethics rules &#8212; typically interpreted as barring votes on motions that have direct financial benefit to immediate family members &#8212; Dean said: &#8220;That would not be for us to decide.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Hanover Area reschedules meeting on acting superintendent for Friday