BUTLER TWP — The tension was apparent at Tuesday night’s Butler School Board meeting, with the board president addressing issues with board member Bill Halle.

President Don Pringle said Halle last month sent a letter to board members questioning the leadership of the board and made accusations of wrongdoing. Pringle also said Halle maligned the character of the board and of himself.

Among other issues, Halle had questioned the meetings of board members and the administrative staff with consolidation contractor Thomas & Williamson. Halle brought the issue to solicitor Tom King for a legal opinion.

Thomas & Williamson is doing a facilities study for the district, and had met privately with board members on Nov. 14 and Dec. 11.

King determined that because the meetings were with multiple board members, subsequent meetings would have to be advertised and open to the public.

While a state Sunshine Right-To-Know law violation occurred, King called the meetings an “inadvertent mistake.”

Board members approved the paperwork reviewed from those two meetings to be open to the public last night.

It’s “to cure the fact that (the meetings) weren’t advertised,” King said.

In the past two years, both Halle and Pringle were nominated each year to be board president, but Pringle got that position both times.

Pringle said he has given Halle a chance at many leadership roles on the board. In the past, Halle had chaired the committee of the whole and finance committee, either as chairman or vice chairman. He also has represented the school board at the Butler Vocational Technical School Joint Operating Committee and at the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV.

Pringle said that despite these roles he’s been given, Halle still is apt to question leadership roles on the board. For instance, Halle questioned why he wasn’t selected to be on the administrative search committee, which is leading the hiring of a new superintendent, an assistant superintendent and a business manager.

“He has not supported me,” Pringle said of Halle. “There is no conspiracy. Everywhere you go, there seems to be a conspiracy …. I’m am very unsure who Mr. Halle is.”

Pringle said Halle has consistently questioned board procedure, members and leadership.

“What new facet will you attack?” Pringle asked.

Pringle had board members state their name, education and background for the public to show transparency. Halle initially refused, simply telling the public to ask if they want to know.

Later Halle said during his public time to be heard that he’s the CEO of the nonprofit Grace Youth and Family Foundation and has worked with at-risk youth for 30-plus years.

“If anyone (on the board) has been maligned, it’s been me,” Halle said. “There’s no effort to malign.”

He said he wanted to be notified of committee meetings that he is not a part of, but he had not been notified. He also asked King about whether the administrative search committee and the labor negotiations meetings are public.

King said the administrative search committee is considered a public meeting and needs to be legally advertised. Labor negotiation meetings are not open to the public.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, board members learned that the administrative search committee will meet at 6 p.m. Jan. 29 in the lower board room of the Harriger Educational Services Center.

During the education committee meeting, before the school board meeting, members discussed an issue that board member Neil Convery questioned: How necessary it is to replace Carolyn Cornish’s assistant superintendent position.

Convery sent an e-mail to members last week about how many assistant superintendents are employed by similarly sized districts.

Michael Strutt, superintendent, explained Butler’s two assistant superintendents do a multitude of tasks that up to eight people in other districts do.

He offered comparisons to a few districts, including Seneca Valley, North Allegheny and Hempfield. While the number of assistant superintendents vary, the structure of staffing is different overall.

“My point in doing that is not to disparage the suggestion,” Strutt said. “We all have to be compelled at our organizations to say, where can we save money?”

However, Strutt said comparing the number of assistant superintendents alone isn’t enough to yield a fair comparison.

At other districts, there is a principal of cyber schooling, a director of communications, and directors of elementary and/or secondary schools, he said. All of those responsibilities are jobs that the two assistant superintendents, Cornish and Brian Slamecka, handle.

Assistant superintendents also provide principal evaluations as dictated in the new teacher evaluation system, whereas other administrators who aren’t superintendents do not.

Convery said it’s a frustrating situation since he sees a potential cost savings in considering the cut, but he understands their positions are needed.