BOYERTOWN >> The top choice to be the next superintendent of the Boyertown Area School District has decided he doesn’t want the job after all.
The Boyertown Area School Board was so sure it was going to hire Keith Yarger, it set up a meet-and-greet session Monday so district residents could get to know the board’s top pick from the 25 candidates who applied for the job.
But on Friday afternoon, the district issued a terse statement: “BASD Superintendent finalist, Mr. Keith Yarger, has withdrawn his application. This community meeting scheduled for Monday, April 23, has been cancelled.”
It appears Yarger’s current employer sweetened the deal to keep him as superintendent of the Juniata County School District.
The school board in that rural western Pennsylvania district has scheduled a special meeting for Wednesday, April 25, to “consider an amended agreement with the superintendent.” That usually means a contract extension and additional money.
Yarger’s last-minute decision to decline the superintendent’s job in Boyertown will also force the local school board to scramble.
It could offer the job to another candidate or begin the hiring process all over again.
The next public meeting of the Boyertown School Board was scheduled for Tuesday, April 23, at Gilbertsville Elementary School, but a notice on the district’s website Friday stated the meeting has been canceled. The next regular board meeting is scheduled for May 8 at the Education Center.
Last week, The Mercury reported that Yarger is was the finalist for the superintendent’s post.
The meet-and-greet, which was scheduled for Monday in the high school auditorium, is part of the school board’s hiring process, which also included a school board member from each of the district’s three regions visiting Juniata schools, about 130 miles away.
Boyertown School Board President Donna Usavage previously told The Mercury that 25 people applied for the superintendent’s position and the board initially interviewed six candidates. That was narrowed to three and Yarger was identified as “the lead candidate,” she said.
Yarger has been superintendent in Juniata since 2014 and prior to that served as superintendent of the Southern Tioga School District from 2011 to 2014.
Yarger has also worked as a principal in North Schuylkill Elementary School, and at South Mountain Elementary School in the Northern York School District, where he also spent a year as acting assistant superintendent.
He has also taught education at Alvernia University and was a middle school reading teacher at in the Jersey Shore Area School District.
Yarger was scheduled to replace Richard Faidley who was appointed last July to head the Wilson School District in western Berks County.
Faidley was appointed Boyertown’s superintendent in July 2013. His contract at that time took effect beginning August 2013 and ending on July 31, 2017.
In March 2016, the Boyertown School Board approved a new contract from Faidley, extending his term to June 2020. His salary when he left was $185,661.
Former Pottstown Superintendent David Krem, who retired in 2012 from the Wyomissing School District, came out of retirement to serve as interim superintendent in Boyertown while the board searched for a replacement for Faidley. Krem is being paid $800 a day by the Boyertown district.
Mercury staff writer Evan Brandt contributed to this report.
