A special meeting of the Northampton Area School District Board of Education will be held 5:30 p.m. Oct. 6 to interview applicants to represent Region 3, Bath and Chapman boroughs and Moore Township. Interviews will be held in the Northampton Area High School auditorium, 1619 Laubach Ave.

The NASD board seeks a representative for Region 3 after it voted 8-0 at the Sept. 8 meeting to approve the letter of resignation submitted by Brian McCulloch, effective Sept. 6, who represented Region 3. McCulloch was not at the Sept. 8 board meeting.

Applicants interested in applying for the Region 3 school board seat are to send letters and/or emails of interest to the NASD administration.

The Oct. 6 meeting is open to the public, who will have an opportunity to speak. School directors are expected to vote at the meeting to choose a new Region 3 representative. The new school director will take office after being sworn in at the meeting and serve the remainder of McCulloch’s school board term, which extends to Dec. 31, 2027.

The date for the Oct. 6 meeting was decided on at the meeting Sept. 8 to comply with required public notice and advertising laws for school board meetings and with the school directors’ schedules. The NASD policy committee meeting will move from 6 p.m. Oct. 6 to 6 p.m. Oct. 8, still in the NAHS library conference room.

The circumstances and reasons for McCulloch’s resignation were not exactly clear before or after the Sept. 8 meeting. At the Sept. 8 meeting, NASD officials said they are unable to comment on McCulloch’s resignation because it is a legal matter.

McCulloch is represented by Atty. J. Chadwick Schnee, Lititz, Lancaster County, in a civil action filed in the Northampton County Court of Common Pleas Aug. 29 against the NASD school board, alleging a violation of the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act by the school board.

The alleged violation pertains to a series of emails about the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning improvement project at George Wolf Elementary School, Bath, which was completed in time for the Aug. 25 opening day of classes for the NASD 2025-26 school year.

McCulloch’s lawsuit is separate from a school board-approved investigation of the alleged Sunshine Act violation.

NASD school directors voted unanimously 9-0 at the Aug. 11 school board meeting for Atty. Eric J. Filer of KingSpry, Attorneys & Counselors, NASD solicitor firm, to determine whether emails concerning change orders for the $5.7 million HVAC project at George Wolf Elementary School circumvented the Sunshine Act.

Atty. Sarah Modrick, who attended the meeting Sept. 8 representing KingSpry, said she could not comment because it is a legal matter.

Board President Kristin Soldridge, in response to public comments at the Sept. 8 school board meeting, said she also could not comment about McCulloch’s resignation because it is a legal matter.

NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik, when asked to comment after the Sept. 8 school board meeting about McCulloch’s resignation, also said he could not comment because it is a legal matter.

The nearly two-hour Sept. 8 school board meeting was attended by approximately 25 people, with 10 speaking at the podiums.

Emails received by a reporter for Northampton Press from the NASD administration are pertinent and may shed some light on the matter of McCulloch’s resignation. A reporter for Northampton Press received two emails from the NASD administration with revisions to the Sept. 8 school board agenda.

The first version of the revised agenda was sent Sept. 6 to a reporter for Northampton Press and added Item 7. 25-379 under Miscellaneous: “Direct the District to request the Northampton County District Attorney and/or Pennsylvania Attorney General to file an action in Quo Warranto with respect to declaring a vacancy of Director McCulloch’s board seat on the grounds of nonresidency.”

A second version of the revised agenda was sent Sept. 6 to a reporter for Northampton Press, stating: “Attached is another revised agenda for Monday evening’s meeting. Item 7. (BIS #25-380) has been added under Miscellaneous: “Approve and accept the letter of resignation submitted by Brian McCulloch resigning from the Northampton Area School District Board of School Directors effective Sept. 6, 2025, for Region 3 — Bath and Chapman boroughs and Moore Township.”

The second version of the revised agenda sent Sept. 6 to a reporter for Northampton Press included an additional item not in the first version of the revised agenda: “X. BOARD/ADMINISTRATIVE ITEMS: A. Discussion regarding the procedure and Special Meeting date to determine a replacement for the anticipated Board vacancy in Region 3.”

The final agenda for the Sept. 8 school board meeting, with printed copies available at NAHS before the meeting Sept. 8, included the agenda revisions.

At the Sept. 8 meeting, discussion of the procedure for the special meeting was tabled by an 8-0 board vote. The discussion took place after the board voted to approve McCulloch’s letter of resignation.

After voting to approve McCulloch’s letter of resignation, school directors voted 8-0 to approve tabling the request for the action in quo warranto to declare a vacancy of McCulloch’s board seat on the grounds of nonresidency.

Quo warranto is a medieval Latin term meaning “by what warrant” or “by what authority.” It refers to a legal action, or writ, used to challenge a person’s right to hold public or corporate office or to challenge a corporation’s authority to exercise its powers. The purpose is to prevent the unlawful usurpation of power or office by requiring the individual or entity to demonstrate their legal authority to hold it.

When asked to comment by a reporter Northampton Press after the Sept. 8 school board meeting about the matter of McCulloch allegedly not residing in the school district, Modrick, Soldridge and Kovalchik each said they could not comment. They did say that the matter of the “action in quo warranto” was moot after the school board voted to accept McCulloch’s resignation.

The NASD board of education next meets 6:30 p.m. Oct. 13 in the NAHS auditorium, 1619 Laubach Ave.