The Blackhawk School Board on Thursday fired Superintendent Robert Postupac who in May was charged with ethics violations after he and a Moon Area School director allegedly used their respective positions to help hire each other’s children.
Board members voted 7-2 to remove Mr. Postupac from the top spot, said Tom King, an attorney with the district’s solicitors Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham. Directors Rachel Cline and Dan Jones voted against the measure.
“If you go through that report there is no doubt he knew exactly what he was doing,” school board president Frank Makoczy told the Post-Gazette. “He obviously broke every ethics law that there was period. And that’s on him.”
The decision came after a Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission report found that Mr. Postupac and Mark Scappe, a longtime Moon Area School director, both violated the Pennsylvania Ethics Act after they agreed to help each other’s children receive teaching jobs in the districts they represent.
Mr. Postupac’s daughter was hired as a teacher at Moon’s McCormick Elementary and Mr. Scappe’s son received a full-time physical education position.
Both men were charged $750 fines. Mr. Postupac in June was placed on administrative leave with pay. The Moon Area School Board censured Mr. Scappe.
The report found that in 2016 Mr. Scappe’s son applied for a physical education/health teacher position at Highland Middle School.
He was selected for the first round of interviews. Blackhawk conducts three interviews with potential teaching candidates. Mr. Scappe’s son, however, was not selected for the second round.
Sometime after the first round of interviews, Mr. Scappe contacted several people to advocate for his son, including a former Blackhawk school board member. During a phone call, the board member told Mr. Scappe he could try to get his son an interview. Mr. Scappe responded, saying “You are the president of the Board, you can get him hired,” the report reads.
The board member did not know that Mr. Scappe’s son had already been interviewed.
Following the phone call, the former board member met with Mr. Postupac.
During the meeting, Mr. Postupac said, “I will do better than that, if he hires my daughter, and I mean full-time, I’ll get his son a job,” the report reads.
After the second round of interviews, Mr. Postupac told the board’s personnel committee that they were going to bring Mr. Scappe’s son back for another interview.
Despite teaching an outdated lesson during his interview and concerns from some board members that other candidates were more qualified, Mr. Scappe’s son was hired during the Aug. 11, 2016 school board meeting.
Mr. Postupac’s directive to hire Mr. Scappe’s son occurred one day after Mr. Scappe ordered the hiring of Mr. Postupac’s daughter.
According to the ethics report for Mr. Scappe, the Moon school director went to the acting superintendent and ordered her to hire Mr. Postupac’s daughter for a long-term substitute position.
Despite the school’s principal having another candidate in mind for the position, the acting superintendent agreed to hire Mr. Postupac’s daughter. According to the report, after having previous interactions with Mr. Scappe the superintendent felt she “had no choice but to find a job” for Mr. Postupac’s daughter.
After being brought in for an interview, Mr. Postupac’s daughter was hired as a third grade long-term substitute during the Aug. 8, 2016 board meeting. She was later hired as a permanent teacher.
Blackhawk School District officials are now searching for a new superintendent. Former Mars Area Superintendent William Pettigrew is Blackhawk’s acting superintendent.
Mr. Postupac continues to serve as superintendent of Western Beaver County School District.
First Published: July 21, 2023, 2:20 p.m.
Updated: July 21, 2023, 7:23 p.m.