Bangor Area High School Principal Robert Vlasaty abruptly resigns

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

Despite hiring a new elementary school principal at Monday’s meeting, the Bangor Area School District is still short a building administrator following the resignation of Bangor Area High School Principal Robert Vlasaty.

In a letter dated Monday, Vlasaty told the district he would be stepping down after three years at the helm of the high school. The letter did not give a reason for his resignation, and Vlasaty was not present at Monday night's meeting. A call to his office this afternoon was not returned.

Superintendent Patricia Mulroy said the district had not been anticipating Vlasaty’s resignation. The district had sent out feelers earlier in the year to learn which employees would be retiring or resigning in a tight budget year, but Vlasaty’s name was never discussed during public meetings.

Mulroy declined to comment further, saying, “We only learned of it today (Monday).” Board President Joseph Boyle also declined comment, citing personnel reasons.

Vlasaty was hired by the district in 2008 after working as principal at Pocono Mountain East High School in Monroe County.

He recently made national headlines after he innocently read aloud at graduation a senior prank by a graduating senior. The senior said he had won the Jack S. Hitte Award for Academic Excellence, a fictitious scholarship resembling the crude term for nothing.

Vlasaty read the "award" with awards given other seniors, and it was even included in the graduation program based off a questionnaire given to graduating seniors.

Vlasaty eventually released the student’s diploma after telling him it wasn’t appropriate, but those involved said the joke was taken in good humor.

The next principal will take over a high school adapting to some of the largest cuts in the district in decades. More than six high school teachers were laid off after the school board adopted a $48.1 million budget Monday. A total of 24.5 positions were eliminated districtwide.

Also Monday night, the district approved promoting Jeanine Tiscio to principal of Washington Elementary School. Tiscio had worked as an assistant principal at the school since 2009, when she was promoted from being the teacher in charge of the district’s math curriculum.

Tiscio, who will earn a salary of $80,000, could not be immediately reached for comment. The district does not plan to hire a new assistant principal, Mulroy said.

The position is opening up with the retirement of current principal Lynne Bustos. She was one of eight employees to submit their resignations earlier in the year that helped the district close its budget gap of $2.4 million. The retirements saved the district roughly $800,000, according to Stephen Wiencek, business manager.

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