As Superintendent Erik Kincade retires 'abruptly,' Fairview School Board looks to future

FAIRVIEW — Fairview School District Superintendent Erik Kincade led one of the most academically accomplished school districts in Erie County for the past 14 years, an era that included the COVID-19 pandemic and a building boom that featured $45 million in renovations to Fairview High School.

But when the Fairview School Board ended weeks of uncertainty and unanimously voted to accept Kincade's early retirement at a special meeting on Monday night, he was nowhere to be found in the board room.

The board at the meeting also said it intends to hire Kincade's predecessor as superintendent, Larry Kessler, as an interim superintendent while the board searches for a new leader for the district. Kessler, who retired as superintendent in 2009 after nearly eight years in the job, was at Monday's meeting even as Kincade was not.

And while the school board president, Jim Lyons, recounted many of Kincade's achievements in Kincade's absence, Lyons bracketed his prepared remarks with comments that signaled how contentious the relationship had become between Kincade and the Fairview school directors, particularly Lyons.

As Lyons said, hanging over the sudden departure of the 50-year-old Kincade was an undisclosed personnel issue involving Kincade — a topic that the nine-member School Board had been discussing in private since early October, including at an Oct. 2 executive session that lasted 2 hours and 30 minutes.

As much as Kincade, who has a doctorate in organizational learning and leadership, said that he was leaving the school district on Oct. 31 to pursue an opportunity that he said had just arisen, Lyons' comments — as well as the School Board's vote on Monday night — showed that the school directors were more than ready to move on and had no hesitation in seeing Kincade leave his $178,967-a-year job well before his five-year contract expired on June 30, 2025.

"The Fairview School District is in the midst of a major transition: Dr. Kincade is stepping away from his position of district superintendent and we are in the process of identifying and hiring our next superintendent," Lyons told a crowd of about 35 people at the meeting. "For many in the community and, to be frank, many of us on the School Board, this transition has come upon us abruptly.

"So, to begin — and this may not be a popular statement at this time — I want to thank Dr. Kincade for his many years of service and the positive impact that he has had on the Fairview school system," Lyons said.

After recounting some of Kincade's accomplishments, such as the renovation of the high school and the Fairview School District's academic success — the affluent district's 1,888 students regularly exceed state benchmarks on standardized tests — Lyons said the School Board was ready "to turn the page."

"We are aware that many rumors and allegations have circulated over the past several months about a personnel issue with the district," Lyons said. "Given that this is a personnel matter, the School Board by law is not at liberty to comment further. But please keep in mind that over the last month, many of us have put our work and home lives on hold to deal with the fallout.

"Please know that every member that you have elected to the current board has taken an active role in the process. Your voices have been heard. The interests and the welfare of all Fairview students and staff will remain our top priority."

School Board also waives notification clause in Kincade's contract

The School Board passed the motion to accept Kincade's retirement without comments from the other school directors and without debate. The board also unanimously voted to waive a requirement in Kincade's contract that he give the district six months' notice that he planned to retire.

Lyons and George Joseph, the district's solicitor, clarified how the board's acceptance of Kincade's retirement, along with the waiver of the notification clause, led to no additional benefits to Kincade and aided the School Board in having him leave the district swiftly.

On Oct. 3, the day after the School Board met in the lengthy executive session over him, Kincade told the Erie Times-News that he had asked the School Board to waive the notification requirement so he could retire with just one months' notice without losing accrued benefits.

However, picking up on what Lyons said at the meeting on Monday night, Joseph told the Erie Times-News that Kincade would have received those benefits with or without a waiver. Joseph, who also attended Monday's meeting, said the waiving of the requirement allowed the School Board to release Kincade from his contract as of Oct. 31, rather than requiring him to stay for another six months while the district searched for his successor.

School Board abandons vote on a separation agreement for Kincade

By voting the way it did on Monday night, the board still cost Kincade money. Instead of voting to approve a separation agreement with him — an agreement that the board tabled at a public meeting a week ago — the school directors accepted Kincade's retirement without giving him any additional financial benefits, as Joseph said the separation agreement would have done.

Kincade in the separation agreement "was requesting enhancements" that he would not have received otherwise, Joseph said. Joseph said he was limited in his comments because the separation agreement never received board approval and was thus not a public record.

The School Board's abandonment of the separation agreement coincided with a dispute between Lyons and Kincade over when Kincade said he made his retirement plans clear to the School Board.

Also on Oct. 3. Kincade told the Erie Times-News, in an email, that he had told Lyons over the summer of his intention to retire at the end of the current academic year, and Kincade said "other opportunities have emerged that made me want to move up that date."

Lyons told the Erie Times-News in an article published on Oct. 9 that Kincade never told him he wanted to retire at the end of the current academic year.

"Dr. Kincade had always told me that he planned to fulfill his contract, which was through June 2025," Lyons said.

At its public board meeting on Oct. 9, the Fairview School Board tabled a motion to approve the separation agreement. The board tabled the vote "due to changing circumstances and on the advice of our solicitor," Lyons, said at the Oct. 9 meeting. He did not elaborate.

The School Board never took the separation agreement off the table. Instead, it voted on Monday night to accept Kincade's early retirement and waive the notification requirement, a request Kincade made in what the board called a "resignation retirement" letter that Kincade submitted to the board hours before the board's vote.

The Times-News obtained the letter through a request under the state's Right-to-Know Law. The one-paragraph letter asks the board to accept Kincade's "resignation for the purpose of retirement from my position as School Superintendent effective October 31, 2023." The letter also asks the board to waive the notification requirement.

Kincade was not available for comment on Monday night because he was not at the board meeting. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Lyons said Kincade, a Fairview resident, is still working for the district and will continue to get paid through Oct. 31.

Before he was Fairview schools superintendent, Kincade was the district's director of curriculum development, instruction and assessment for three years. He came to Fairview from the Oswayo Valley School District in Potter County, where he was a school principal, in July 2006.

Kincade faces a financial hit on his pension by retiring from public education at age 50. If he draws on his pension immediately upon his retirement, he would be subject to costly penalties because he has not reached normal retirement age under the rules of the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System.

Fairview residents say they are upset at School Board

Though Kincade is leaving soon, several residents who attended Monday night's meeting said they were displeased with how the School Board had handled the situation with him. They offered their remarks during the public comment period of the meeting.

Some said they wanted more information on the personnel issue, despite Lyons citing confidentiality rules.

"Accountability is what is missing from Fairview," resident Michael Jeglinski told the board. "You guys brushed this under the rug. The Fairview way is to brush it under the rug."

Resident Michael Naber said the board should have made a different decision.

"Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it," Naber said "I don't want to say, 'Shame on you,' but it is right there."

Another resident, Sherri Cummings, said she would have been fired from her job if she were in the same situation as Kincade.

Kincade's contract requires the board to give him a hearing if the board decided to fire him. Though the board members did not say whether they considered terminating Kincade from his job, such a process could have led to prolonged and costly litigation — a situation that the acceptance of Kincade's retirement avoids.

The School Board members did not respond directly to the comments from the public, though Lyons said that allowing Kincade to leave on Oct. 31, rather than six months, was in the best interest of the school district so that it could move forward quickly, including starting the search for a permanent superintendent as soon as possible.

Referring to a line from the popular streaming series "Ted Lasso," Lyons said: "I ask us to take what we have learned and focus on the future of our district. As Ted Lasso says, 'Instead of fighting back — we need to fight forward.'

"The process of bringing in our next permanent superintendent is a tremendous opportunity for us all. We will listen to feedback from staff, administration and the community.

"We expect to bring in a new leader who will help us navigate new goals — one who brings a vision of even loftier ambitions for our collective future."

School Board taps former superintendent for interim post

Lyons said the board expects to vote on the hire of the proposed interim superintendent, Larry Kessler, at its next regularly scheduled meeting, on Oct. 23. He said the board will also discuss the search process on Oct. 23.

Kessler declined to comment on Monday night. He said he would comment if the board hired him.

Kessler retired as superintendent of the Fairview School District in 2009 at 56. He served as superintendent for seven years and seven months. He went on to become an assistant professor in the educational leadership program at Gannon University, where he remains on the adjunct faculty.

Though Kessler, now 71, is retired from public education in Pennsylvania, he can serve as an interim superintendent for as long as 179 days, said Joseph, the Fairview School District's solicitor.

Kessler and Kincade's careers intersected at the Fairview School District. Kessler was superintendent when Kincade worked for the district early on, and Kessler lauded Kincade as the pick to succeed him as superintendent in 2009.

"Mr. Kessler and I work very closely together,"Kincade, then the Fairview School District's director of curriculum, told the Erie Times-News in June 2009, after he was named the new superintendent. "Although my title is not assistant superintendent, I have worked alongside him in that capacity."

Kessler told the Times-News in the same article that he was highly satisfied with the School Board's selection of Kincade as superintendent.

"I could not have hand-picked a better candidate," he said.

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Fairview School Board accepts superintendent's retirement, with waiver