Fairview School Board to vote on superintendent's retirement request at special meeting

FAIRVIEW — After weeks of uncertainty over the fate of the superintendent of the Fairview School District, the Fairview School Board is scheduled to resolve the contentious issue on Monday night.

The board has called for a special public meeting at 6:30 p.m. at Fairview High School, according to a legal advertisement in Sunday's Erie Times-News.

Update: Fairview School Board looks to interim superintendent as Erik Kincade departs 'abruptly'

The agenda, posted on the district's website, includes a motion to accept the "retirement resignation letter" of Superintendent Erik Kincade and waive a clause in his contract that requires him to the give the district six months' notice that he plans to retire or resign.

Kincade would get paid for accrued benefits, such as unused sick days, if the board waives the notification requirement.

The agenda includes another motion that directs the district's solicitor to seek information from the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System on the possible appointment of an acting superintendent.

The board also intends to discuss a search for a new superintendent, according to the board's plan for the meeting.

Scheduled vote comes after board tabled motion on Kincade

The motion on Kincade's retirement comes after the school board at another public meeting a week ago tabled a motion to approve a separation agreement with him. The board tabled the motion "due to changing circumstances and on the advice of our solicitor," the board president, Jim Lyons, said at the start of the meeting on Oct. 9. He did not elaborate.

On Monday night, the board could approve the motion on the retirement, amend it, reject it or table it. The board could also put forth other motions.

Lyons declined to comment pending the board vote.

Kincade's request for early retirement and undisclosed personnel issues surrounding him have consumed the nine-member Fairview School Board for weeks.

The situation has left Lyons and Kincade at odds. Lyons has disputed Kincade's assertion that he told the board president over the summer that he intended to retire at the end of this academic year.

Lyons said Kincade never told him he planned to retire early, and Lyons said Kincade, 50, had told him he intended to stay in the $178,967-a-year job for the rest of his current 5-year contract, which runs through June 30, 2025. Kincade since 2014 has been superintendent of the 1,888 Fairview School District, one of the most affluent in the region.

'Personnel issue' has been topic of discussion

In the background of the debate over Kincade's retirement or resignation is the undisclosed personnel issue involving him. The board met in a private executive session on Oct. 2 for 2 hours and 30 minutes to discuss what the board, in the legal advertisement for the meeting, said was a "personnel issue involving the superintendent."

On Oct. 3, Kincade told the Erie Times-News that the board discussed his request to retire early at the executive session, which he briefly attended. He told the Times-News in an email that he had told Lyons, the board president, of his intention to leave early, and he said "other opportunities have emerged that made me want to move up that date."

Lyons told the Erie Times-News that Kincade never told him he wanted to retire early. He said the School Board could not discuss the personnel issues surrounding Kincade due to confidentiality concerns.

"As a school board, we are aware that many rumors and allegations have circulated over the past several months regarding a personnel issue within our district," Lyons said to the public at the packed board meeting on Oct. 9. "Given that this is a personnel matter, the school board by law is not at liberty to comment further.

"Over the past two weeks, many of us have put our work and home lives on hold to deal with the fallout that this disruption has engendered. Please know that every member that you have elected to the current board has taken an active role in this process that we are at tonight.

"Your voices have been heard. The interests and welfare of all Fairview School District students and staff will remain our top priority," Lyons said.

Kincade, a Fairview resident, has led the Fairview School District since September 2009.

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.

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

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Fairview School Board calls special meeting on fate of superintendent