NEW CASTLE SCHOOLS District screens applicants for position

The school board fired the previous business manager.
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- The city school district hopes to have a business manager in place by January.
Schools Superintendent George Gabriel said they are now screening 28 applicants. The Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV is helping the district in its search.
Gabriel said they hope to do initial interviews Nov. 2-10 and second interviews Nov. 10-17.
"If all goes well, the board will hire a new business manager at the December meeting," Gabriel said.
The previous business manager, Roger Havey, was fired by the school board in June after it concluded he altered a document outlining his criminal background.
School board members contend that Havey changed his Act 34 Clearance -- a criminal background check prepared by the Pennsylvania State Police required for all public school employees -- to not show he pleaded guilty in 1990 to theft charges in Elk County.
Havey has said he did it at Gabriel's direction. He has appealed the school board's decision to Lawrence County Common Pleas Court. A hearing is set for Oct. 28.
In other business, school board members ratified a contract with the district's 33 cafeteria workers. The details of that agreement were not available this morning.