An employee’s complaints of discrimination, hostile work environment and retaliation, as well as the botched rollout of a student information system, are among the concerns Southern Lehigh School District board members recently have confronted during the tenure of Superintendent Michael Mahon, who has been on administrative leave for more than three months.
Those concerns are outlined in documents provided to СŷƵ as well as public statements made at board meetings over the last few months.
Those documents, provided on the condition of anonymity, offer context to tense board discussions that began in September, when members approved removing letters of reprimand and restoring a pay raise for a district employee who received an unsatisfactory year-end evaluation from Mahon.
Comments made during public meetings before Mahon’s leave in February also show tension between the administration and teachers, who expressed frustration over the botched rollout of a technology platform that cost the district nearly $86,000 to implement and will cost more than $69,000 annually.
As the district approaches the end of the official school year, more residents have stepped forward demanding answers. Board members, however, have remained silent on why Mahon has been placed on leave, and did not return requests for comment on Mahon’s status. District solicitor John E. Freund, III said no formal comment could be provided on a personnel matter.
Allegations of discrimination, retaliation
The documents provided to СŷƵ show the board was aware of two complaints from an administration employee alleging unlawful discrimination, hostile work environment and retaliation before Mahon was placed on leave.
Both complaints were made against Mahon by Ethan Ake-Little, the district’s director of human resources. Ake-Little, who is Indian American and married to a same-sex partner, alleges discrimination on the grounds of race/ethnicity and sexual orientation.
In the first complaint, sent to the school board in July, Ake-Little outlines a number of incidents in which he believes he was unfairly targeted by Mahon with increasingly aggressive disciplinary action that culminated in a negative performance review and the denial of a raise.
Ake-Little and Mahon declined to comment when contacted by СŷƵ.
An investigation by attorney Ellis Katz into the July complaint concluded that the discrimination and hostile work environment claims had not been substantiated, but that the letters of reprimand and unsatisfactory rating with no pay increase were not justified.
That led to the Sept. 23 board meeting, in which members voted to remove the reprimands, award an employee — identified in the documents as Ake-Little, but who was not mentioned by name during the meeting or on the board agenda — a raise and allow him to report directly to the board president regarding future evaluations or disciplinary actions.
At that meeting, board member Christopher Wayock was among those who voted against the proposed remedies to the discrimination and hostile work environment complaint, saying the investigation featured one-sided evidence and a lack of clear procedures that were unfair to the superintendent.
“I must express my deep concern and disappointment regarding the manner in which the recent investigation and meetings have been handled,” Wayock said. “It’s alarming to witness the complete disregard for due process, which should be the cornerstone for any fair and transparent investigation.”
Board President Emily Gehman pushed back, saying, “I find it disturbing that I hear more concern being expressed on this topic about administrative power and authority and process going forward than about the fair treatment of our employees.”
Ake-Little’s initial complaint solely named Mahon. In February, he filed a second complaint, alleging retaliation by both Mahon and board members, as well as harassment and inappropriate modification of job responsibilities.
In that complaint, Ake-Little alleged he had been excluded from hiring decisions in ways that caused confusion for candidates, and that work absences, including approved absences from board meetings to attend law school classes, were aggressively questioned.
The documents show Mahon questioned Ake-Little’s communications with district leaders and staff and argued that communication failures led to poor job performance.
An investigation by attorney Kenneth Roos into the subsequent retaliation complaint found “no substantive evidence of retaliation” but did reveal “multiple performance deficiency issues on the part of Dr. Mahon in connection with the allegations made by Dr. Ake-Little.”
The February complaint has been sent to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, a state agency tasked with investigating allegations of discrimination. The case remains open before the PHRC; once the state agency closes its case, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will review the findings.
Challenge to the board president
Rising conflict between the board and superintendent has been matched by escalating tension between board members, with questions regarding Gehman’s leadership coming to a head at the most recent meeting June 9.
At , five board members — Wayock, Nicole King, Stephen Maund, Mary Joy Reinartz and Melissa Torba — voted to approve a resolution to start the process to remove Gehman as president.
Gehman was absent due to illness and board member Eric Boyer, who usually sides with her, was out of town. Members Timothy Kearney and Candi Kruse voted against the resolution.
As a result, the board plans to issue a notice to Gehman, who has the right to a hearing if the board proceeds with removing her as president.
When contacted by СŷƵ, Gehman sent this statement: “I’ve served the Board with integrity through many unprecedented situations for the last decade. I’ve taken the time to understand policy and law that govern public education and act in the best interest of this community. I think it is a shame some fellow board members would prioritize personal and political agendas during such a critical moment for our district. This last minute vote, taken in my absence, reflects individual ambitions and sows division. These actions do not center on students, but manufacture distractions.”
In a separate statement, Kearney said he found the vote to be “unnecessary, which is why I voted no,” and said he’d rather focus on “working collaboratively” on issues before the board.
Public discord between Gehman and Mahon has also divided the board. In a heated exchange during the Feb. 10 meeting, several members pushed back on Gehman’s criticisms of Mahon’s leadership.
“Chastising the superintendent publicly is totally inappropriate because you don’t have all the information and facts,” Reinartz said.
Gehman’s pointed comments toward the superintendent continued during the Feb. 24 meeting — the last before Mahon went on leave — in which she called out the superintendent for “intentional miscommunication” and “poor leadership.” As one example, she said Mahon provided “incomplete information” to the board regarding a Language Learning Network contract.
That contract had been a proposed solution to the need to find a long-term substitute for the high school’s Spanish department. The Feb. 10 meeting included extended debate about the handling of that candidate search and whether or not virtual teachers should have been considered.
The documents provided to СŷƵ include emails sent between Language Learning Network CEO Sean Kreyling and Gehman in the days leading up to the Feb. 24 board meeting.
In a Feb. 20 email, Kreyling indicates the contract fell apart because of Mahon.
“As I shared during our call, we have decided not to move forward with Southern Lehigh High School because of the superintendent’s tone and attitude,” he wrote. “That being said, we would be happy to reconsider the possibility of a partnership in the event that your district has a change in leadership.”
Technology rollout criticized
Before Mahon was placed on leave, the board also heard concerns that the student information system he oversaw the implementation of, Infinite Campus, created multiple serious logistical issues.
At the Feb. 24 board meeting, Matt Greenawald, vice president of the teachers union, called the new system “nothing short of a nightmare for our staff.”
The issues Greenawald described include an inability to effectively use the system to monitor progress for special education students, missing data that forced guidance counselors to manually create transcripts for seniors, and course scheduling delays.
“Bottom line, this is not what we paid for as a district. The system is more expensive than what we had in the past, and yet it’s not producing the benefits that we deserve,” Greenawald said. “From Day 1, we’ve questioned why are we not holding Infinite Campus accountable? Why are we continuing to pay for a product that’s not meeting our needs with the features that were promised to us as a district?”
After a heated back-and-forth with board members, Mahon said that the district is still addressing data quality issues but that he saw the district as “largely committed” to Infinite Campus.
“I am responsible for everything that happens in this school district. I own it, all right, and I think that far more great things have happened than haven’t,” Mahon said. “I’m not happy with Infinite Campus, but I also think that if given the opportunity to sit down and say, ‘How did you respond to this,’ that I could come up with a case that maybe says we did a good job dealing with a very bad situation.”
When contacted by СŷƵ, Mahon also declined to comment on the Infinite Campus concerns and his status as superintendent.
Mahon’s appointment, with a salary of $180,000, runs through June 30, 2026. The board promoted Assistant Superintendent Karen Trinkle to substitute superintendent in March and approved a pay raise that brought her salary to $176,613.
Reporter Elizabeth DeOrnellas can be reached at edeornellas@mcall.com.
