Longtime Highlands Solicitor Ira Weiss withdrawing from the school district

Highlands School District is looking for a new law firm after the one that has represented the district for about 15 years decided to withdraw.

“The firm made a decision, for a lot of different reasons, it was time to give the district the opportunity to find other counsel,” Ira Weiss of Weiss Burkardt Kramer said Thursday.

Weiss would not elaborate on those reasons. Aimee Zundel, a partner in Weiss Burkardt Kramer, has been primarily responsible for Highlands for some time now, Weiss said.

“I think the district is moving on, and we’re moving on,” he said. “We wish them the best. There’s a lot of challenges at Highlands. Given the new configuration of the board and the administration, we felt it was best to give them the opportunity to do a request for proposals. We have other obligations we’re taking care of.”

The school board hired Weiss in 2006.

The school board voted this week to seek proposals from law firms.

“At this point, the board needed to assess its options for solicitor services,” board Vice President Bobbie Neese said. “There are a variety of factors that have brought us to this point.”

Neese would not elaborate on what those factors are.

“At this point in time, no further comment will be made regarding the solicitor,” she said.

Weiss said his firm is willing to continue collecting delinquent property taxes for the district, which the board retained it to do in January 2018. Whether that happens will be up to the school board to decide.

The board will need to decide if Weiss Burkardt Kramer will continue to represent the district in any current and ongoing legal matters or if a new solicitor will take them over.

Weiss said his firm will continue representing school districts in the Pittsburgh region. He said the firm is a “major participant in school and public sector law,” representing at least 15 districts in Allegheny, Beaver, Washington and Westmoreland counties.

School board vacancy

At the same time the board is looking for a new solicitor, it also is in need of a new president following the resignation of Misty Chybrzynski.

Chybrzynski was one of three Region 2 representatives on the nine-member board. The board accepted her resignation Monday because she moved out of Region 2, and it voted to advertise the vacancy.

The district has three regions. Region 1 covers Tarentum and Fawn; Region 2 covers Brackenridge and the Natrona section of Harrison; and Region 3 covers the rest of Harrison.

The board will vote to select a new president once a new Region 2 member is appointed, said Neese, who represents Region 1.

“As V.P., I will facilitate the meetings until the new president is voted upon,” Neese said.

Letters of interest for the vacancy are due in Superintendent Monique Mawhinney’s office by noon March 23. Letters will be accepted by mail or hand delivery only; electronic submissions will not be considered, the district announced.

Candidates must have been a resident of Region 2 for one year. An appointee will serve the rest of Chybrzynski’s term until December 2021.

The board will interview candidates and fill the vacancy at a special meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. March 30 in the library at Highlands High School.