ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A former Allentown principal who was demoted last year is set to be fired in the coming days.
The Allentown Board of School Directors voted Thursday night to approve a resolution to terminate Cheryl Clark, who served less than one school year as principal of William Allen High School.
Clark was only identified in the resolution by her employee number.
She has until the end of this week to request a hearing or accept her firing, according to the resolution.
If Clark seeks a hearing, the school officials plan to hire Steve Jarmon of the Lamb McErlane PC law firm to act as a hearing officer, at a rate of $225 per hour billed to the district.
Clark would remain on unpaid leave until a ruling is rendered, the resolution states.
Rocky start, abrupt end
Clark took over as Allen principal in August 2022; she was placed on administrative leave in April 2023 after months of complaints from staff, students and parents about her leadership style.
The school board demoted Clark in July 2023 to serve as an assistant principal and slashed her annual salary from $137,000 to $105,000.
Sources told LehighValleyNews.com that Clark was reassigned to Dieruff High School but had not shown up for work almost a month after her demotion.
Frank Derrick was reassigned as acting principal of William Allen High School. He was most recently the director of recruitment and retention.
Appointed by former Superintendent John Stanford, Clark was the first Black woman to lead Allen.
Allen’s 2022-23 school year got off to a rocky start with Clark at the helm.
Students started a Change.org petition in August 2022 that alleged the newly hired principal yelled at them and threatened 11th graders with grade-wide detentions.
The petition gathered more than 5,600 signatures; Allen has about 2,800 students.
Before joining the district, Clark resigned from a role at Franklin High School in New Jersey in 2017 after facing backlash for strict enforcement of dress code and cell phone policies, according to reports in the Franklin Reporter & Advocate.
She was in that position for just over a year.
