Suspended West Jefferson Hills School District Superintendent Terry Kinavey will face a termination hearing before the school board Jan. 12 on charges of incompetency, immorality, intemperance and neglect of duty.

It will be held at 6 p.m. in the high school cafeteria and will be open to the public, according to district Solicitor Ira Weiss.

It was Mrs. Kinavey's choice to hold an open hearing.

Mrs. Kinavey, who became superintendent July 1, 2008, was suspended from her job with pay by the school board Sept. 22 after an investigation by Mr. Weiss found that she interfered in the hiring process for a high school English and reading teacher.

That investigation was concluded last month and on Nov. 17, the board suspended Mrs. Kinavey without pay pending her termination hearing.

The four charges leveled against her are among those listed as "reasons for dismissal" in the state School Code, according to Mr. Weiss. He specified that the immorality charge refers to the nature of her conduct and not her personal behavior.

Michael Palumbo was appointed as a special counsel and hearing officer for the board, and Carl DeJulio, retired superintendent of the Keystone Oaks School District, was hired as an expert witness for the district on employment matters related to Mrs. Kinavey.

The board directed Mr. Weiss to start an investigation of Mrs. Kinavey on Aug. 25 after about 100 people showed up at a board meeting demanding to know why Denise Breisinger, a long-time substitute teacher in the district, was not hired for an English and reading teacher position at the high school.

Mr. Weiss' investigation found that Mrs. Kinavey removed Mrs. Breisinger's name from a draft board agenda that listed her as a teaching candidate for an English and reading job at Thomas Jefferson High School.

According to a statement read by board President Marianne Neel at the Sept. 22 meeting, Mrs. Kinavey, after removing the name, then rewrote the job description as an English-only teaching slot and re-posted the position.

It was at that meeting that the board initially placed Mrs. Kinavey on administrative leave.

On Oct. 6, the board hired Terrence Kushner, the retired assistant superintendent of Upper St. Clair High School, as the district's substitute superintendent. Dr. Kushner has an open-ended contract and is being paid $500 a day with no benefits to handle the day-to-day operations of the district.

William Radcliffe, Mrs. Kinavey's attorney, could not be reached for comment this week. Earlier, he maintained that the district had no grounds to take action against Mrs. Kinavey and that she would fight to be reinstated to her job.

Mrs. Kinavey, who worked for the West Jefferson district for 17 years, had 3 1/2 years remaining on her five-year contract at the time she was suspended. Her salary for the current school year was $124,000.

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