WEST LAWN, Pa. — The Wilson School Board near Reading placed its embattled superintendent on paid administrative leave and is negotiating his resignation, board President Steve Ehrlich announced at Tuesday's board meeting.

The move comes a week after a state auditor general's report accused Superintendent Curt Baker of lack of oversight and poor administrative judgment in his former position.

Mr. Baker was superintendent of the Moon Area School District.

While suggesting that the report was unfair to Mr. Baker, Mr. Ehrlich said that it nonetheless created a distraction that could not be ignored by Wilson school officials.

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The audit had placed Wilson in an unflattering light, he said, and the board acted to restore public trust and confidence in the district.

"Therefore, the board and Mr. Baker have agreed that he will be placed on administrative leave as of today with the understanding that the board and Mr. Baker have reached an agreement in principle in accepting his resignation and the parties signing a severance agreement," Mr. Ehrlich said, reading a prepared statement.

The announcement was greeted with applause from the standing-room-only crowd gathered in the district administration building.

Mr. Ehrlich said that the board met in executive session Monday and Tuesday to discuss personnel matters, presumably involving Mr. Baker.

Mr. Baker, who was hired by unanimous vote at a salary of $168,500 in May 2016, did not attend Tuesday's meeting.

He had succeeded Rudy Ruth, who retired after more than 30 years at Wilson.

A superintendent search by the Chester County Intermediate Unit identified 27 candidates for superintendent; 11 were interviewed by the board.

Mr. Ehrlich said that search included background checks and extensive character references.

"Following a lengthy and extensive vetting process, the board was aware of some of the allegations contained in the auditor general's report," Mr. Ehrlich said. "However, since Mr. Baker's status at Moon Township School District was a matter of contested litigation, this board was not privy to several sources and reports which the new board at Moon Township apparently now shared with the auditor general's office."

Mr. Ehrlich said that the Wilson board believed when it offered the job to Mr. Baker that the newly sworn-in directors in Moon had unfairly removed Mr. Baker in December 2015 because of unpopular decisions and political reasons, not because of inappropriate or unauthorized actions.

After his dismissal, Mr. Baker sued Moon and its school board in federal court for breach of contract. In his suit, he claimed that he was fired for alleged misconduct despite having done nothing to deserve it.

During his tenure at Moon, he was subjected to verbal abuse and micro-management by school board members, Mr. Baker also alleged.

The auditor general's office has acknowledged that it did not interview Mr. Baker in preparing the audit.

Board member Mike Martin, a certified public accountant, found it unusual that state auditors would not have allowed Mr. Baker to tell his side of the story. Mr. Martin said that when Wilson hired Mr. Baker, school officials did not have access to an internal forensic analysis done at the Moon School District. That study, he said, was apparently the basis for the auditor general's report.

Issued last week by Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, the audit of Moon covered from 2012 to 2015. Baker was superintendent from 2013 to 2016.

Among other "improper actions" the Moon audit found:

● The district issued, without sufficient documentation, construction change orders on school renovations totaling $900,000.

● The district failed to ensure construction on schools was complete before paying 95 percent of the $26 million project cost, a violation of the state school code.

● The 2015-16 winter break was extended at a cost of $450,000 to the district.

● Reorganization of the administrative staff was not sufficiently transparent, costing the district $235,000.

Mr. Ehrlich declined to comment beyond his written statement, noting that it was a personnel matter. Wilson, he said, will begin searching for a new superintendent in the near future.

During the public comment period, no one from the audience offered comments or asked questions of the board.

Ron Devlin: 610-371-5030, rdevlin@readingeagle.com.

First Published: February 22, 2017, 11:23 p.m.