A second Norwin School District employee was suspended this year after being arrested on drug-dealing charges, school officials said.
In a statement issued at the June 8 board meeting that sought to “bring clarification and some level of closure to these noneducational issues,” school officials said a custodian was “suspended without pay indefinitely” after they learned about the arrest.
District officials declined to identify the employee.
But police in Liberty confirmed that Norwin custodian Craig Gretz, 40, of Liberty, was arrested by borough police on Feb. 20 on drug-dealing charges.
Gretz is accused of selling a small amount of crack cocaine on two occasions — Jan. 31 and Feb. 20 — to a Liberty police officer who was working undercover in the borough, according to police.
Gretz was charged with two counts each of possession of a controlled substance, delivery of a controlled substance, conspiracy and criminal use of a communication facility, according to court records.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled before District Judge Armand Martin on Tuesday.
The school board voted to hire Gretz as a full-time custodian in December 2012, according to district records.
“Once the administration was notified of this (arrest), immediate and appropriate action was taken against the employee following due process and proper legal procedures,” district officials wrote in a statement, which was read by board President Thomas Sturm.
School officials said they will wait until the outcome of the court case before taking final action against Gretz.
Gretz's court-appointed lawyer, J. Hartwell Hillman IV, said his client “is attempting to get some help” for his drug problem.
“He got caught up in some things and is doing his level best to get his life back on track,” Hillman said.
The statement issued by the district also outlined three other cases in which employees were involved in legal actions or accused of improper behavior.
None of the employees were named in the statement, although two previously have been identified.
One case involved the district's decision to settle a lawsuit filed by a retired custodian who accused Stewartsville Elementary Principal Doreen Harris of age discrimination, harassment, creating a hostile work environment and retaliation.
The custodian accused Harris of boasting about being a competitive body builder and threatening to throw him over a table, according to a lawsuit filed in Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court.
Another case noted in the statement involved the arrest of a teacher accused of selling heroin to undercover agents conducting a sting operation.
District officials said the teacher, Lisa Rodnicki, was paid for only three days after her March 26, arrest before being placed on unpaid leave and that district Superintendent William Kerr “immediately recused himself from any and all matters regarding the case” because Lisa Rodnicki is his daughter.
District officials also mentioned a teacher who was suspended without pay for sending a Norwin student what officials now are calling text messages “about nonschool matters.”
When reports about the teacher's suspension were reported publicly in May, the district characterized it as a teacher “improperly texting” a student.
District officials have declined requests by Trib Total Media to identify the teacher, the length of the suspension or the nature of the texts that were sent. School officials said the incident was investigated by the district and that “immediate and appropriate action was taken against the teacher.”
North Huntingdon police said the district did not contact the department to investigate whether the texting incident involved criminal activity.
Tony LaRussa is a Trib Total Media staff writer. Reach him at tlarussa@tribweb.com.
