YATESVILLE — Officials at the Pittston Area School District kept their silence Tuesday about the status of their superintendent, whose arrest more than 100 days ago on domestic-violence related charges continues to cast an air of uncertainty about the future of the district’s leadership.
Pittston Area Assistant Superintendent John Haas reiterated that the district will not comment on the employment status of Superintendent Kevin Booth, a position Haas has attributed to a general district policy against speaking on confidential personnel matters.
“Right now, we just don’t have any further comment on that,” Haas said.
At its meeting Tuesday, the Pittston Area Board of Education did vote to grant or extend an unpaid leave for two anonymous employees, while tabling an unpaid-leave request from a third anonymous employee. After consulting with Pittston Area solicitor Sam Falcone, Haas declined to comment on whether any of the three employees was Booth. Notably, none of the employees in question shared an employee I.D. number with the school employee whom the school board placed on administrative leave on Oct. 21, the first school board meeting after Booth’s arrest. As a condition of that leave, salary and benefits were to be continued per the employee’s contract, pending further school board action.
Pittston police arrested Booth on Oct. 5 after he arrived at home and allegedly choked his wife. Police said Booth denied the allegation of domestic violence after having initially told law enforcement he had “no idea” what had happened. Booth, 55, was subsequently arraigned on simple assault and harassment charges and released on $2,500 unsecured bail.
Booth’s wife, Jessica Booth filed for divorce Oct. 27. She had also petitioned the court for a temporary protection-from-abuse order against the superintendent, but that PFA order has since been withdrawn at her request.
After his arrest and release, Booth sought and secured admission into an inpatient treatment facility. Pittston Area officials have previously declined to say whether a district health insurance policy covered that rehabilitation treatment. Booth has been scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on March 3.
In other business, Haas, like several other school leaders across the region, took time to mark “School Director Recognition Month,” as January has been designated by the Pennsylvania School Board Association. He proposed a resolution recognizing the PSBA designation and thanked the Pittston Area school board for their work on behalf of the district.
“We really have a board that is student-centered and really cares about our children,” Haas said.
At the beginning of the meeting Tuesday, principals, teachers, and students delivered a presentation highlighting what they said were the accomplishments of the school board. They thanked the board for bringing innovative academic programs, a strong faculty, new school-safety measures, and other investments to Pittston Area.
“I thought our students did an outstanding job representing what our primary center and intermediate center schools are about,” Haas said. “Their thankfulness to our school board members for all that they do behind the scenes is just a testament to the character of what our board does and everything that our students believe in.”
The Pittston Area school board also gave its approval to a resolution limiting any tax hike it imposes this year to be no greater than the state index and agreeing not to seek any exceptions to that limit. The resolution is generally routine and other school boards across the region have already issued their versions to agree to the state tax-hike limit this month. Pittston Area’s state index for the 2026-27 fiscal year is 4.7%.