Hamburg Area School Board Gives Beissel 5-Year Contract

The Hamburg Area School Board has approved a new five-year contract for Superintendent Christopher Beissel that runs from July 1, 2027, to June 30, 2032, according to minutes of the board's Sept. 14 meeting that the district has now posted. The vote was 7-0, and the board approved those minutes on Sept. 28.

The district's posted records do not say what the contract pays. The agenda and the minutes describe the item only as a recommendation to appoint Beissel and approve the contract for those dates. The minutes refer to the contract as an exhibit, Exhibit XXVIj-50, which is not posted with them. The contract is a public record that residents can request under Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law by filing with the district's open-records officer; our Right-to-Know guide explains how the law works.

The vote

The board took the vote at a Committee of the Whole meeting, a session where the full board meets as a committee. School board president Ryan Gebely's report carried the recommendation. Daniel Sarna made the motion and Birgit White seconded it.

Directors Carson Adams, Thomas DeAngelo, Steven Gilbert, White, Toni McFadden, Sarna and Gebely voted yes. Directors Tonia Krick and Laura "Lolly" Lesher were absent, the minutes show.

After the vote, Beissel thanked the board, staff and district leadership, according to the minutes. He noted more than 16 years in the district in roles including teacher, coach and principal. The minutes call the vote a contract extension.

The vote came three weeks after Gebely told the board at its Aug. 24 meeting that directors had met in a closed executive session "to discuss contracts and Superintendent evaluation," without naming the contracts, according to the Aug. 24 minutes. He also congratulated Beissel on a "Distinguished" rating, the minutes say. The new contract starts more than nine months after the vote.

Who it affects

Hamburg Area School District's three board regions cover Hamburg, Perry Township, Windsor Township, Shoemakersville, Tilden Township, Upper Bern Township, Upper Tulpehocken Township and Strausstown, according to the district's school board page. The elected nine-member board hires and evaluates the superintendent and adopts the district's budget, the page says. The school district's rate is almost always the largest of the three on a Berks County property tax bill, as our guide to how Berks property taxes work explains.

The same meeting approved the district's 2026-27 TSI plan, a school improvement plan, along with routine hires and coaching stipends.

What's next

The board's next committee meeting is at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 12, and its next regular board meeting is Oct. 26, both in the James A. Gilmartin Community Room or library at Hamburg Area High School, according to the district's schedule. Residents who want to speak fill out a public comment card. For how to find meetings for your own township, borough and school board, see our Berks meeting schedule guide. Three townships in the district, Upper Bern, Perry and Windsor, have adopted zoning rules for data centers, as tracked in our data-center tracker.