Central Bucks to name a former West Chester superintendent as interim after Abram Lucabaugh’s resignation

The new Central Bucks school board is tapping a veteran superintendent from West Chester to lead the district following the sudden resignation of former superintendent Abram Lucabaugh, the district said.

Jim Scanlon, who retired as superintendent of the West Chester Area School District in 2021, is expected to be approved to a six-month term as interim superintendent of Central Bucks during the board’s meeting next Tuesday.

Scanlon, 65, was superintendent of the West Chester dictrict for 12 years. He will be paid $135,000 for his six months in Central Bucks, the district said in a statement Wednesday, describing the pay as “commensurate with industry-standard superintendent salaries” in districts the size of Central Bucks, Pennsylvania’s third-largest.

“We felt that it was really important to be fully staffed at this point,” board president Karen Smith said. The current acting superintendent, Charles Malone, continues to also serve as assistant superintendent for secondary education, while covering for other positions, as well, Smith said.

Smith said that Scanlon would provide “an experienced eye, maybe someone who can share some key observations while he’s here,” while affording the board time to conduct a search for a permanent superintendent.

Scanlon’s arrival comes a month after the school board changed hands from Republican to Democratic control — a power shift that spurred the departure of Lucabaugh, who resigned a week after the high-profile board election.

Lucabaugh — who was seen as an ally of the former board and had his salary increased to $315,000 over the summer — was awarded a $700,000 separation agreement, drawing intense backlash. The new school board majority last month authorized a potential legal challenge to the payout.

Scanlon was selected for the role following a search by the Bucks County Intermediate Unit. The IU’s executive director, Mark Hoffman, said in a statement that Scanlon — who also served as superintendent in the Quakertown Area School District and in the Brandywine School District in Wilmington — has “a strong track record of being a very collaborative educator and an honest, caring communicator.”

Scanlon also has a history in the district. He graduated from Central Bucks East and once served as principal of Doyle Elementary School; he also has a child who graduated from the district.

Following his retirement from West Chester, Scanlon spent seven months as interim principal of Lower Merion High School after the death of principal Sean Hughes, as well as three months as interim superintendent in the Octorara School District. He works as a consultant and leads an American Association of School Administrators superintendent certification program in Pennsylvania.