Where is Upper Darby's school superintendent?

At the height of summer, when few people pay attention to school goings-on, Upper Darby Superintendent Richard F. Dunlap Jr. has been quietly placed on paid leave.

The July 21 action by the school board, which offered no explanation, took even high-level administrators by surprise.

"It did happen suddenly with no formal announcement," said district spokeswoman Dana Spino. "I was told by other administrators."

Hearing through the rumor mill about the 56-year-old Dunlap's absence, Upper Darby's state representative, Republican Jamie Santora, said he asked a school board member what had happened, but got no answer.

Upper Darby taxpayers have a right to know why their superintendent, who is paid nearly $200,000 a year, has been removed, Santora said, but if "it's truly a personnel and a [human resources] issue, I don't know, legally, what they can say."

The district - with 12,000 students the eighth-largest in Pennsylvania - has clamped down on information about the schools chief. An ex-Marine and longtime high school principal, Dunlap was hired on July 24, 2013, at a salary of $180,000. Last September, the school board extended his contract to five years and bumped his pay to $194,866.

"I'm not going to discuss it," Board President Judy Gentile said of Dunlap's leave. "Everything will work itself out, and everyone will know what is happening with the taxpayers' money."

She would not say when or if Dunlap would return to his job. Assistant Superintendent Daniel G. Nerelli was put in charge of the district.

Phone messages and emails for Dunlap were not returned.

Andrea Gallo, a member of the Upper Darby Parents Coalition and a special-education advocate, said parents want to know what is going on with their missing superintendent.

"We haven't been told anything," said Gallo, adding that she hoped to get some answers when the board convenes next Tuesday. With the start of school just a month away, she said, "we're all in the dark, and it's upsetting."

Under Dunlap's tenure, the district updated its curricula and hired DMC, an educational management company that is helping conduct diagnostic studies, evaluate best practices, and create a detailed action plan.

Dunlap, who grew up in Delaware County, had no experience in a district's central office when he was hired at Upper Darby. He had worked as an assistant principal and principal for years, and had led West Chester East High School before making the jump to Upper Darby three years ago.

The district is one of the most urbanized in the state, and 60 percent of its students are economically disadvantaged. Its large immigrant population speaks more than 80 languages.

As newly named superintendent, he said his biggest challenge would be the school system's finances, which, like those of many low-income districts, had suffered from the loss of tax revenue, the high price of special education, and rising employee pension costs. The year before he arrived, parents besieged the district when it proposed eliminating parts of a nationally recognized arts program, and cutting staff to close a budget gap.

"Working with the funding that's there and trying to be able to maintain programs - I'm still really getting my hands wrapped around that," Dunlap said at the time.

After graduating from Sun Valley High School in Aston, he received a bachelor's degree in education from West Chester University and a doctorate in educational administration from Immaculata University.

As a Marine Corps officer, he served four years on active duty and five years in the reserve.

In 2009, one of his three children, 19-year-old Tim, died from a prescription drug overdose. Afterward, he talked to students at local schools about his son's troubles.

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