Federal investigators on Wednesday sought help finding anyone who has been asked or required to provide money or anything else of value in order to obtain a job in a northeastern Pennsylvania public school.

The FBI made the request in what it said is a criminal investigation into the hiring of teachers and other school employees.

''We have heard allegations that it is a practice that may be going on in multiple areas, so we want to make sure that anybody who thinks that they have information that's related to this, that they should feel free to provide it to us,'' said FBI spokesman J.J. Klaver, a Philadelphia-based special agent.

The news release was issued one day after Wilkes-Barre Area School District Superintendent Jeffrey Namey testified before a federal grand jury in Scranton and a week after federal agents obtained records from the district and the Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center.