The Northampton School Board met Monday, July 15 with a brief agenda.
At the beginning of the meeting, Superintendent Joseph Kovalchik announced that the state budget was officially approved after Governor Josh Shapiro signed off on the budget on July 11.
Kovalchik stated that the district will be receiving approximately $1.5 million in additional funds from the state, which will essentially wipe out the debt anticipated during the June budget presentation/adoption, where the board also approved a 1% tax increase that would generate $725,895 to partially cover the $2,194,437 budget deficit.
The $1.5 million in additional funds comes as a result of the state’s $1.1 billion investment in new spending on Pre-K to 12 education funding, which is the largest increase in Pennsylvania history, and a $900 million increase to address education adequacy needs and basic education funding.
Business Administrator Craig Neiman added that the increase in funds the district will receive will be approximately $2 million more than last year’s budget.
“We had budgeted about $500,000 more in the basic education funding line, which accounts for the $1.5 million increase over the budget that was approved last month. That budget was approved with approximately a $1.5 million deficit, so the good news is, with this new state revenue, we now basically have a balanced budget,” said Neiman.
In other news, the board unanimously voted to provide direction to the Facilities Committee to look into the costs associated with refurbishing Moore Elementary School and come up with a list of items that need to be done, utilizing D’Huy Engineering to achieve that goal.
Director John Becker pointed out that a list of needs and costs associated with them were previously given during a presentation from D’Huy Engineering in November, which should still be fairly current.
However, Director Kim Bretzik expressed that current costs associated with each line item would be necessary to negotiate non-essential items, and opined that with all the work that needs to be done, the board should also consider costs for tearing Moore Elementary down and building new.
During review and roll call voting of agenda items, the proposed Policy 828 – Fraud was unanimously approved by all board members. The policy states the following: “The board expects all board members, district employees, volunteers, consultants, vendors, contractors and other parties that maintain a relationship with the school district to act with integrity, due diligence and in accordance with law in their duties involving the district’s resources. The board is entrusted with public funds, and no one connected with the district shall do anything to erode that trust.”
Other big ticket agenda items worth review included an item listed under finances for an agreement with Via of the Lehigh Valley for the 2024-25 school year at a cost not to exceed $34,000 and an item listed under curriculum for an engineering essentials Project Lead the Way (PLTW) course. Both items were unanimously approved by the board.
PLTW comes at no cost to the district and is required to offer the honor engineering essentials course at Northampton Area High School, which will be paid for by both American Rescue Plan and Title IV funds. Components for the course include the following: the $2,400 PLTW professional development registration fee, the $2,700 Northampton Area School District teacher stipend to complete PLTW professional development, $8,993.50 for PLTW engineering essentials equipment/supplies and $3,476 for PLTW engineering essentials software licensing.
The next Northampton School Board meeting will be held on Monday, August 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the Northampton Area High School auditorium, located at 1619 Laubach Ave.
