The East Penn School Board is still debating the virtues and costs of paperless meetings, an idea whose implementation might not offer as much bang for its buck as has been suggested.

The proposal of going paperless for board meetings, meaning the agenda with all its weighty contribution of exhibits and addenda would not be distributed to the board and some 100 others twice monthly, has been proposed several times as a cost saver and an environmentally conscious maneuver on the part of the board.

Superintendent Dr. Michael Schilder worked with Board Secretary Janine Allen, Community Liaison Nicole Bloise and Director of Technology Michael Mohn to come up with four options as a proposed solution to the board's inquiry.

The first option would only pull back on the current output of over 100 copies across the district buildings, decreasing it to around 25 for the board members and the few extra copies made available at each board meeting for public use. The buildings and other departments would be supplied with the agenda electronically.

The second option Schilder called their "home grown" option would be to use the district's current online educational resource platform, Moodle, to access board documents online. This would require either the purchase of new laptops or personal notebook computers for each board member or have the directors supply their own devices.

The third and fourth options would go beyond Moodle, engaging with an outside platform like BoardDocs.com which comes in several different versions; or a different software platform like BoardEffect.

The concern with purchasing devices for board members to use is, of course, the cost but also security, storage and the time involved in setting up and booting up the machines before each meeting. Then, if each board member brought a device, there might be the question of compatibility of access for certain document types, network access, security not to mention possible hiccups in device performance which could delay the meeting while the problem is addressed.

Transitioning to Moodle, board president Alan Earnshaw pointed out, may come with costs not yet quantified. Earnshaw, who was not in favor of implementing electronic board minutes, also noted issues of confidentiality concerning personnel and other board documents would be raised, as they would necessarily have to be present on a server the technology department could access.

While he acknowledged the approximately $5,300 per year spent on copies is not insignificant, Earnshaw said the cost of transitioning to paperless may be even greater once everything was considered.

Schilder also noted for the board while the administrative office would never shy away from additional work, the transition would almost certainly treble the board secretary's responsibilities and would still require use of more paper, no matter what option were taken.

Schilder concluded the discussion by promising to sit with the same team again and reflect on the board's reactions to the administration's proposals. Board director Wally Vinovskis began to make a motion on the subject, but was asked to hold off until it could be submitted in writing to the board secretary prior to the next meeting.

In other business, the board adopted Policy 718 - Service Animals in Schools, after due consideration for an advertised period. The board is still considering Board Policy 819 - Suicide Awareness, Prevention and Response which is now in its second reading. Dr. Denise Torma, assistant superintendent, vouched for the new draft presented to the board since the last meeting, stating the directors' comments had been taken to heart, and considered along with suggestions from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and the Pennsylvania Department of Education to create a simplified policy.

Board director Ziad Munson agreed the policy seemed more straightforward and asked if school counselors could report back with suggestions on further improvements to the policy after having worked with it for a year.

Schilder announced in his report Eyer Middle School is embarking on a continual grading period system for sixth grade. Instead of the usual marking periods when grades and reports are released, parents and students can access grade information at any time, an improvement, he says, available thanks to the technology currently in use in the district.

The continual grading period allows for refocus assessment practices, giving students the chance to relearn and retest.

Eyer Principal Mike Kelly assured the board the school will still be reaching out to parents if a student struggles academically, via personal letters and phone calls. "It is imperative we make those contacts," Kelly said.

Schilder said the administration wants to be careful with piloting the new program and expressed optimism the program would move forward to the higher grade levels and over to Lower Macungie Middle School if it does succeed.