A power outage at Northwestern Elementary School gave students a surprise field trip to Weisenberg Elementary, school board members were told at their Feb. 15 meeting.

The students did not even get off the bus at their home school on Jan. 21.

Operations Director Arthur Oakes said the power outage was cleared up by 2 p.m.

“We shut off everything else right away and I think that saved a lot,” he said, adding the situation is a Met Ed problem.

Insurance reimbursement does not include the time it takes school workers to get everything up and running again.

Food service workers at Weisenberg Elementary doubled their output so everyone could eat.

Transportation employees were flexible with changes in their schedules.

Administrators and teachers worked miracles with learning spaces, lunch schedules and daily lessons, said Superintendent Mary Anne Wright.

She thanked everyone who helped make the decision to turn the situation into a safe learning opportunity.

There was a meeting with preschool personnel at Weisenberg’s library on Feb. 13.

Fifty preschools were represented. Kindergarten, first grade and reading teachers were also invited.

There were 13 preschool employees from nine schools, 13 district teachers, and six administrators present.

The first question asked was “What do you want your counterparts to know?”

Discussed were ways to have all preschool students equally ready for school;

·Better communication between schools and with parents is needed;

·Teaching and learning should be age appropriate because children are taught not content; and

·There should be transition activities between pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.

Wright said there was a good dialog.

Guidance counselors Erica Gross and David Combs were asked to form a committee and discuss the grading scale. Included was Aileen Yadush, high school principal. They reported back to the board.

Discussed were the current scale, how grades appear on transcripts and how colleges use grading for college application processes.

Gross said there are 100-point and four-point transcripts. Northwestern uses the four point. Academic profiles are on the website and can be sent electronically to schools and the military.

Combs said the Grade Point Average is a summary of grades. For the four-point scale a 100 is converted to A, B, C and D.

“We are not college counselors but reach out to see what they are looking for,” he said.

Among those things are the rigor of classes and SAT or ACT scores.

Yadush said they checked with Parkland, Emmaus, and Southern Lehigh for comparison.

Combs said when visiting colleges students should be sure to go through the college admission office so they know you visited. A list of 88 colleges was presented that use the common application.

The Neffs National Bank gave $25,000 each to the Northwestern Lehigh and Parkland education foundations, Lehigh Carbon Community College, for the early learning center, and the Wildlands Conservancy.

Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21 has a budget of $3,212,643 with a district contribution of $34,493.

Lehigh Career and Technical Institute has a budget of $20,404,900 and an academiccenter budget of $1,548,700 with district contributions of $1,037,013 and$20,853.

LCCC has a budget of $48,794,629 and capital budget of $4,724,816 with a district contribution of $144,753. The three were approved.

Jessica Moyer will be the new solicitor for Northwestern Lehigh.

Katelyn Morrison was named Student of the Month by the Allentown West Rotary.

Director Joe Fatzinger visited LCTI and said the biggest thing he took away was the level of concentration in a different learning environment.

Director Paul Fisher said Lehigh Carbon Community College increased its online learning programs from five in 2011 to 20 now with eight more on the way.

Janine Partenio was named assistant secretary to the board.

Northwestern Elementary will have a field trip to Quiet Valley Historical Farm, Stroudsburg on May 22 for a cost of $475 from the student activities fund.

Aileen Yadush, high school principal, said the Opioid programs went well with students talking about them afterward.