Northampton Area School District is participating in the Kindness Is Magic school collection drive.

In the collection drive, new and gently used shoes are being accepted through March 28 at district drop-off points in an effort to help pay down student lunch debt.

At the Feb. 10 board of education meeting, NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik said district student lunch debt is $45,000.

“Our students cannot afford to pay for lunch, and the district has to pick up the tab,” Kovalchik said.

According to the Kindness Is Magic Inc. website, donated shoes are redistributed to microenterprise partners through Funds2Orgs, a social enterprise in developing nations to help impoverished people to start their own businesses. Kindness Is Magic receives 40 cents per pound for shoes collected.

In other business at the Feb. 10 meeting, Kovalchik said based on Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s Feb. 4 budget presentation, NASD expects to receive $412,000 in basic education funding. This is approximately $220,000 more than was planned for in the 2020-21 NASD general fund budget.

School Director Dr. Michael Baird asked the board to place a resolution calling for charter school funding reform on the Feb. 10 meeting agenda.

“Something has to be done,” Baird said. “As Gov. Wolf said, ‘It’s the worst charter school law in the nation.’”

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association is urging school boards to adopt the resolution.

According to the PSBA website, the Pennsylvania Charter School Law was established in 1997 and has not been changed in 23 years.

The PSBA resolution claims that in the commonwealth, there are “drastic overpayments to charter schools,” which can vary by almost $13,000 per student and $39,000 for a special education student.

Based on data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, according to the PSBA, charter school tuition payments (cyber and brick and mortar) were more than $1.8 billion, with $519 million of that total paid by districts for tuition to cyber charter schools, in 2017-18.

The resolution adopted by the school board calls upon the General Assembly “to meaningfully revise the existing flawed charter school funding systems for regular and special education.”

School Director Chuck Frantz made the motion, seconded by Director Ross Makary and approved unanimously 9-0 to add the resolution to the agenda. The resolution was approved 9-0.

The board voted 9-0 to approve five retirements, effective the last teacher day of the 2019-20 school year, for Marilyn White, language arts teacher; Kathleen Erdosy, elementary teacher; Susan DiCrosta, school counselor; Patricia Kearney-Aroniss, art teacher; and Monica Young, reading teacher.

Kovalchik said, prior to the vote, “We don’t have a lot of retirements, but we have a lot of years,” noting the combined years of service of the teachers who are retiring is 116 years.

“I’d like to thank these folks,” Kovalchik said. “They were part of the transformation of the school district when we were good, but now I feel that we’re great.”

In other business at the Feb. 10 board meeting, school directors voted 9-0 to approve:

• Professional status and tenure for teachers who completed three years of teaching and have received six satisfactory evaluations - Borough Elementary School: Nicole Strain and Laura Tominaj; Lehigh Elementary School: Andrea Tonnies; George Wolf Elementary School: Amy Grabfelder and Christine Nemeh; Northampton Area Middle School: Christopher Bastidas and Kayla Cowitch; and Northampton Area High School: Jacqueline Grady and Joseph Provini

• Hiring of Kelsey Binder, English teacher, NAMS, effective March 23, pending receipt of proper documentation, at $52,755 annually, pro-rated with benefits

• Hiring of William Lower, one-to-one special education instructional assistant, NAHS, effective retroactive to Feb. 3, at $13.89 per hour, with benefits

• Attendance of Emily Reinsmith and one student to Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Region 5 Chorus Festival, Eastern York High School, Wrightsville. The student is attending Feb. 27-29. Reinsmith is attending Feb. 27. The cost is $260, included in the 2019-20 budget.

• Attendance of Victoria Kropf and Meghan Lloyd at 2020 Pennsylvania Department of Education Special Education Conference, Hershey, March 9-11, at a cost of $843.66, included in the 2019-20 budget