In addition to discussing items and subjects up for adoption or action at their regular school board hearing, Northwestern Lehigh School Board members retroactively approved two items during their Aug. 5 virtual workshop.

The first of the two retroactive items was approval of an agreement with Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21 to provide online course content through the eLearn 21 program for the 2020-21 school year in the amount of $80,000.

Director of Curriculum and Instruction LeAnn Stitzel said the eLearn21 program is a repository of online kindergarten through 12th grade curriculum content, which is regularly vetted by state educators.

She said executing the agreement would allow Northwestern Lehigh teachers to not only access the high-quality online materials but also edit and add content and embed their own lessons and activities into the learning platform provided by CLIU 21.

Stitzel said substitute teachers would also gain access to readily-available online content and be ready to continue students’ online learning in case district teachers are unable to be in their classrooms.

Furthermore, she said access to eLearn21 streamlines the district’s online content into one location for teachers, parents and students to access.

The program also offers the flexibility to move between face-to face instruction, a blended model or online synchronous learning, as necessary.

Board President Willard Dellicker and Superintendent Jennifer Holman noted the approval was necessary to synchronously livestream in-person classes and lessons for online students.

Holman said the repository would likely be used by teachers for both in-person and online-only student instruction, if the district is forced to return to a remote-only instruction model.

The board unanimously approved the eLearn21 agreement.

The second matter up for adoption was the retroactive approval of a PenTeleData proposal to update the district’s current fiber connection from a 1 Gb/s link to a 10 Gb/s link for the upcoming school year.

Assistant Superintendent Troy Sosnovik noted that, like the eLearn21 approval, the fiber upgrades were necessary to facilitate the synchronous livestreaming in classrooms.

He said with the upgrades, the district was in a good position to remove future bottlenecks regarding the streaming of lessons, meetings and other events or tasks.

Dellicker reported the upgrades had already begun in order to have the necessary infrastructure installed and to begin school Aug. 31.

The board unanimously approved the upgrades.

Holman also provided the board with an informational update regarding the district’s health and safety plan, which was put together using data collected from parent surveys and a number of diverse viewpoints and feedback.

She said the update, which was sent to families Aug. 3, offers all families the choice of two instructional models for the upcoming school year - a traditional, 100-percent in-school instruction model five days per week, and a 100-percent online model with a Northwestern Lehigh instructor, which would include synchronous live lessons in addition to asynchronous activities.

Holman said the district anticipates having student schedules prepared and sent out to families around Aug. 21.

A second informational update was presented by Director of Operations Arthur Oakes, who reported work on the district’s track project - apart from one minor patching job - was completed.

The board was then treated to an aerial drone flyover and a sizzle reel video of the new track and football field.

Board members commended the work and final results.

“As you can see there, with that short video, it really turned out to be a really beautiful site.

“It’s something the district should be proud of,” Oakes said.

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Editor’s note: See instructional models update as of Aug. 11 in School District News below.