Saucon Valley School Board named a new president and vice president at its annual reorganization meeting Dec. 1.

Incumbent President Dr. Shamim Pakzad nominated former president and current Vice President Susan Baxter to reclaim her former role, while board member Michael Karabin nominated Pakzad to serve as vice president. Both were confirmed unanimously.

There were no new members to seat, as there were no school board elections held in the district in November.

Upon the commencement of the business meeting, Superintendent Dr. Craig Butler went on to express his thanks for the positive response from the community regarding the district’s preemptive move to all remote instruction for one week immediately following Thanksgiving. The district had previously announced that, due to the anticipated family gatherings, travel and other potential COVID-19-spreading activities over the holiday, they would temporarily suspend in-person classes, which the district has offered five days a week since the beginning of the school year in August.

However, despite the precipitous rise in new COVID cases over the month of November, which necessitated a labeling upgrade from ‘moderate’ to ‘substantial’ community spread in Northampton County according to the Pa. Department of Health, like some other local districts, Saucon Valley has resisted a transition to hybrid or online instruction, and indicated that students would return to their regular schedules as of the week of Dec. 7.

The board also voted to amend some language in the district’s Health and Safety Plan in order to reflect changing guidance from the Pennsylvania Departments of Education and Health to allow in-person instruction to continue despite the increase in cases. “Some of the changes in the (plan) refer to continuing with in-person instruction under ‘substantial,’ ‘moderate’ and ‘low’… it does give us the leverage to continue,” Butler said. “In several spots in the document, we’ve updated the masking and travel orders to be consistent with the Nov. 23 (guidance).” The motion passed unanimously.

Otherwise, the meeting was largely a standard one, with personnel and fiscal issues handled. Athletic Director Robert Frey also provided a brief update on student athletes’ compliance with the new guidance, which dictates that athletes must be masked at all times, regardless of which sport they’re participating in. He indicated that it was going “fine” thus far in basketball, with the wrestling team facing some challenges during practices. The guidance was clarified so that members of the swim team do not have to wear masks while in the pool, which was initially a strong point of contention, Frey said.