At its Dec. 7 meeting, the BASD school board once again selected Mike Faccinetto as president and Shannon Patrick as vice president. Eight of nine members (all but Craig Neiman) were present; all motions passed 8–0.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Jack Silva also revealed the district’s plans for 100 percent virtual education. The completely remote schedule includes both synchronous and asynchronous lessons. For a single remote-only day, no new material would be introduced; teachers would post review or extension lessons on Google Classroom or Schoology.

On Dec. 9, Superintendent Dr. Joseph Roy notified parents that schools will be closed Dec. 14 through Jan. 11 in a move to pre-empt a forcible closure by Pa. Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine. With some buildings nearing the mandatory shutdown positive test numbers set unilaterally by Levine Nov. 23, Roy told parents in a video message that “in order to pre-empt that, and to give parents to adjust, and to give teachers time to make adjustments, we will be moving to a fully remote learning schedule, effective Monday, Dec. 14.”

Instructional delivery schedules for various closure situations are posted online (https://go.boarddocs.com/pa/beth/Board.nsf/Public). Virtual schedules for closures of one week or longer are modeled on the combination of synchronous large group, synchronous small group, and asynchronous independent work already in use for eClassroom students. Elementary eClassroom students will remain in their preexisting eClassrooms; secondary eClassroom students will join classes with their ordinarily-hybrid peers, based on last names.

“We’re not going to be perfect this year,” Silva said at the Dec. 7 meeting. “We have to be as good as we can be.” Asked by Dr. Kim Shively about data on students’ success this year, Silva said that elementary students who were performing well academically at the last “normal” benchmark in 2019-20 are still showing strong performance. Looking at the first marking period grades for secondary students, Silva said that there are more “F” grades at this point this year than last year, but “not as many as you might think.” He plans to present more data and analysis to the board in Jan. 2021.

Asked by Patrick whether students are being taught the same amount of information as previous years, Dr. Silva said that they were not, but that the most important information was still being taught.

Patrick also asked why BASD isn’t planning on 100 percent synchronous instruction online, as Allentown has announced plans to do in case of closure. Silva explained that there are “two reasons: One, as far as what the evidence shows about what students are able to learn and retain in a blended format requires students to be able to do some reflection on the modeling that the teacher does […] Other reasons are technical –bandwidth, and number of devices – as well as a question of how long we want students to be online on Zoom […] When students develop that skill, and can continue it and develop it over time, they tend to hit grade-level targets. When they become exclusively dependent on the teacher [that’s less likely to happen].”

Chief Facilities Officer Mark Stein discussed the Farmersville ES HVAC renovation project slated for next summer. The district’s facilities department broke the project into its components – mechanical, electrical and controls integration – to increase the chances of receiving competitive bids. The recommended bids indicate a total project cost roughly $300,000 below the budgeted amount. Stein recommends Trefz Mechanical, Wind Gap Electric, and Johnson Controls, respectively; the board was to vote on contractor approval at its Dec. 14 meeting.

The board was also to vote Dec. 14 on the purchase of software from Ellevation Inc. to support English language learners in schools. Schools currently use software developed by district IT staff, but BASD is considering switching to Ellevation because of its greater individualization capabilities and interoperability with other software already in use.

Faccinetto informed the board that Superintendent Dr. Joseph Roy has been nominated to serve on the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley; because the seat is to represent a public entity, the board had to vote Dec. 14 to approve his nomination. Board member Dean Donaher voiced his excitement. “With the retirement of Alan Jennings looming, it’s important that we have people like Dr. Roy on that committee [to have a voice in choosing the new executive director].”

Roy also shared some more coronavirus data with the board. Between Monday and Friday the previous week, just over 70 positive tests were reported; most of the new positive tests happened over the Thanksgiving break. On Dec. 7, 24 more positive tests came in; however, 10 of these individuals had not been in any school building since Nov. 20.