The Jan. 26 Saucon Valley School Board virtual meeting, held via the Zoom application, was uneventful and extremely brief, lasting under 15 minutes and mostly consisting of uncontroversial, routine personnel and other administrative decisions.

Neither Superintendent Dr. Craig Butler, nor any other officials, provided any further updates regarding any COVID-19 cases among students and faculty on the district’s campus. The high school had experienced a move to remote instruction for all students lasting several days surrounding the long Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend earlier in the month, with multiple cases also being reported at both the middle and elementary schools.

District parents received an email from Butler earlier in the day indicating that the administration was “closely monitoring” the case count, as there were three new cases at the elementary school and five at the middle school. He indicated that there was no plan to close either school to students, as both case counts fell below the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s threshold for temporary closure of six new cases over the last 14 days.

Later, board President Susan Baxter addressed an issue regarding inconsistency of the board’s committee meetings. She expressed concern about the timeliness and efficiency of their current schedule. As it stands, the board has three committees who are supposed to meet once monthly each - Facilities, Finance and Academic/Personnel.

She suggested streamlining the meeting schedules, having one each taking place on the second, third and fourth Wednesday of each month. This would allow for a more efficient process when bringing and discussing items to the agenda for general board meetings, she said. Board member Shawn Welch was vocal in support of her idea, and she was met with no opposition.