At the March 15 BASD facilities committee meeting, Northampton Community College President Dr. Mark Erickson presented the NCC proposed budget, Bethlehem Area Vocational-Technical School Executive Director Adam Lazarchak presented the budget for BAVTS, and Colonial Intermediate Unit 20 Executive Director Dr. Christopher Wolfel presented the budget for IU20. The board also discussed the possibility of using the lion’s share of its expected Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds to complete eight elementary school HVAC projects.

BAVTS has proposed a general operating budget of $13,171,494 – an increase of $617,253 from last year – but BASD’s share of this budget is projected to be lower than last year (down $131,985 to $7,146,157). The school district’s contribution is based on a three-year rolling average of participation figures. (Northampton Area SD and Saucon Valley SD are the other districts with students at BAVTS.) The school anticipates a Governor’s Emergency Education Relief grant of $384,002 to cover some of its added coronavirus-related expenditures.

BAVTS Executive Director Lazarchak noted the serious challenges of hybrid and virtual scheduling to a vo-tech education, and commended the BAVTS faculty and staff. Board president Mike Faccinetto invited Lazarchak to brief the board on the vo-tech’s “house project.” For the past several years, students and teachers have been working together building an addition, extending masonry, and doing all the construction of restoring a large house at 3266 Hecktown Road. Bathroom and kitchen renovations are the next major pieces of work planned. Faccinetto praised BAVTS for the career readiness it helps BASD students build.

IU20 has proposed a general operating budget of $3,750,550, with BASD’s contribution at roughly $130,495, the same dollar amount as last year. Wolfel said cost drivers at IU20 are similar to those in the district as a whole: the Pa. Public School Employees’ Retirement System, Social Security, life insurance, and unemployment compensation. He also informed the board that the IU is preparing to help remediate learning loss and help students with emerging mental health issues, when students return to 100 percent in-person instruction. Assistant Supuperintendent Dr. Jack Silva highlighted the work that IU20 does in professional development of BASD teachers, in addition to the better known work with students in special education programs.

NCC has proposed a general operating budget of $65 million, with the contribution from the school district at $2.4 million (an increase of 1.12 percent). Erickson discussed the six strategic focus areas of the college: enhancing student access to programs, inspiring academic excellence, fostering diversity and global engagement, engaging with the communities served by NCC, advancing excellence in technology, and increasing student degree completion and transfer to four-year colleges. Thirty-six percent of NCC students are the first in their family to attend college, and 90 percent of NCC grads stay in the Lehigh Valley after graduation.

Chief Financial Officer Stacy Gober informed the board that the district expects Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds from the federal government (disbursed by the state government). The district expects $16,156,572 in ESSER II funds and estimates that it will likely receive $33,120,036 in funds from ESSER III, the most recent federal government coronavirus-related bailout.

Gober recommended that the district use the ESSER money to invest in the district’s long-term projects, rather than using it to fill budget holes. “What can we do to move the district forward on things that have a lasting impact […] but that can be phased out after that two-year period?” Gober asked rhetorically. “One of the things we thought about were HVAC projects, because they have already been planned, and they are an eligible expenditure under federal guidelines.” A full HVAC renovation is planned for Farmersville ES, as well as the completion of the Hanover ES HVAC renovation. Gober asked the board to consider adding HVAC projects at six other elementary schools: Freemansburg, Miller Heights, Governor Wolf, James Buchanan, Calypso and Hanover. The challenge, Gober noted, is that all school districts are competing for the same engineering and construction resources to spend the ESSER money within the two-year federal timeline.

If the district allocates roughly $35 million to HVAC projects, then between ESSER II and III funds, Gober projects that roughly $15.8 million will remain for BASD to use to address the significant learning loss from the past year of irregular education. Supt. Dr. Joseph Roy noted that the learning loss remediation measures may include one-year contracts with math coaches and other teachers, as well as social and emotional professional development programs for teachers coping with the challenges of returning students.

The board voted at its March 22 meeting on the budgets for NCC, BAVTS, and IU20; contract renewal with a mercantile tax collection entity; and the real estate tax installment plan details for next year. The board will also vote on a proposal to authorize the design process for the HVAC projects the district hopes to fund with ESSER money. All proposed actions are posted on the board’s website (https://go.boarddocs.com/pa/beth/Board.nsf/Public).