March 14 marked the 10th and final year of presentations by Northampton County Community College President Dr. Mark H. Erickson to the BASD.

Erickson will be retiring at the end of this school year. He became the fourth president of Northampton Community College in the summer of 2012, and his approach toward higher education has been an unwavering belief that the most critical and important work is being done at the community college level.

NCC has maintained its student-focused approach with a commitment to making education accessible for the community at large.

Erickson reviewed the 2021-22 strategic focus aimed at familiarizing high school students with NCC. College specialists from NCC present to both Liberty and Freedom to start a comfortable dialogue to aid in the transition from high school to college.

District board members Dr. Karen Beck-Pooley and Dr. Dean Donaher attend monthly school district task force meetings at NCC. NCC stresses the input from the supporting school districts is very important. One in four Northampton county resident students attends NCC, and 63 percent are first-generation college students.

All sponsoring school districts within Northampton County contribute yearly to NCC. The overall budget for NCC 2022-23 is $65,462,054, with BASD contributing $2,522,596. Tthis is a 2 percent increase over last year.