Building upon the theme from its previous session March 22, discussions about – and concerns over – budgetary issues for the 2022-23 academic year dominated the business portion of the April 12 Saucon Valley School Board meeting.

Before the discussion turned to more serious topics – including potential personnel and program cuts and a tax increase within the district – the board took considerable time to commend the recent achievements of several student-centered clubs and teams.

Members of the high school’s Engineering and Robotics ‘FIRST’ Tech Challenge team, known as “Panthera Robotica,” appeared before the board to celebrate reaching the finals of the organization’s annual competition, which was held in March on the Saucon Valley campus.

Board member Cedric Dettmar, who also volunteers with the extracurricular club, particularly thanked its director – district mathematics, physics and computer science teacher Robert Svatilla – for his “two or three hours a day,” including Saturdays and “the occasional Sunday” leading the students.

The middle school’s Math Club was next to receive recognition for their competitive success. It was led by Principal James Deegan, who introduced each team member individually. Dettmar, who also helps advise the middle school team, explained that this year’s edition “scored far and away the best of” any previous Saucon entry during his tenure.

The third team honored - again by Deegan - was the middle school’s Reading Olympic team. Deegan explained that Saucon’s representatives earned a collective first prize in the team’ most recent competition versus 10 other teams from local districts.

Lastly, the middle school’s “iTeam” - an extracurricular club also devoted to technology and its implementation into the “real world” was acknowledged due to their first-place finish in the annual “What’s Cool In Manufacturing?” competition.

Seventh-graders Reese Marais and Zara Ortiz explained that the team was paired with Hindle Power – a manufacturer of industrial battery chargers and components located in Easton – and charged with producing a short video demonstrating the process and showing what can be “cool” about it.

After the fun – including a short presentation on the inaugural year of the district’s Spanish Immersion Program led by teacher Molly Cook and featuring some of her elementary students - subsided, the meeting’s tone turned decidedly less jovial as the first of what promises to be many discussions was held on the district’s annual budget.

Business Manager David Bonenberger led the conversation with a PowerPoint slideshow, demonstrating the complex and undesirable scenario. In recent years, Saucon has had to dip into its fund balance – essentially a ‘rainy day’ savings account – to cover smaller deficits over the past few years, but the upcoming academic year’s projections are significantly more troublesome, he said.

Best estimates show an approximately $3.6 million shortfall, and even when factoring in a potential 3.4 percent built-in revenue increase which could generate an additional $1 million, Bonenberger explained that Saucon would still come up lacking the $2.5 million needed to balance the budget.

Board members further discussed the accumulation of unanticipated expenditures due to the COVID-19 pandemic in prior years and anticipated cost increases in staffing, supplies and maintenance, which Bonenberger supported with slides featuring more detailed figures.

Technically, the legal deadline is May 31 to agree on a proposed budget, but the board often tries to hammer out most details well in advance. Upon agreement, the budget is then advertised to the public before its final approval and adoption by the end of June.

Subsequently, directors voted to approve the over $1 million in contributions that they were asked to approve between the Bethlehem Area Vocational-Technical School and Northampton Community College for the upcoming 2022-23 academic year. They were both unanimously approved.