Bethlehem Area School District’s Facilities and Curriculum committees met June 13 at the Education Center.

As the meeting was brought to order, the first order of business was recognizing four Bethlehem area middle school students whose essays were chosen as this year’s winners of the Steelworkers Archives legacy contest. Each student (or their representative) was given a certificate and monetary award.

BASD Chief Facilities and Operations Officer Mark Stein gave a project update regarding the roofing project at Freedom HS. As part of the contract, contractor D’Huy Engineering Inc. was required to provide a nuclear scan of the roof area scheduled to receive restoration. Findings revealed that more of the roof had damage than originally thought and it would be wisest to include this area with the original repair area for repairs. This requires removing and replacing the wet/damaged roof.

The total cost for the change order for this project is $350,000. The original construction budget for this project was $1,750,000. The current construction cost, including this change order, is $1,586,820, which keeps the project under budget.

Stein also presented the board with information gathered in the 2022 feasibility study that included a focused facility study. He also reported that summer projects have started and are going smoothly.

The curriculum committee presented an end-of-year academic update. The report showed elementary reading statistics starting with BASD kindergarten reading assessment results. Kindergarten is strong, showing the benchmark at 90 percent throughout the district. First grade showed better numbers than last year – considerations for getting a slow start because of COVID does not seem to have a large impact. Second grade shows the same variations as first grade. Comparisons were made between the 2018-19 school year and 2021-22 school year. The comparison for kindergarten average whole words read was substantial – 2018-19, 7.9 percent compared to 2021-22, 9.4 percent.

Other positive conclusions on the 2021-22 end-of-year results showed students in grades 1-5 who started at the intensive level of 50-75 percent remained at the intensive level even though many showed growth. Students in first through fifth grades who started at a strategic level 61-76 percent ended the year at or above benchmark.

Supervisor of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Maureen Lesson explained the transition from a single letter grade to a grade and an assessment number as a more comprehensive way of evaluating students. Students would be assessed for their knowledge of material with a letter grade, but the number grade would factor in class participation, assignments and support factors. The grading change should be in place by this time next year.