Attendance of a school librarian at a library association conference is being objected to because the keynote author at the event is said to be an activist and advocate for LGBTQIAP+ causes.

Northampton Area School District Board of Education voted 6-2, with one director absent, at its Feb. 13 meeting to approve, at the recommendation of the administration, the attendance of Melissa Laudenslager at the Pennsylvania State Library Association 2023 Conference, planned for March 30-April 1 at Hilton Harrisburg, at a cost of $992, included in the 2022-23 board-approved high school and curriculum budgets.

The keynote author at the PSLA Breaking Boundaries, Creating Communities Conference is Alex Gino, described on the conference website as “an activist and advocate for LGBTQIAP+ communities since 1997, when they became co-chair of what was then called the LGBA at the University of Pennsylvania.”

LGBTQIAP+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, pansexual and more.

Gino is an American children’s book author whose debut book, “George,” was the winner of the 2016 Stonewall Book Award and the 2016 Lambda Literary Award in the category of LGBT Children’s/Young Adult.

School board Director Kim Bretzik questioned the agenda item about the library conference attendance before the vote.

“I feel like it’s activist in nature. This is not a reflection of our attendee,” Bretzik said. “We have a gender/queer author of books. There’s another on approving woke.”

Another keynote speaker is Cicely Lewis, who, according to the conference website, is “2020 National Librarian of the Year by School Library Journal and Scholastic.” She is a school librarian who, in 2017, started the “Read Woke” challenge in her community.

“We’ve taken a left turn. I don’t approve,” Bretzik said.

NASD Assistant Superintendent Dr. Michelle Schoeneberger said other sessions at the library conference include such topics as tech tools, library clubs and STEAM projects. The conference averages 500 attendees.

Bretzik and school Director Doug Vaughn voted against the NASD librarian attending the state conference.

Voting for the attendance were school Directors Dr. Michael Baird, David Gogel, Ross Makary, Robert Mentzell, Vice President Robert Becker and President James Chuss.

“It disappointed me that when a board member brings information to the board, the board does nothing about it,” Vaughn said in reference to Bretzik and the conference.

In other business, NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik responded to the Pennsylvania auditor general’s audit of NASD.

NASD and 11 other school districts in Pennsylvania, including Bethlehem Area School District, were criticized in a Jan. 25 news release by Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy L. DeFoor, who said an audit “uncovers a legal standard practice where districts are raising local property taxes while holding millions of dollars in their general funds.

“These districts have found a way to use the law to their advantage, so they could always raise property taxes,” DeFoor said. “It’s basically a ‘shell game’ that allowed these 12 school districts to collectively raise taxes 37 times during the four years we reviewed.”

Chuss said he read the auditor general’s report.

“It said the districts were chosen randomly,” Chuss reported. “There was no violation, so we’re not doing anything wrong.”

Kovalchik gave an overview of the Act 1 index and the NASD fund balance.

“The Act 1 index is 5.1% for the 2023-24 school year. The school board can raise taxes up to 5.1% but is not going to,” Kovalchik said. “School districts have fund balances. How much is too much? I don’t know.”

Kovalchik asserted the district did not violate any rules.

“I was kind of insulted by the comments that we’re playing a game with the money. The conversation never came up as to how we can raise taxes just to raise taxes,” Kovalchik said of the administration and school board directors.

Kovalchik said approximately $2 million of the $8 million in the NASD unassigned fund balance, which would reduce it to $6.4 million, could be used to balance the 2023-24 budget of $127.9 million, which has a projected deficit of $1.8 million.

“The recommendation from the auditor general is to look at that,” Bretzik said. “If we go with 5%, that’s what we should be doing. I think that’s what they want.”

“The answer is that, ‘Yes, you can do it,’” Kovalchik said.

The NASD 2023-24 preliminary general fund budget expenditure is $127,918,870 with revenue of $126,077,545, for a deficit of $1,841,325.

Kovalchik, in his general fund budget presentation Jan. 9, said the estimated ending unassigned fund balance is $8 million, or 6.3% of budgeted expenditures.

If $1,841,325 is taken from the unassigned fund balance, $6,158,657 would remain. That would put the unassigned fund balance under the minimum district-mandated 5% fund balance, which would be $6.4 million.

Kovalchik said discussion of the proposed 2023-24 NASD budget will continue at the next school board meeting, 6:30 p.m. March 13 in the Northampton Area High School auditorium, 1619 Laubach Ave.