The Sept. 26 Saucon Valley School Board meeting was both productive and contentious, as the filling of the district’s top athletics post was juxtaposed with complaints from parents and staff about a lack of qualified substitutes available.

Leading the agenda was the approval of Amy Virden as the new Assistant Director of Student Relations and Athletics, which effectively replaces the former Athletic Director role.

Virden, a longtime trainer with St. Luke’s University, she worked with Saucon athletes for over a decade. She will be compensated with an annual salary of $85,000 and replaces Robert Frey, who was promoted to Director of Student and Community Relations – a newly created role – earlier in the year.

Superintendent Jaime Vlasaty provided a comprehensive update on the district’s challenges in hiring and maintaining a satisfactory roster of substitute teachers. As of Sept. 25, she said, Saucon Valley had achieved a 71.8 percent fill rate for substitute positions, highlighting the persistent struggle to secure adequate coverage for absent teachers.

Vlasaty delineated between two categories of substitutes: dedicated substitutes and day-to-day substitutes. Dedicated substitutes have proved to be a valuable resource, she said: there were 35 applicants, with nine hired so far. Seventeen applicants possessed teaching certifications and had prior experience working within the school district, certified or not.

For day-to-day substitutes, there were 28 applicants. However, five ultimately accepted full-time positions elsewhere, and four declined offers for other reasons. Ten offers were extended, with six accepting and three more applicants pending approval for the next meeting.

Two candidates in the upcoming November election, William Broun and Jay Santos, raised other concerns.

Broun, who had previously made a public inquiry regarding financial matters, raised questions about the district’s legal expenses, settlements and payouts. He echoed his comments of the previous meeting, expressing his dismay at receiving over a thousand pages of documents in response to his request, specifically challenging individual directors to provide “ballpark figures” for the expenses in question.

Santos, also the parent of a sixth grader in the district, expressed general disappointment over the topics discussed during the meeting, which he perceived as lacking alignment with more pressing matters, such as addressing pandemic-related learning loss and improving teacher morale. Santos called for a broader perspective in setting priorities and urged the board to focus on the district’s overall betterment.

Several other residents voiced their concerns during the meeting. These concerns included issues related to changes in academic programs, teacher assignments, and the removal of support programs.

Laura McCarthy, president of the Saucon Valley Education Association, addressed earlier comments by Board President Susan Baxter and Vice President Dr. Shamim Pakzad, expressing disappointment at what she perceived to be the suggestion that teachers might manipulate parents for their agenda.

She specifically shared her concerns about provisions in the recent collective bargaining agreement, which had changed the responsibility for extracurricular activities from previous contracts.

Teachers are still interested in providing “engaging opportunities for students outside of the school day,” McCarthy said. However, changes made regarding expectations, requirements and processes related to extracurricular clubs have caused significant confusion among them.

Neither Vlasaty nor the board chose to respond immediately.