Communities In Schools and curriculum revisions for math and English language arts were discussed at the Aug. 12 meeting of the East Penn School Board.

The CIS presentation was delivered by Director of Educational Alternatives Jen Carolla and CIS Vice President of Operations Wendy Seiffert. With the contract up for a vote at the next board meeting, they made the case for continuing these services for students at Emmaus High School and Eyer Middle School.

Data was provided on progress with various goals including increasing attendance at EHS to 92.25% through initiatives and case managed interventions for individual students.

Other schoolwide goals include helping students have a sense of belonging and providing social and emotional learning support.

The CIS goal for reducing state-reportable incidents at Eyer Middle School was reported as successful. The nonprofit assists with schoolwide and small group smoking cessation, establishing healthy boundaries, Kid to Kid presentations and case management of students with behavior goals.

A long list of organizations and providers that partner with CIS was shown to the board members. New for 2023-2024 are KidsPeace, Pinebrook Family Answers, Reach LV Youth Recovery Center, Suicide Coalition of Lehigh Valley, Shanthi Project and Nazareth Area High School.

Led by Dr. Jess Thatcher, the team presenting curriculum revision proposals included Dr. Tiffany Shimmel, Dr. Erin Murphy, Dr. Tricia Gutman and Holly Pethick.

With i-Ready Classroom Mathematics, the team explained a major revision to K-8 math was ensuring equitable instructional time between the various elementary school buildings. Murphy said 80 minutes of class time would be devoted to math instruction. Pethick spoke about utilizing a spiral approach. This method presents a new concept, provides practice on that concept and then moves to another skill. Each skill is reviewed and revisited throughout math levels, always adding to prior learning.

Up for approval at the next meeting is Math Course 1-2 Pilot for the 2024-2025 school year.

The presenters described it as providing more course options for meeting students’ needs.

Choices are Course 1, Course 1-2 or Course 2. This curriculum condenses instead of skipping content for sixth grade students.

Up for consideration at future board meetings will be Course 2-3 for seventh grade, Algebra 1 in eighth grade. It was explained there is an opportunity for students to re-enter Course 2 in seventh grade and take Course 3 in eighth grade if needed.

A presentation on Course 2-3 for the 2025-2026 school year is tentative for a school board meeting in spring 2025.

K-5 ELA revisions were also presented to the directors. They mentioned the simple view of reading is Decoding (Word Recognition) x Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension. This was followed by a slide depicting Scarborough’s Reading Rope showing complex, intertwined parts beginning with language comprehension and decoding that result in “skilled reading.”

The revision process calls for Heggerty, Fundations and decodable texts from various publishers. There will be evidence-based interventions and the gradual release model of “I do, we do, you do” would be followed. This model has three steps: “I do,” where the teacher models concept, “we do,” with the teacher and students working together and “you do,” where the students are on their own.

With more students than ever reading below grade post-COVID-19, the seventh grade ELA and reading curriculum revisions are focused on increased minutes for reading and writing instruction, as well as integrating speaking and listening standards across the curriculum.

School Superintendent Dr. Kristen Campbell announced the first day of school is Aug. 26 during her district update. She asked parents to go to the district website and fill out the online returning student form for the 2024-2025 school year. The PowerSchool online process replaces the traditional yellow emergency contact information paper forms and Google forms issued in the past.

Registration continues for the fall community education program available to East Penn older adults with classes starting in September.

Campbell encouraged jobseekers to apply online at the district’s website for open part-time positions for support staff and crossing guards.

It wasn’t until after the meeting adjourned that Board President Dr. Joshua A. Levinson provided an update on teacher contract negotiations with the East Penn Education Association. “We have achieved a tentative agreement and details are forthcoming,” Levinson said.

In personnel matters, the directors accepted the retirements of Willow Lane Elementary School remedial assistant Barbara Borgioni effective Aug. 6 and James Urbanowicz, from the utility garage effective Aug 7.

Campbell remarked on Borgioni’s 11 years of service at Willow Lane Elementary School and noted Abramowitz’s 35 years with the East Penn School District.

The board also accepted the resignations of EHS math teacher Xenia Pallares effective July 8 and earth and space science teacher Sarah Tomkinson effective Sept. 13, as well as Heather Velez Rosario, a health room nurse at EHS effective Aug. 2.

Approved new hires for newly-created positions include Melissa Betar as elementary assistant principal effective Oct. 14, along with Christina Bean and Casey Creyer as board certified behavior analysts effective mid-August.

Rachel Haring was approved to fill the new position of elementary student supports coordinator effective Aug. 13 and Melissa Brito Aponte was approved as a math teacher at EHS.

Additional new hires for vacant positions include Jason Andre as earth and space science teacher at EHS, Nicole Fenton as a sixth grade reading teacher at Lower Macungie Middle School, Heather Burt as a certified school nurse at Wescosville Elementary School and Logan Metcalf for eighth grade reading seminar at LMMS.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Douglas Povilaitis discussed a new policy addressing use of generative artificial intelligence and updates to existing policies on trauma-informed approach, student discipline, weapons, terroristic threats, controlled substances/paraphernalia, controlled substance abuse, emergency preparedness and response, relations with law enforcement agencies, school security personnel and child abuse.

“There are no state or federal statutes specifically requiring the adoption of board policy, but schools right now are moving forward with integrating some level of policy for various reasons,” Povilaitis said about the new policy during this first reading.

He expressed the need to put “guidelines in place” for governance of management of the rapidly changing generative artificial intelligence. The new policy defines generative AI as “an advanced subset of AI that is capable of generating new content from learned data and pattern recognition across various mediums such as text, code, images, audio and video data.”

The stated goal of the policy is, “The district shall make every effort to ensure that generative AI tools and resources are used responsibly by students and staff. The effective integration of generative AI into education requires a collaborative effort between administration, teachers, staff, students and families.”

Povilaitis acknowledged the new policy is based on a Pennsylvania School Board Association template with additional wording contributed by the East Penn team crafting policy.

District social media accounts were approved for Alburtis Elementary School and Macungie Elementary School.

An amended school board meeting schedule was approved. With the district closed Dec. 2, the reorganization meeting scheduled for that day has been moved to Dec. 3.

There were no requests to address the board.

Levinson mentioned an executive session was held before the public forum 6:30 p.m. on negotiations and personnel issues.

The next regular school board meeting is scheduled 7:30 p.m. Aug. 26. The public can access documents through BoardDocs via a link on the district website. Livestreaming of meetings is available on the district’s YouTube channel.