11/26 NASD Board Meeting Notes

Meeting started at 7:30, all board members present. There were perhaps five or six community members in the audience, one of which was newly elected Director Jerry Treon.

Mr. Roth was there to present the Career Institute of Technology (CIT) Budget. The CIT budget is increasing 4.1%, however the expected contribution from the five area school districts (Nazareth, Bangor, Pen Argyl, Wilson and Easton) is only going up 3.8% due to an expected increase in revenues. NASD contribution is just over $1.0M which represents about 20% of the overall budget. NASD enrollment at CIT has increased from 118 to 143 students. In fact, over the past three years, NASD was the only district with increasing enrollment at CIT. There have been somewhat recent discussions amongst the area districts (Bethlehem was also interested), CIT and NCC to optimize opportunities for adult learning classes at night when the CIT building is not utilized. The thinking is that there could be some cost sharing amongst these entities towards this end. These discussions are only preliminary at this point, but it should be noted that the majority of superintendent's were in favor of this.

The rest of the meeting flew by. All resolutions passed 9-0 with no discussion.

Dr. Lesky presented his Superintendent's Report. He passed out the IU20 operating budget to the board members for their review. One thing that has been continually noted by Dr. Lesky and the administration is the ever increasing costs of special education. Dr. Lesky and others were looking to try and determine possible reasons why special education costs are increasing so much, as these costs don't appear to be based on enrollment. In addition to the IU20 report, he stated that the district would probably be getting some additional dollars back from Second Chance (an alternative educational program in Bushkill). Apparently, NASD has 19 "slots" and all of these are not being filled, so NASD is looking at "selling off" some of these excess slots.

Finally, as this was the last board meeting (as Directors) for Ms. Callie and Mr. Keller; Mr. Lesky had some very kind words and a gift for each.

Ms. Callie had some remarks for the final community corner (as a "community member" she joked). She wanted to stress the responsibility of community members to engage and collaborate with their elected officials. She recommended that people attend committee meetings to make positive influences on the school board.

Mr. Keller reflected on his nine years on the school board, stating that he felt the district is better off now than it was nine years ago.

In keeping with the spirit intended by Ms. Callie, I would be remiss if I didn't add future meeting dates (all meetings in the North Campus Board Room unless specifically stated):

12/3/07 - Board Reorg Meeting 7:30 (come meet the new board!)
12/4/07 - Tech Comm. 6:30
12/5/07 - Audit & Fin. 6:30 in the Bus. Admin Office
12/11/07 - Facilities & Ops Comm. 6:30
12/17/07 - Board Meeting (1st look at the 08-09 budget!)

That was it. Short and sweet. Meeting adjourned just after 8 PM.