Palmerton district OKs three-year comprehensive plan

Just beating the Nov. 30 deadline mandated by the state Department of Education, Palmerton Area School District’s board of directors on Wednesday night approved its most recent three-year comprehensive plan, which will kick in July 1, 2019.

Last week, the board deadlocked 4-4 with some members raising issues about how the document, which outlines long-range goals and strategies for the district, was put together.

The motion to submit the plan to PDE passed 6-3, with Sherry Haas, Barry Scherer, Tammy Recker, Josann Harry, Josh Smale and Charles Gildner in favor, and Kathy Fallow, Earl Paules and Kate Baumgardt dissenting.

Superintendent Scot Engler said 30 to 35 people have worked on the plan dating back to September 2017, including teachers, community members, administration and business owners. Pressed by several residents and board members to identify the committee members, Engler declined, stating that after the discussion at last week’s meeting, some people were reluctant to have their names known.

“I won’t discuss names tonight,” he said.

Fallow said she was upset over some of the grammatical and formatting errors in the document and the fact that it was listed under the consent agenda items last week.

“I’m not saying people didn’t do a good job with some of the content, but I would like to be able to ask the people responsible questions on it before I submit it to the state,” Fallow said.

According to Engler, the district did make revisions to each and every part of the plan during the review process.

“There are many informal meetings that contribute to this,” he said.

Some components of the document, Engler added, lend themselves to board involvement more than others.

“This version really focused on the professional education plan component, which had a lot of input from the curriculum advisory committee,” Engler said.

For Baumgardt, the issue was not grammatical errors, but instead the process by which the document was created. She felt board input was lacking.

“I never heard the words comprehensive plan and didn’t know it existed and I’ve been on the board for a year,” she said. “I found out from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association that I’m supposed to have input on this document, attend meetings on this document and the community is supposed to be involved in discussion on this. It seems slapped together to me.”

Reacting to some of the comments, Engler said he is proud of the strides the district has made in the Past five years.

“I think we have accomplished a lot and been very progressive, whether you appreciate this plan or the people who worked very hard on putting it together or not,” he said.

A veteran director, Recker made it clear there was board involvement in previous comprehensive plans.

“There were points where board members were asked for input,” Recker said. “It may not have been formal meetings, but I remember numerous times responding to questions via email. The effort was there. I don’t want anyone thinking the past board just rubber-stamped it. It’s only fair to point that out.”

Moving forward, Scherer, Palmerton’s board president, said changes in the comprehensive plan would be discussed based on the sentiments expressed the past two weeks.

“What I am getting from the public and the board is that we need to start working on the next comprehensive plan soon,” Scherer said. “I think we need to follow some guidelines and have regular updates. For our January workshop, I’d like to see a list of all of the components of the plan and go from there.”

The board discussed ways to solicit community member involvement in the next comprehensive planning committee.

“Once we all get on board for that process, we can make it known to the public, and anyone who wants to get involved can provide their name,” Scherer said.