Parents of Eyer Middle School seventh and eighth grade students may be pleased the board will consider the addition of two new teachers to faculty at the board's next meeting.

Superintendent Dr. Tom Seidenberger says the need is very great as class sizes in language arts and social studies have escalated close to 40 students due to recent enrollments.

In the last two weeks, East Penn has seen an enrollment leap, with the registration office signing on 75 new students. Seidenberger noted he did not yet know the number of withdrawals at that time. He did, however, state to The Press the district was "overwhelmed" and this increase is more than in years past.

Seidenberger showed confidence in the board's willingness to make room for two new instructors in the budget, and also expressed no hesitation in freezing the budget down the road, if necessary.

His proposal details the new teachers would be part of a floating team, instructing in both seventh and eighth grades. The greatest fall in class size would be seventh grade Honors English and Honors Social Studies, at 12 each: from 36 to 24 in English and 37 to 25 in Social Studies. Seidenberger calls these kinds of numbers unacceptable, and urged the board to consider his proposal immediately. Ballard says the item will appear on the agenda next month.

Monday was the first day of school at East Penn, initiating the much discussed and derided new walking plan for Willow Lane Elementary School. It went off with few hitches, according to the superintendent, and only one parent approached the podium to offer his compliments and critiques to the board. He was concerned the busing procedure was not nailed down yet as his third grader was forced to wait 25 minutes in the hot bus before being taken home. Seidenberger responded this should never happen, and First Student will be approached about the matter.

The superintendent personally timed the car arrivals Aug. 26 at Willow Lane, and reported to the board that at most, only 30 cars were queued up-a number that quickly dissipated to around five in less than 10 minutes. Seidenberger praised the crossing guards and the staff who oversaw the smooth operation of the morning's procedures.

In a few weeks the board may be looking at changes to the policy on public comment.

Seidenberger has been working on reviewing the policies of 200 school districts– 40 percent of the entire Commonwealth– based on a request from school board Director Lynn Donches the board consider opening public comment policy to a more dialogue-based one for the benefit of taxpayers in general.

Seidenberger found 180 of the 200 districts he reviewed allowed public comment prior to action being taken on agenda items. Only four allow public comment during discussion of the agenda item. East Penn does not. Of all of them, only North Allegheny allows for board members to respond directly to public comment. In Quakertown, the public is given three opportunities to address the board at each meeting. And in Stroudsburg, the board president has been known to lift the policy under special circumstances so that "hot topic" items can be discussed in an open dialogue with present public.