School board recognizes students' achievements.

The Whitehall-Coplay School Board recognized students who participated in the "What is So Cool About Manufacturing?" contest at its March 10 meeting.

Students Katie Lutterschmidt and Christine Eskander, along with teacher Tony Pangaio and Atlas Machine and Welding representative Lisa Keeney, spoke to the board about the project. Student Reece Martin participated in the project but could not attend the meeting.

The students showed the board two videos, the video that the group created for the contest, followed by a video of the group accepting their awards. They brought home the Viewer's Choice Award and Best Videography award.

"To say this was successful would be an understatement," said district Superintendent John Corby.

Pangaio said the students did all the work in the project and he took more of a back seat.

"It was a lot of work and we had a lot of fun," Christine told the board.

Keeney, a Whitehall-Coplay School District alumni, addressed the board thanking them for choosing Atlas Machine and Welding for the subject of the video.

"We had a great time having the kids come in," she said.

After the meeting, Pangiao told The Press about an agreement he had made with the students. He said if their group won the Viewer's Choice Award, he would wear a Scooby-Doo costume for a day. He followed through with that promise recently during a school day.

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In other matters the board approved the budget for the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21, Lehigh Career and Technical Institute and Lehigh Carbon Community College for 2014-2015.

The CLIU budget totals $823,241 with no increase from the prior year. The district's sponsor share is $61,431 which is a decrease of $344, based on enrollment.

The General Fund balance for LCTI is $24,298,100, an increase of 2.96 percent over last year's budget. Member districts' share will be $18,969,500. The Whitehall-Coplay School District's sponsor share is $1,677,964, a decrease of $10,024, based on enrollment. The Academic Center budget for LCTI is $1,454,880 and increase of 6.86 percent. The district's sponsor share is $91,554, which is a decrease of $4,542, based on enrollment.

The budget for LCCC is $35,722,437, an increase of 1.1 percent over last year. The sponsor districts' share of the total is $6,186,337. The Whitehall-Coplay School District's sponsor share is $539,974, a decrease of $35,701, based on enrollment.

In other matters the board approved the appointment of Stephanie Edwards, who will be replacing Joseph Page as a Whitehall High School mathematics teacher. Page recently resigned.

Also, the PTO changed and is now the Parent Teacher Student Association(PTSA.) President Toni Fillman, Vice President Carol Tomanchek, Second Vice President Natasha Schock, Recording Secretary Marianne Wied, Corresponding Secretary Sandy Wilson and Treasurer Sue Holderman introduced the new association to the board. The association hopes to get students involved.