Community education is alive and well - and profitable - in Northampton Area School District.

Yet, it wasn’t always so.

Less than a decade ago, the community education program was hemorrhaging money, and some on the NASD Board of Education were in favor of scrapping it.

At the July 17 board meeting, school directors voted 9-0, at the recommendation of the administration, for continuation of the community education program, with Margaret Schell as its coordinator, at a stipend of $4,053.70 for the 2017-18 school.

Also, the school board accepted the resignation of Jeanette Gilliland as NASD assistant superintendent.

Prior to the vote on community education, NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph Kovalchik said the program posted a $4,000 profit for the 2016-17 school year.

Schell took over community education in the 2012-13 school year.

“Before that, there was much talk about discontinuing community education,” Kovalchik told a reporter for The Press after the meeting.

“Meg Schell has done a fantastic job,” Kovalchik told the school board. “The last two years are proof, through Meg’s efforts and, of course, the secondary campus.”

“The district doesn’t want to make a profit, but it doesn’t want to lose money (on the community education program),” Kovalchik said.

The community education program had a $1,400 loss in the 2012-13 school year. That compares to a $1,200 profit in the 2014-15 school year.

Courses are offered at Northampton Area Middle School, which opened for the 2015-16 school year with a new swimming pool, gymnasium, library and other amenities.

Among the community education courses offered are water aerobics, adult lap swimming, yoga for adults and families, guitar lessons, open quilting, adult men’s open basketball, circuit training and Spinning.

A fee is charged for each course. The number of those taking community education classes was not available.

“I’m glad the board had the foresight to continue this program,” school Director Dr. Michael Baird said. “Not too many years ago, it was on the chopping block. We’ve got that brand-new building (the middle school) over there, and people want to come see it and use it.

“And we’ve got the right person (heading the program),” Baird said of Schell.

School directors voted 9-0 to accept Gilli- land’s resignation, effective June 30, 2018. She will continue as assistant superintendent for the 2017-18 school year.

After the meeting, Kovalchik told a reporter for The Press, “[Gilliland] is looking for some new challenges in her career.”

Gilliland, as with most other NASD administrators, did not attend the July 17 meeting. Her duties at NASD have concentrated on personnel and policies. She has been at NASD for seven years.

Kovalchik said Gilliland is giving NASD lengthy advance notice of her resignation because of the importance of the position.

Kovalchik, administrators and school directors will discuss the assistant superintendent job.

“I don’t know where we’re going to go. We’re going to have discussions,” Kovalchik said. “The days of someone resigning and just filling that position are over. I’m just not looking at the assistant superintendent position. I’m looking at every position in the district.”

Kovalchik said seven or eight senior NASD administrators are eligible for retirement in the next three years.

“I’m not sure what structure the board will choose,” Kovalchik said, emphasizing that he is thinking about the next 10 years in the district.

Kovalchik has been with the district for 27 years.

In other business, the school board voted 9-0 to approve the:

• Reappointment of Terry A. Leh as board secretary, July 1-June 30, 2021, at no additional compensation

• Resignations of David Faust, boys volleyball head coach, effective July 11; Jeffrey Bernhard, assistant softball coach, effective June 22; Adam Burke, spring musical set design adviser, effective June 30; and Janel Diehl, custodian, effective Aug. 4

• Hiring of Nicole Iticovici, short-term substitute science teacher, Northampton Area High School, effective Aug. 21, for the first marking period, 2017-18 school year, at $125 per day, no benefits, and Donna (Snyder) Ruckman, hall monitor, NAMS, effective Aug. 28, at $12.07 per hour, with limited benefits

• Voluntary transfer of Megan Strohl from Tuesday-Saturday middle shift custodian to Monday-Friday middle shift custodian, Lehigh Elementary School, effective July 18, with no change in base salary

• High school, middle school and elementary school handbooks and the individual elementary handbook addenda for the 2017-18 school year.