The first 2021 Saucon Valley school board meeting, held virtually Jan. 12, mostly centered around the approval of an elevated number of personnel appointments, resignations and sabbaticals, including temporary paid leaves of absence for 13 teachers and staff members under the Family First Coronavirus Response Act retroactive to December.

The FFCRA, initially passed at the beginning of the pandemic in March, extended paid leave to employees who either tested positive for, or were exposed to, COVID-19 - whether at work or elsewhere. It also covered folks who have a child under their care whose usual school or daycare provider’s operations were affected due to the ongoing pandemic. The act expired at the end of 2020 and is no longer in effect.

Despite the continued rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths (with all-time highs in both recently recorded here in Pennsylvania as well as nationwide), Superintendent Dr. Craig Butler praised the district’s handling of the challenges presented by the pandemic in his weekly report. The district has continued to operate a full-time, in-person educational model, with only a few temporary interruptions during the fall semester, while many other local districts have chosen to remain either fully virtual or in a ‘hybrid’ setting.

“Walking through the halls today and peeking into some classrooms, it reminded me... how thankful I am” for the diligent work and dedication from staff and faculty, he said. “I continue to hear from friends in other states how children are not in school. We’re being encouraged by state leaders, by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, by superintendents in the area to keep our students attending in person for those families who wish to have that.”

Butler continued, “The more that I hear, the more (information) that’s presented to district leaders both in this state and out of the state, there’s more of a call for in-person learning and the deficits of remote learning for those students who are forced into the situation have been noted.”

Coincidentally, in an email sent to district parents the following day, Butler announced that due to seven confirmed COVID-19 cases at the high school since the Jan. 4 return from Winter Break, students would be transitioned to remote learning through the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday.

A return to in-person classes was tentatively scheduled for yesterday (Jan. 19) and in the meantime, a “deep-cleaning and disinfecting of the entire high school” would be performed, he said. He also noted that although two positive cases each were also reported in both the elementary and middle schools, classes were to continue under the current format.