Board Will Interview Applicants for BAVTS Authority Seat

Three letters of interest have been received from Saucon Valley residents, taxpayers or business owners interested in filling the district's vacant seat on the Bethlehem Area Vocational Technical School (BAVTS) Authority Board, Saucon Valley School Board President Lachlan Peeke announced March 22.

Board member Charles Bartolet recommended that the three applicants be interviewed at a public meeting, which the board subsequently decided to do at its first business meeting in April.

"I think it's remarkable and very nice of them to volunteer for this important job," Bartolet said.

The vacancy is for an unexpired term that will conclude in January 2013. Authority board terms are for 5 years.

The BAVTS is a feeder school supported by Bethlehem Area School District, , Northampton Area School District, Bethlehem Catholic High School and other Northampton County high schools.

In other business, board members approved payment for a campus site survey that Superintendent Sandra Fellin said will be necessary if the board decides to pursue upgrades to the district's athletic fields.

The $8,560 survey, which will be conducted by Cowan Associates, will be used to identify existing underground infrastructure and will also identify the topographical features of the portion of the property east of the high school.

"We need that to progress," District Financial Administrator David Bonenberger said in response to a comment from board member Lanita Lum, who remarked that "we haven't even decided if we're going to do something there."

"I feel like I'm making a decision here without having information that I wanted before I start making these decisions," she said.

Board member Sandra Miller said that regardless of whether or not the board ultimately approves a plan to renovate the district's athletic facilities and upgrade its fields, "it would be wise to know where all of our electrical lines are and where the piping is."

She added that the information gleaned from the survey could have other benefits, separate from those related to the athletic facilities upgrades under consideration.

Lum said she agreed with that assessment.

A motion to approve paying for the study passed 8-1, with board member Edward Inghrim voting no.