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Schools

Saucon Valley Board Approves Lehigh Valley Academy Charter

Charter extends through December 2016.

Just a few weeks after , the Saucon Valley School Board voted to approve the charter at its April 12 meeting.

The agreement extends the charter through Dec. 31, 2016.

After a motion was made by Edward Inghrim, board members Charles Bartolet, Inghrim, Lachlan Peeke, Ralph Puerta and Sharon Stack voted in favor of renewing the charter. Lanita Lum and Sandra Miller voted against the renewal while Susan Baxter and Michael Karabin abstained from voting due to their connections with the school.

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Stack originally voted against the charter at the March 22 school board meeting, but changed her vote April 12, providing the fifth vote needed for the charter to pass.

“My initial no vote was based on the negative financial impact that enrollment in these schools will have on our district these next five years (under current legislation),” Stack said after the meeting. “After hearing a report from our solicitor before (the) meeting on the allowable reasons for denying a charter school, financial hardship was not one of the allowable reasons for denial.”

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More than 10 years ago, when Lehigh Valley Academy was founded, its charter was rejected by both the Saucon Valley and Bethlehem Area school boards. However, those rejections were overruled by the state's Charter School Appeal Board.

Aldo Cavalli, CEO of Lehigh Valley Academy, wrote a letter to parents March 24, in light of the March 22 Saucon Valley School Board vote.

In the letter posted on the school's website, Cavalli stated, “We are very familiar with the state appeals process, as this is the same process that we went through when we were first chartered and for our last renewal. Both times the districts were overruled by the state. We are confident of the same outcome this time around, as there are only 7 reasons why a charter school renewal can be denied. Dissenting SVSD Board Members did not present legally valid reasons to support their votes.”

According to its website, Lehigh Valley Academy offers International Baccalaureate Organization programs and philosophies which are student-focused and "designed to develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world."

In other business at the April 12 meeting, Assistant Superintendent Carl Atkinson provided an update on .

Atkinson said monthly meetings have been held with a committee consisting of education foundation members, community members, six students, three principals and four teachers, to help create a draft plan of the center.

Atkinson said the center would provide something for children in all grades.  Ideas for the environmental center include teaching pavilions, bird blinds, a wildflower field, a human sundial, cement stepping stones across the creek, walking paths and more. He explained that informational signs with barcodes could be placed around the center and that information could then be uploaded into portable electronic devices.

District-wide and community surveys about the proposed center were given out earlier in the year. While there was not as much participation as hoped, about half of the faculty completed the survey. Susan Kennedy, of the Saucon Valley Foundation for Educational Innovation, said most of the community responses to the center were brimming with positivity.

The plans for the center, which will be paid for by the education foundation, are not final.

Another presentation about the environmental center will be made before the board in late June.

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