Michael J. Huber, chair of the curriculum committee for the Jim Thorpe Area School District, reported to the board at a special meeting on Monday evening, that the district's Penn-Kidder Building had won a distinguished award from the State of Pennsylvania's Department of Education.

"The Title I award was achieved because the students in the Title I program at Penn-Kidder met annual yearly progress (AYP) goals in 2007, 2008 and 2009," Huber said. "There were 1,000 schools that were up to receive this award and the Penn-Kidder school was chosen to receive it."The school will receive $1,800 for its performance, but Mr. Huber was not certain when the monies would be received.In other news, the board voted to solicit proposals from commercial real estate appraisers in order to find out what its property adjacent to Bear Creek Lakes is worth. The only board member to vote against the motion was Robert Kovac, the board's newest member.The board also moved to give William Juracka, the district's director of transportation, $9,500 to purchase a new van."Right now, we have one van that we can no longer use, that's Van No. 4," Juracka told the board. "The undercarriage is all rusted out. It's just shot. Today, Van No. 5 went down with a busted rear end. So, right now we don't have any vans and we're really in bad shape."Juracka said he went to look at a used van that only has 25,000 miles on it that the district could buy for $9,500. Gregory Mousseau, the district's solicitor, pointed out that the district would not have to pay sales tax on the new purchase. The board voted unanimously to approve the purchase.In addition, the board moved to approve Jennifer Bensinger as a volunteer softball coach for the upcoming season. Board member Richard Karper, who heads up the athletic committee, said that Ms. Bensinger has all of her clearances. The board approved her unanimously.Finally, the board voted to make Friday, January 15, 2010, the Friday before Martin Luther King Day, a snow makeup day.