A group of Palmerton Area School District students have achieved various customer service certifications.

The school board heard on Monday from instructor Joseph Farkas, who said this year's block 4 class achieved 100-percent customer service certification.Farkas then introduced Carbon Career and Technical Institute student Randy Pastor and high school junior Cody Everitt.Along with Everitt, other high school students who received the certifications were Nathan Binder, Jared Everett, Megan Gillespie, Brandi Irwin, Andrew McReynolds, Laurel Seemiller, and Keith Waller. Along with Pastor, other CCTI students from the district who received the certifications were Brandon Bollinger, Tyler Frable and Josh Getz.As part of her report, Superintendent Carol Boyce announced that many high school students recently earned trophies at the Region 21 Future Business Leaders of America contest and have qualified to attend the State Leadership Conference from April 4-6 in Hershey.Those students who won first place were John Achtermann, Word Processing II; Karl Pielmeier, Business Communication; Chuck Sterling, Health Care Administration; Amy Hudock, Computer Applications; and Laurel Seemiller, Introduction to Business Communication.Among the students who took second place were Blake Campbell, Business Communication; Elizabeth Hahn, Computer Applications; Aleksander Everett, Database; Alexander Miller, Spreadsheets; and Alexandria Quinn, Introduction to Business Communication.Those students who placed third were Erica Hudock, Introduction to Business Communication, and Tiffany Reis, Word Processing I.Other students that earned certificates for their performance were Kevin Augustine, second place, Impromptu Speaking; Serhat Cavus, fourth place, Public Speaking II; Jillian Farkas, fourth place, Computer Applications; Lydia Anthony and Brandon Scherer, third place, Desktop Publishing; Brittany Bollinger and Amber Paules, third place, Management Decision Making; Danielle Eastgate and Jen Snyder, third place, Business Ethics; and Morgan Mummey, fourth place, Spreadsheets."Congratulations to those young people; they represent us very well," Boyce said. "I'd also like to say to all of the teachers in the audience, thank you for helping them excel."District students who attend Carbon Career and Technical Institute that placed were Nicole Henry and Kristin Hickman, second place, Hospitality Services Team Event."Once again, our resident students are doing very well," Boyce said.In other business, the board:• Accepted the resignation of Sue Lawrence, high school English teacher, effective Feb. 2, 2011.• Agreed to transfer Dawn Burke from full-time junior high school/high school English teacher to full-time high school English teacher, effective the first day of the second semester.• Agreed to transfer Matthew Krempasky from .33 junior high school Social Studies teacher to full-time junior high school/high school English teacher, effective the first day of the second semester.• Approved the salary adjustments for horizontal movement on the respective salary levels per the teacher's negotiated contract effective the second semester of the 2010-11 school year for Stephanie Shiffert, BS+24 to MS; Valerie Hunsicker, BS to BS+24; Kristin Borger, BS+24 to MS; Megan Zurn, BS+24 to MS; and Lindsay Serfass, BS+24 to MS.• Approved Audrey Ravert for the position of cafeteria worker assigned to the high school for 5.5 working hours/day effective Jan. 19, 2011. Rate of pay is in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement and may be adjusted at the conclusion of the negotiations.• Approved the addition of Rose Mann and Gail Serfass to the substitute cafeteria list effective Jan. 19, 2011, at the rate of $7.25 an hour.• Transferred Terry Heiney, lead custodian, to custodian, effective Jan. 19,2011.• Transferred Sal Rios from the position of custodian assigned to the high school to lead custodian assigned to the high school effective Jan. 19, 2011.• Approved Caitlin Varga to the position of librarian assigned to S.S. Palmer/ Parkside Education Center, effective the start of the 2011-12 school year.• Approved, as student teachers from Kutztown University, Aaron Yetler with Kevin Young, art teacher, junior high school; David DeLong with Jesse Baumgardt, math teacher, junior high school; and Julie Kelenski with Kathy Englert, math teacher, junior high school, from Jan. 19, 2011 to March 4, 2011.• Granted permission to Debra Demyanovich, human resource director, to attend the Annual PASPA-HR Then and Now Conference at Harrisburg, from Feb. 23-25, 2011, at the estimated cost of $728, to be funded through the Accountability Block Grant.• Granted permission to Sherrie Fenner to attend the PAFPC Training to Get Results with Compliant Federal Programs Conference at Seven Springs Resort from April 3-6, 2011, at the estimated cost of $1,449, to be funded through Title I funds.• Granted approval for the FBLA to attend the FBLA State Conference at Hershey from April 4-6, 2011.• Appointed Gorman & Associates, P.C., to audit the school district records for the 2010-11 school year at a base fee of $20,500; single audit, $2,450; hourly rate for additional services, $72; and AFR, $875.• Agreed to advertise for bids for the 2010-11 school year all sports supplies and janitorial/lighting (as necessary).• Approved the second reading and adoption of policy #324, Administration Personnel File Policy, and #424, Professional Personnel File Policy.• Approved disability leave in conjunction with family medical leave beginning Dec. 13, 2010, for employee #9482. Return to work date is to be determined.• Approved disability leave in conjunction with family medical leave beginning Dec. 21, 2010, for employee #2312. Return to work date is to be determined.• Approved disability leave in conjunction with family medical leave beginning Dec. 10, 2010, for employee #1018. Return to work date is to be determined.