During their meeting on Thursday, the Pleasant Valley School Board approved the purchase of 420 Ready to Learn Chromebooks from IntegraOne in Allentown. The total cost is $92,820.

Superintendent Lee Lesisko said the Chromebooks were purchased through the use of a grant that had to be used by June of this year.

Earlier this month, the school district gave out more than 500 Chromebooks to families in need, so that their children could continue their education online. These Chromebooks came from classroom carts that were used for instruction.

“The new systems will replace the Chromebooks taken from these carts,” he said. “The systems students are using now at home, once returned, will be cleaned and re-imaged and placed in specific classrooms for student use.”

On the topic of donations, A.J. Kise, the director of Pupil Services, said the school district donated unopened boxes of gloves and masks to both St. Luke’s University Health Network and Lehigh Valley Health Network after the hospitals reached out to area school districts for donations.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic quickly impacted our area, the need for personal protection equipment for our first responders and health care workers were at a critical level,” he said.

Lesisko said, “Although we do not have many of these items on hand, we are happy to assist in any way possible knowing the shortage of PPE.”

The school nurses and the district chief of police gathered up the district’s surplus supplies of unopened masks and gloves and provided them to the Pocono campuses of both hospitals, Kise said.

On Thursday, the school district received a donation in return. The Fanatics in Easton, formally known as Majestic Sportswear, donated 450 fabric masks made at the factory, he said, and he thanked Fanatics “for this very generous donation.”

Lesisko also thanked the company and said, “The Pleasant Valley School District is thankful for the 456 fabric face masks donated by Fanatics. As faculty return to the school district later next month to close out their classrooms, we can now offer them face protection for those who do not have this now essential equipment. We are very grateful for the Fanatics donation.”

School Board President Donna Yozwiak also wanted to send out a thank you. This one was to Mary Claire Hosking and the All Sports Club.

Yozwiak said the club discovered “an overabundance of food left in our concession stands.” They gathered up the food and donated it to families in need in the Pleasant Valley community.

“That organization is phenomenal,” she said. “As everyone knows, they keep giving and giving to our students to our students.”

In consideration of the parents, the club decided not to give the candy to the children. Yozwiak said Hosking didn’t want to “sugar up” the children. Instead, they gave the candy to some people who might need the extra boost of sugar - the emergency care workers at both hospitals.