Tamaqua Area School Board committees met this week to discuss adding several positions and a math curriculum.

The district is looking at hiring three new staff positions in the English as a Second Language/Special Education Department.

“We have staffing issues that we were hoping to push off until next year,” said Superintendent Ray Kinder. The number of students at one time was as low as 2,030 students in the district in the past 10 years, but Kinder said now the district is over 2,200.

“They are dispersed around the various schools and programs, but some programs do have a larger concentration of students, especially the Special Education and ESL students. Those programs have number limitations based on the type of class.”

The school district plans to use some of the recovery act funds to hire three additional personnel: A Special Education staff member, an ESL staff member, and an additional social worker.

The school district is hoping to begin seeking applicants now to fill those positions.

“Our numbers having increased significantly in those three areas,” board member Mark Rother said. “We have been receiving a lot of enrollments; 16 in just the last ten days.”

Most of the new enrollments have been to families moving into the district. Board members discussed that living in the Tamaqua area is more affordable than some other places. They said most of the newer students seem to come from four main areas: Shenandoah, Hazleton, Reading and Allentown.

They said some of the families see how well Tamaqua is doing with their students, so they decide to send their children to Tamaqua.

Committees recommended the purchase of an elementary math program, Eureka Math Squared K-5 at a cost of $293,286.90.

The cost will be covered by the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds through the American Recovery Plan. This is contingent upon submission and approval of the grant and purchase.

“We initially started this last year,” Dr. Stephen Toth, assistant superintendent, explained. “We looked and settled on Eureka. It’s a very dynamic program and it matches up with our Google platform.” This would be a one-time purchase, as opposed to other programs that would need to be renewed on a yearly basis.

“We’re trying to be cost effective there,” Toth said. “But the biggest thing that is part of this program is the spiraling that will occur, so it will go back and get concepts from different areas and different grade levels which will help with learning loss, which is not embedded in the curriculum we have now.”

The board will propose adjustments to coaching salaries for the school district.

“We are, across the board, significantly under the average for a great number of our activities,” Kinder said.

“A survey was done around the districts around our league as well as other like-sized schools. We plan, as part of our budget process, to bring forward new numbers that brings us essentially up to the average area of coaching salaries for districts of a similar size, and then make adjustments as needed.”