Building principals in Lehighton Area School District made their pitch Monday night to a school board trying to whittle a list of 10 possible new positions down to three or, at most, four that may be included in the 2022-23 budget.

Most of the requested positions aren’t exactly brand-new, but would be a restoration of jobs lost through attrition over recent years. They include two 10-month secretaries, one high school math teacher due to high class sizes, one high school STEM/technology teacher, one middle school family consumer science teacher, one middle school reading specialist, one elementary center music teacher, one elementary center math teacher, one elementary center classroom teacher, and one certified nurse.

“it would be nice if we could put all of them in next year’s budget, but this board wants to be very careful and methodical in helping to facilitate positive change,” board President Joy Beers said. “We have to look at our budget and realize we can’t do anything crazy all in one shot.”

While no final decisions have been made, the board’s consensus Monday night was that the elementary center music teacher, middle school reading specialist and high school math teacher are of the highest priority for 2022-23, while a middle school secretary could be included as the budget comes into clearer focus.

Dr. Mark McGalla, principal of grades 3-5 in the Lehighton Area Elementary Center, said the building currently has just one music teacher for 971 students.

“We used to have two and we’re now at one so students are getting music once every eight days,” McGalla said. “Another music teacher would also allow us to prepare the students for concerts and get back to some of those events we haven’t been able to do.”

The move would also help the middle school, which currently shares a music teacher with the elementary center.

Middle School Principal Steve Ebbert said the school had a reading specialist who focused on helping students with their comprehension and other reading skills, but that is no longer the case.

“We had to combine reading with our English language arts so we were giving half a course of each,” Ebbert said. “By not having that position, it was really a double whammy because the ELA had to give up some of the normal curriculum they would teach, plus you’re not getting the full course load of reading.”

Lehighton High School once had seven math teachers but was asked by administration to give two of them to the middle school after one of its math teachers took a job with another district and the other retired.

“That left us with five math teachers and class sizes of 25-32 students in some of our neediest math sections,” High School Principal Sue Howland said.

The additional teacher, Howland said, could also allow for additional sections of courses such as financial algebra.

“They are working on taxes, automobile loans, insurance, calculating interest and a lot of those real life practical things that they are going to use when they leave here,” Howland said. “It’s probably our most practical math course, but we only offer one section right now.”

Ebbert said the middle school has just one administrative secretary and she has been working overtime to try to keep up.

“One secretary to run a building is just not feasible,” Ebbert said. “Parent calls go unanswered during the day and we’re about two months behind entering discipline information which goes into the reports that we have to send to the state.”

Following the presentations, Dr. Keith “Jake” Boyer, Lehighton’s acting assistant to the superintendent, said the principals were genuine with their personnel requests.

“I don’t care what anyone says, there is no fluff here,” Boyer said. “If we want our students to compete with the big boys, we can’t shortchange. Our principals will utilize whatever positions you give them properly and you’ll see the results.”