When Lions Club volunteers conducted eye exams at Lehighton Elementary Center last fall, they identified dozens of students with vision issues.

Two board members would like to see that testing expanded to the entire district, and replacing the current state-mandated tests which are conducted by school nurses.

The state requires annual eye examinations for students, and reimburses districts who provide them. However, board members Gail Maholick and David Bradley Sr. said at a board meeting Monday night that the Lions are a better option.

“We have a better test provided for free to the school district, and they just want to kick the can further rather than just adopt it as other districts have,” school board member Bradley said.

Maholick brought up eye exams at the meeting because she wanted to know why only elementary center students had received eye exams when the board voted to have all students receive the exams.

Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said he thought that the board agreed that the elementary center would be a pilot for the program.

During the exams, which were conducted late last year, 92 of 818 students examined were referred for some kind of vision issues, Maholick said.

Of those, 21 had common prescription issues, 38 had astigmatism, 13 had gaze deviation and 15 had a condition where the eyes do not work together.

Maholick asked why there had been no follow-up since those tests.

Cleaver said letters were sent home with the students who were referred. He said he thought the board had voted to test the elementary school only.

Bradley asked Cleaver to state how much the Lions’ exams have saved the district. Administrators responded that there was no savings, because school nurses are still conducting their own eye exams to comply with state regulations. The school gets reimbursed by the state for the exams.

“It doesn’t cost us anything because they pay 100 percent,” said business manager Brian Feick. “It’s free to us either way.”

Maholick said she contacted Pennsylvania’s departments of Health and Education, and was told that it was up to individual school districts whether they thought the Lions’ testing met the mandated requirements.

Later in the meeting, Bradley made a motion to use the Lions testing in place of the nurses’.

Maholick said if the district adopted the Lions’ test as their mandated test, even more students would benefit than did at the elementary school.

Maholick said the Lions test is superior to the nurses’, but suggested the district didn’t want to go along because they get paid for conducting it themselves.

“This is all about getting money back into the school district, but the Lions cost nothing,” Maholick said. And while the nurses are out doing the exams they do, which are not as good as the Lions exams, they’re not spending time with the children.”

Board President Larry Stern directed administrators to look into the Lions Club test and see if it is sufficient to replace the district’s. He told Bradley there was no use in adopting the test this month if they find out from the state that it does not meet their requirements.

After that suggestion, Bradley said he was withdrawing his motion. He did so, after Maholick withdrew her second.

“In light of this discussion, I’ll remove this motion, and we will not use Gail’s blind trust for this, and we’ll postpone the advancement of these students until next month,” Bradley said.