Facing 16 staffing requests for the 2019-20 school year, Palmerton Area School District’s board of directors gave consent Tuesday night to account for only a quarter of them in next year’s budget.

Board members said outside of four athletic positions, they needed additional information from administrators before approving the other proposed jobs, all of which would be new to the district.

During a presentation at Tuesday’s board workshop, business manager Ryan Kish summarized the staffing requests, which included a districtwide social worker, two elementary math specialists, a sign language teacher, two music teachers, and three lunch monitors at both Towamensing and S.S. Palmer elementary schools.

“I think our staff does a pretty great job, and if it’s something they need, I don’t necessarily disagree, but I’d like to be able to ask questions,” board President Kate Baumgardt said.

“We’re responsible for this money, so making sure we spend it correctly should be an expectation.”

Other board members also supported the request for additional input from administrators.

“I can’t vote to add a sign language teacher or music teachers if I don’t know where or how they are going to be used,” Kathy Fallow said. “We need to have the subject matter experts here otherwise we are just shooting in the dark.”

Superintendent Scot Engler said that written justifications for the positions were given to the board in mid-February.

Director Barry Scherer said many of the questions he and his colleagues need answered are not the type that can be done over an email.

“Let’s sit down face to face,” Scherer said. “We’re all adults. If you believe in these positions, come and answer the questions.”

Kish was able to answer questions on several of the positions. The math specialists, he said, would work in small groups with students similar to the reading specialists the district already employs.

The proposal for lunch monitors, he added, was to also use them to cover recess in an effort to free up instructional assistants to spend more time with students.

“I’d like to know what the teachers and instructional assistants are going to be doing if they’re not covering lunches and recess,” Scherer said.

The four athletic positions added to the 2019-20 budget were a middle school wrestling coach, with a total stipend and benefits of $5,771; middle school football coach, $5,771; junior varsity volleyball coach, $5,797; and a middle school track coach, $1,903.

Board members said they felt they had enough justification from athletic director Andrew Remsing to add the positions. Palmerton only added a volleyball program within the past few years and 2019-20 will be the first season it is hosting home matches. In the two initial seasons, the varsity volleyball coach was also overseeing the junior varsity program. Kish said only one middle school track stipend is currently on the books and 71 students are in the program.

According to Kish, Palmerton will vote on a proposed budget in May and a final budget in June, which could include all of the staffing requests if the board gets the answers its looking for.

If all of the staffing requests were added to the budget, Kish said the salaries and benefits would total around $716,000.

Before adding any positions, Kish projected a $33.4 million budget for 2019-20 with a $1.89 million deficit to be covered by fund balance.

“At the end of 2019-20, we’re projecting the total fund balance to be down to $4.1 million,” Kish said.

One position that could be brought back into the mix is a school police officer.

Kish said he looked at how other districts pay their officers and found a variety of options.

“Some pay them salary, some pay them hourly and some pay them hourly with a stipend to carry a weapon,” Kish said.

Director Tammy Recker said she’d like to see different options for an officer at Palmerton presented to the board.

“We’re looking at how we’re handling security, and I think we’re off to a great start at the high school with the metal detectors, but we need to worry about inside the building as well,” Recker said. “We’re looking at upgrades at S.S. Palmer, but there are concerns there as well. I’d just like to see some numbers and what we would be looking at with an officer.”