5 Things to Know About Monday's East Penn Board Meeting

The met last night. Here's what you need to know about what they talked about:

• Susan Pfiel, director of the , invited the board to attend the upcoming Seven Gen lottery night on Thursday, March 1. There are 120 families vying for six openings, she said.
• Lynn Glancy, director of operations, presented an overview of upcoming capital improvement projects district-wide for the next five years. The good news is that the $929,000 in bond money left following Willow Lane will cover the approximately $658,000 in projects planned for summer 2012. The bad news is that the total projected capital improvement price tag looking five years out is about $6.7 million, a number Glancy termed “scary.”
• Superintendent of Schools Thomas L. Seidenberger has been meeting with various elected officials to make the case to talk about education funding. He’s already met with Steve Samuelson and says that he will soon meet with Justin Simmons. Down the road he plans to meet with state senators Pat Browne and Bob Mensch. “If we ever get a state representative, I will meet with that person as well,” Seidenberger said. “This time of the year, it is a huge hole not having someone to go to. I may not have always agreed with , but he always made himself available and I really appreciated that.”
• In his legislative report, Charles Ballard, board president, focused exclusively on the Lehigh County property tax reassessment. “Fifty-five percent of the people in Lehigh County are cheering because their taxes went down and 45 percent are cursing because their taxes went up and that has nothing to do with the East Penn School District. There are winners and there are losers in this particular game and, in big, bold letters, the school district has nothing to do with it.” Ballard admitted that his own taxes are going up with the reassessment.
• The jury is still out on exactly what the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone will mean to the East Penn School District. “We are still trying to get our hands around that,” Ballard said. “The money is sequestered. There will be a 9-12 month delay. For residents of East Penn who work in the NIZ, their EIC payments will be delayed (in coming to East Penn) at least 9 months, so we won’t be able to count on it in our 2013 budget.”