Lauren Patterson, a representative from BloomBoard, told the Pennridge School District Personnel Committee on Oct. 13 that the company can help the district create a local teacher pipeline through multiple, staged pathways aimed at paraprofessionals, recent graduates and degree completers.

Patterson said BloomBoard’s programs are “job‑embedded” and portfolio‑based, so participants would work with Pennridge curriculum, scope and sequence and build artifacts tied to district lesson‑planning templates. She said the vendor’s approach is intended to reduce the two most common barriers to adult learners — time and up‑front cost — and to use a braided funding strategy that blends employee contributions, FAFSA/financial aid and district or workforce funds.

The program options Patterson described included a 12‑credit bridging program she called “Teach Start,” an associate‑to‑bachelor’s completion pathway in partnership with Point Park University, and post‑baccalaureate or intern‑certificate offerings through Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit. Patterson said some programs permit student‑teaching hours to be embedded across the course of study, with a shorter, concentrated student‑teaching block later in the program.

“Most of us learned in classrooms on the left here, right? Somebody was at the front telling us a whole bunch of things,” Patterson said, arguing that BloomBoard’s embedded approach reduces the need for new hires to “unlearn” other systems and learn the Pennridge way.

Tara Mossman, the district cabinet member who introduced Patterson, and staff members discussed the district’s existing tuition‑reimbursement budget — about $125,000 annually — and whether those dollars could be redirected, used up front, or braided with grants and workforce funds to pay for cohorts. Patterson said BloomBoard typically sees districts reallocate tuition‑reimbursement funds to pay students or paraprofessionals up front, rather than forcing employees to front the cost and wait for reimbursement.

Committee members and public commenters asked about cost, program length, student‑teaching arrangements, and retention. Patterson provided per‑program price points during the presentation and characterized them as part of joint negotiations with partner colleges and intermediate units; in the meeting she described a full Teach Start cohort cost of roughly $3,000 and cited per‑credit rates she said were set by the university partners. She also said BloomBoard’s national retention rate among adult participants was higher than most nontraditional programs and that, where implemented elsewhere, cohorts commonly show graduation and retention rates above 90 percent.

A public commenter, Dan Biebernitz, who identified himself as a teacher and a program alumnus, recommended extending the practicums beyond the four weeks BloomBoard described and urged the district to pair recruitment with stronger retention measures, noting local compensation concerns.

The Personnel Committee asked staff to survey interest among paraprofessionals and other employees and to return with budget implications. Patterson recommended starting with paraprofessionals who already hold an associate degree and expressed willingness to tailor the pathways and cohort size to the district’s needs.

Ending: Committee members said they will survey staff interest, examine whether some tuition‑reimbursement dollars could be repurposed, and consider a board contract to pilot BloomBoard offerings before any districtwide rollout.