Board weighs student-activity reporting, privacy and use of donations; administration to refine practice

The Bethlehem Area School District presented a new student-activity funds report on Nov. 10, 2025, intended to standardize disclosures in the treasurer’s report across schools. Administration said the report will list each school club’s beginning balance, revenues, expenses and ending balance, and that under district policy club advisers and student officers will be approved annually by the board.

Board members raised privacy concerns about publishing the names of student officers. One member said seeing “hundreds of students' names” on a public document was troubling and asked whether the district could instead publish only first names and a last initial or use student ID numbers to protect privacy. Administration explained the business office needs names to validate signatures and run audits but agreed to research other districts’ practices and report back.

The board discussed inactive student-activity accounts and a proposed policy to transfer leftover funds to related accounts (for example, PBIS funds to Student Lighthouse). Administration said if a class did not designate a gift at graduation, the funds would default to a student-activity account but moving forward classrooms would be asked to vote on designated uses before graduation.

A $2,000 donation earmarked for Farmersville Elementary was presented; administration said the donation came from a parent who works at Novartis and used company letterhead for the correspondence. The district stated it will prioritize directly serving students negatively affected by reduced SNAP benefits but may also use funds to offset outstanding lunch debt or transfer to other student-activity accounts if no directly eligible recipients are identified.

Administration also presented routine items including an annual renewal of the district’s TimeClock Plus software license.

Next steps: Administration will research privacy practices for publishing student officers’ names and report recommended practices before the formal approval cycle for student-activity lists.