Midway Manor residents had also expressed their concerns at\u00a0Tuesday\u2019s Lehigh Valley Planning Commission\u2019s Comprehensive Planning Committee meeting<\/a> and at a community association meeting earlier in the month. That sparked media coverage which frustrated Allentown School Board President Andrene Brown-Nowell, who said Thursday she felt \u201cthe press was weaponized against us\u201d prior to any actual decision being made.\n<\/p>\n\u201cI don\u2019t want to say I\u2019m upset,\u201d Brown-Nowell said. \u201cI want to say I\u2019m very concerned with the way this was handled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown-Nowell urged residents to work together to meet the needs of students, saying she is open to attending community association meetings and gathering input from neighbors as Sonia Sotomayor\u2019s expansion proceeds.<\/p>\n
A pair of bilingual second graders were among the speakers who encouraged the board to remain steadfast in its commitment to the dual language academy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can talk and help others in two languages,\u201d Miracle Santo said, noting that the school has helped her grow, become strong and believe in herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope Sotomayor can grow so more students can learn like me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Representatives from several community organizations also used public comment to endorse the school, including the Casa Guadalupe Center. Fiscal officer Bajen Nije read a letter from the center that called Sotomayor a \u201chistoric step forward\u201d and said it is the first time that bilingualism and biculturalism has been intentionally nurtured as assets for all students.<\/p>\n
Nije urged school board members to \u201ccontinue investing in a program that is transforming lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The school currently serves 146 students in preK-2 and will add up to grade 5 by the 2028-29 school year. Long-term plans include the addition of middle school grades to achieve a preK-8 academy.<\/p>\n
Allentown Superintendent Carol Birks reminded the meeting audience that the school district owns the park property, asking the solicitor to explain the district\u2019s development rights.<\/p>\n
The main reason to avoid a delay is the timing of the school year, not any potential project cost increases, Birks said, as the district wants to move students into the new modular classrooms by August as it adds another grade to the current site.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a matter of law, the issue is relatively simple,\u201d district Solicitor Jeff Sultanik said, noting that the district has the \u201cfull right and title\u201d to do what it wants with the property.<\/p>\n
Board member Evette D\u2019Amore expressed conflicted feelings. She serves as a volunteer coordinator for the Midway Manor sports program.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a community, we need to work together to figure this out,\u201d D\u2019Amore said. She said the current operation of Midway Manor and its park resulted from a \u201chandshake agreement\u201d in the 1950s that was designed to create the feeling of a New England village centered around green space.<\/p>\n
D\u2019Amore called that a \u201csimpler time but an honorable time.\u201d Sultanik said \u201chandshake agreements\u201d have no force of law.<\/p>\n
Despite saying during the committee meeting discussion that she did not feel she could vote for the resolution authorizing the modular purchase, D\u2019Amore ultimately endorsed the resolution. It passed 8-0, with board member Denzel Morris absent.<\/p>\n
The approved contract<\/a> authorizes the board to spend up to $1.6 million to purchase classroom space from Boxx Modulars.<\/p>\nThe Allentown Planning Commission is scheduled to discuss the Midway Manor project at its March 10 meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Midway Manor\u2019s beloved snack shed will remain untouched, Allentown School Board members said Thursday as they approved the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[119,153,155,154,227,433,182,139,28,432],"class_list":["post-125046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-allentown","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-education","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}