Dear Northern Lehigh Families,

I hope this letter finds you in good health and enjoying your summer. I look forward to seeing your children return to our classrooms on August 28th! This summer we have been hard at work to continue the mission established in our Comprehensive Plan. With particular emphasis on continuous improvement in student academic achievement and culture and climate, the administrative leadership team reviewed data and reflected both individually and collectively on progress made toward the district goals. We are fully committed to continuing the progress from last year and to addressing areas of need.

With an awareness of the importance of maintaining safe, functional, and beautiful spaces for teaching and learning, we continued our work toward facility improvements in these areas. 

We know that learning happens when students and staff feel safe and are pleased to announce that we have hired a fourth school police officer (SPO), which means that each school will now have an SPO every day.  Again, we ask you to share in our commitment to safety. You can assist us by following all school district policy and procedures that address visiting our schools and by reporting any suspicious activity to an SPO or a building administrator immediately.  

The Technology Department has been busy ensuring that the tools and resources we all need are in place, installing new projectors and preparing new laptops for all office staff, teachers, and administrators.  Additionally, students in kindergarten, fifth-grade, and all high school students will receive new Chromebooks. This technology has become essential in our commitment to elevate interaction and engagement of students in every class, every day. 

The Food Services Department prepared and served breakfast and lunch for up to 140 students a day for our multiple summer camps. We are happy to announce that all NLSD students will receive free breakfast and lunch for the entire 2023-2024 school year under the Community Eligibility Program.

Striving to create spaces that encourage pride, the Support Services/Transportation Department has been busy cleaning, waxing, and painting in our schools while also maintaining the nearly 90 acres of district property.  To ensure we are prepared to get every student to and from our schools safely, new bus routing software was installed and tested during our summer programs, and we transitioned to a new transportation company, Krise Transportation, Inc.

Please take time to express appreciation and acknowledge the value for the many people that work year-round, maximize our resources to ensure our campus remains beautiful, our buildings remain safe, and our learning environment has the tools needed to teach students who are prepared to learn.

As I said before, teaching and learning are why all of that happens, and our building administrators have been working together alongside our district wide administrators, to continue taking steps toward creating coherent and effective systems to meet our student achievement goals. Building on successes, the team will remain focused on updating curriculum and local assessment practices, increasing opportunities for administrative and faculty collaboration with three Act 80 days, and strategically planning in-person PD for the year while still remaining committed to expanding PD opportunities that meet individual teacher needs as a career professional. We know that the faculty, support staff, and administration have incredible power in our collective intelligence and shared values, and we need all of it. 

We have a lot to accomplish, some of which may feel overwhelming. We will need to work without being distracted by what we can’t control. Mistakes are setbacks, but never the core problem, and, if we learn from it and think differently, it is often the quickest way to a solution. With that in mind, we will be increasing the relationship between data outcomes and decision making at all levels, we will be introducing a district-wide Instructional Playbook to improve consistency in language, and implementation of time-tested strategies that impact student learning.

I am excited for the new additions to our instructional and support teams and am confident they will supplement our efforts as we continue to improve the education and services we offer our students and community.  We have a lot of work to do, but I would not want to do it with any other team.

Soon we will welcome our returning and new students to an exciting new school year.  Students return on August 28th this year.  On behalf of the entire administrative team and the NLSD Board of School Directors, welcome back!

Sincerely,

Dr. Matthew J. Link
Superintendent