At the Oct. 31 curriculum and technology committee meeting for Salisbury School District held at Lehigh Career and Technical Institute, board members learned the district recently investigated various alternatives to the existing electives in the arts department.

Rachel Reinecke, chair of the visual and performing arts department said after the art teachers examined four options, studied other school districts and made comparisons with regard to relevance and presented the options to the students through a survey of eighth through 12th grades, two electives have been chosen.

DIY projects and introduction to 3D printing will be added to the rotation which includes sculptures and ceramics II and drawing and painting II. The DIY class will teach students to repurpose and restore items while the 3D printing class will allow students to focus on 3D modeling, the potential of the class and the computer-aided design side of printing. The course, according to Reinecke, is more “cerebral” in nature and will present students with real life design challenges.

The board approved both courses which will be offered to students in January, 2017.

In other business, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Lynn Fuini-Hetten presented the demographics for the district.

According to Fuini-Hetten, Salisbury remains a primarily white district; however, the population continues to grow in diversity. The latest figures reflect the district is 71.9 percent white, compared to 74.9 percent in the year prior and is remarkably changed from 20 years ago when the student body was nearly entirely white and English speaking.

In the 2016-2017 school year, 38 different languages are represented.

As with the diversity in the district, the economically disadvantaged student population also continues to grow. Fuini-Hetten said at the end of 2015, figures from Harry S Truman Elementary school reflected 50 percent of the student body is receiving free or reduced lunch fees.

As the district evolves, so do the needs of the students, resulting in additional language, psychology and special education staffing.

The migration of students at Salisbury presents additional issues. Over 24 percent of the student population is different when comparing the first and last day of the school year.

“Students come with very different levels of support” Superintendent Dr. Randy Ziegenfuss said and this varying skill set is akin to the transient students becoming “moving targets” when attempting to address their needs and form the plan best suited for their educational and emotional success. In some cases, the students move out of the district prior to realizing their educational goals.