Members of the Salisbury Township School Board held a regular board meeting Dec. 7.

After approval of the minutes from the November operations and regular board meetings, the board took motions to approve payments for expenditures for the general fund of $606,148.89, $25,962.13 for the athletic department, $134,602.40 for capital improvements and $3,039.80 for the laptop account. The board approved payments for the expenditures; however, citing a conflict of interest, Director George Gatanis abstained from voting on the payment for capital improvements.

Gatanis presented the board with new items for approval from the operations committee including the request for use of district facilities by the Salisbury Youth Association, Walt Whitman Marching Band and Century High School as well as a real estate tax refund. After review, the board moved to approve the items on the agenda.

Mary Ziegler addressed the board to discuss items on the agenda for the personnel committee including the resignation of and hiring of instructional assistants, volunteer coaches, several FMLA requests and hiring for assistance in the technology department. Dane Galbraith, who worked with the school district over the summer, will return to Salisbury over the winter break to assist with updating the school’s website. Board President Frank Frankenfield said Galbraith will be a “great help to the department.”

The board approved the personnel committee agenda items.

Frankenfield reported Lehigh Career and Technical Institute had a meeting in November to discuss the findings from the annual audit.

“The audit came in clean,” according to Frankenfield. The next LCTI meeting will be held Dec. 14.

Frankenfield asked Susan Lea for her report on the Pennsylvania School Board. Lea said, “The Pennsylvania Department of Education is going to modify the parameters for the school performance profile; it will no longer rely just on the standardized testing.” According to Lea, the state will take a look at advanced placement, course offerings and “factoring in other types of assessments.” Lea also reported the second PlanCon payment should be released Dec. 29 and asked Business Administrator Robert Bruchak to elaborate on the payment. PlanCon, an acronym for Planning and Construction Workbook, is a set of forms and procedures used to apply for Commonwealth reimbursement of construction projects.

“We already received that money,” Bruchak said.

Superintendent Dr. Randy Ziegenfuss updated the board on recent happenings at the schools.

Ziegenfuss said the Salisbury Community Breakfast went very well and was attended by the township commissioners. During the breakfast, five Salisbury alumni were inducted in the “Alumni Wall of Honor.”

Several board members, continued Ziegenfuss, also met with state Rep. Justin Simmons, R-131st, to discuss topics of concern for the school board and present him with a mandate.

The district also had great success in hosting evening parent-teacher conferences at the elementary level. Ziegenfuss noted conferences held during the day are normally attended by just one parent; however, many of the evening conferences were attended by both parents.

Also a great success was Salisbury Middle School’s Falcon Night at the Phantom’s game.

“About 180 students, faculty and parents” attended the game,” Ziegenfuss said.

Before turning over the remainder of the report to Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Lynn Fuini-Hetton, Ziegenfuss said the district continues to strengthen the relationship with the township and to that end the parties are going to meet to formulate a plan for snow removal and plowing.

Each of the district’s schools, Fuini-Hetten said, has groups in place to promote Salisbury’s goal of effective teaching and learning. From the faculty to library media group, all play an important role in achieving that goal and meet several times during the year to determine where there might be gaps and how to fill the gaps. In addition to the steps set in place internally, Salisbury is also involved in the edleader21, a collaborative effort with other school districts in the state.

To further measure its standards of education, Salisbury is collecting data from faculty as well as families upon entry and exit from the district. The feedback will allow the district to determine strengths and weaknesses.