The Sept. 6 Salisbury Township School Board operations meeting began with a walking tour of Harry S Truman Elementary School, led by Facilities Director William Brackett. Members of the school board got a glimpse of the improvements made at the school over the summer months, which included new fencing around the back of the school, new flooring in the main office and carpeting in the library.

Following the tour, Director of Child Nutrition/District Chef Dustin Seymour gave the board an update on SFE’s launch in the district.

Hands-on training by SFE executives, including production records and compliance regulations, was provided to the cafeteria staff Aug. 24. After the initial training on SFE procedures, the Salisbury staff was taught how to create an SFE recipe and other cooking basics. SFE staff remained at the district during the first few days of school with an SFE member at each campus. Seymour has remained on location at the district and will continue working with the staff.

In conjunction with the SFE training, signage and television monitors were installed at each campus. The Nutrislice application is loaded, noted Seymour, and should be accessible to the district within a week.

Participation in the breakfast program continues to increase at each of the buildings with the largest student population at HST with an average of 80 breakfast meals served each day.

Hours for breakfast at the schools are between 7 and 7:30 a.m. at the high school, 8:30 to 8:55 a.m. at both HST and Western Salisbury Elementary School and 7:10 to 7:35 a.m. at the middle school. Hot and cold entrées are rotated on a daily basis.

Members of the board said the bus schedules may be hindering the opportunity for all students to take advantage of the breakfast options and the matter will be examined at a later date.

Director Joseph Gnall asked whether breakfast entrées would be offered at lunch time. Seymour said the popular fruit parfait is offered at the high school and he would look into whether it could also be offered at the other schools in the district. Seymour added some of the “grab and go” items offered at breakfast are also offered at lunch.

The salad bars at the schools have become extremely popular according to Seymour. “Kids are loving the salad bars and they are piling on the veggies and fruits.”

Participation in the school lunch program for the first three days of the school year reflected a steady increase in purchased school lunches, with the largest climb reported at Salisbury Middle School. According to the data, for the first three days of the 2016 school year, 497 school lunches were purchased. During the first three days of the 2017 school year, with SFE at the helm, 718 lunches were purchased. The numbers include the newly added breakfast selections.

Gnall asked Seymour if he could provide data at the end of September based solely on the lunch purchases and Seymour agreed to do so.

Applications have been distributed for the free and reduced school lunch program and the district principals will be recruiting participants during the month of September. SFE will be speaking to parents during the next open house. Participation in the program is confidential and, according to the board, measures are taken to preserve the privacy of students participating in the program.

Regarding the quality of the food offered by SFE, Director Susan Lea said she has received positive feedback from her children who attend school in the district and the “pizza was as good as the ones they have delivered to their home.”

Lea also said less positive feedback from her children indicate the lines are too long to be able to purchase and eat lunch in the time allotted. Seymour replied once the Nutrislice app is accessible, parents and students will be able to order and pay for their lunches online and have them ready for pick-up at a station in the cafeterias, reducing the wait times in the lines.

“If we are getting a big turn out for breakfast that’s huge in its own right, I hope we can maintain the trend going forward,” Board Vice President Samuel DeFrank said.

Seymour agreed and noted the key to keeping the momentum is to continue to reevaluate the menu and make adjustments when needed.

SFE will hold a “Thanksgiving Dinner” themed lunch approximately a week prior to the holiday. The dinner will include turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans, dessert and a salad bar. Parents who wish to attend lunch with their children will be charged $4 for their meal. Invitations to the dinner and additional details for the meal will be presented in October.

The visitor management program will be going forward at the district and when implemented, visitors will be required to swipe an ID or driver’s license as the initial step for entry beyond the office. Brackett said the district applied for a safe school grant for the amount of the $20,000 program, which will include the initial $2,000 licensing fee. The district will be responsible for the annual licensing fee thereafter.

Business Administrator Robert Bruchak said the ACT I index had not yet been released by the commonwealth, though it appears through information from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, that the index is to be trending at the rate of 2.4 or 2.5 percent. Bruchak said he expects the numbers to be released by the time the district will need to begin exploring the 2018-2019 budget.

An overview of the budget will be presented Dec. 6 and will go through adjustments during the next several months until the adoption of the final budget June 13, 2018.

It is election time at the PSBA and after reviewing the candidate’s qualifications, each school board across the state will have to come to a consensus, voting only once for each officer on the board. Each member of the school board will review the candidates for approval during the Sept. 13 board meeting.