During the July 15 school board meeting, the newly elected board member Rebecca Glenister was sworn in virtually via Zoom. This swearing in was purely ceremonial, as the official swearing in and paperwork filing had been conducted a day prior in front of a notary.

There were several personnel changes on the agenda for approval during the evening’s proceedings. The most notable was the retirement of Grace McClausland-Hartman, who held the position of principal at Western Salisbury Elementary School prior to the vote approving a district reconfiguration, which will shutter the WSE building.

Hartman has worked in education for over 40 years, effectively touching the lives of thousands of children and families. Superintendent Dr. Randy Zeigenfuss said, “I remember when she was hired over a decade ago. She took WSE through many iterations and many challenges. I always admired how she took on those challenges,” he said. “I’m grateful for her service and wish her all the best.”

Other personnel changes approved during the meeting included the resignation of Kelly Weiner as a full-time kindergarten teacher and the hiring of Andrew Schultz as a part-time physics teacher at Salisbury High School.

A building transfer for James Kehm, from WSE to Harry S Truman Elementary School as part-time custodian and a revised building transfer for Jessica Bean, from a full-time reading specialist at HST to a full-time special education teacher at Salisbury Middle School also were included.

Kaitlyn Keller was on the agenda for approval for the position of assistant field hockey coach for the 2020-2021 school year without pay and/or benefits.

Included in the personnel items on the agenda was a memorandum of understanding with the Salisbury Education Association, agreeing to a pay freeze for the 2020-2021 school year and allowing the board to extend their contract by a year. The board approved all of the personnel changes voted on during the meeting.

Associate Superintendent Lynn Fuini-Hetten presented on the current state of planning for the 2020-2021 school year. Citing work with a 10-15 person focus group with members from diverse areas of the community such as teachers, high school students, elementary parents, health care professionals, administrators, board members and others, the purpose of the focus group was to ask for feedback on the coming school year as seen through each member’s own unique lens.

A new survey distributed the week of July 13 received a robust response at the time of the board meeting. The survey asked parents and staff about their desires and concerns regarding a return to school. The survey offered the options of full-time face-to-face instruction, blended in-person schooling and online instruction, fully virtual classes, VAST (the district’s cyber charter school option) or homeschooling. Of 556 parent responses, 43.5 percent want a return to full-time in-person classes, 34.7 percent would like a blended option and 16.4 percent believed virtual instruction was the best way to proceed.

The faculty and staff had a return of 113 respondents, who indicated that 38.9 percent would prefer a blended model, 33.6 percent wish to return full time and 27.4 percent wish to resume schooling via virtual means only.

For parents and staff, there was a wide array of concerns including universal face coverings, meeting the needs of all learners including special education students and students with high social-emotional needs, transportation, cleaning protocols, keeping learners and staff safe and the lack of rigor and structure in an online learning environment.

Moving forward, Fuini-Hetten outlined next steps in finalizing what the new school year would look like which included meeting with St. Luke’s University Health Network for additional feedback and revisions to the health and safety plan the district has created, followed by releasing the draft to the public.

At that point, necessary revisions would be implemented and at the special board meeting July 23, the plan will be put to a vote. Fuini-Hetten remarked that creating the health plan in view of quickly changing guidance and recommendations is “ever evolving, fluid and somewhat challenging.”

The final agenda item was an allotted public comment period, during which a name change for HST came to the table for discussion by the board members. In the wake of the reconfiguration vote, with all district elementary students grades kindergarten through grade four now attending one building, many on the board echoed the need for a name change. Board member Mary Ziegler suggested bringing the naming process to the community in perhaps the form of a contest and board member David Hadinger proposed using the name Salisbury Elementary School to simplify the process.

A new name would bridge the two previously separate cultures of the different elementary schools and unite under a new title and was the idea which seemed to prevail.

A special board meeting will be held July 23 via Zoom and the next regular school board meeting will occur Aug. 19 via Zoom.