On April 7 the Salisbury Township school board operations committee held its monthly meeting via Zoom.

Karen Devine, a representative from the Pennsylvania School Board Association, was a guest at the meeting. She provided insight into services and upcoming events available through the association such as energy solutions to help save on costs, as well as complimentary board member self-assessments.

Devine also indicated the 2021 state of education report would soon arrive, which will focus on the impact of COVID-19 on school districts in the state.

Board Secretary Michael Taylor provided an update on the preliminary budget.

Taylor informed those in attendance the district will be accounting for $472,088 in the budget as a result of CARES act funding.

Two grants were awarded to the district, one for $1.7 million and another for $3.4 million. However, Taylor explained, figures would be applied to the budget only after amounts have been allocated to expenditures. This will lower the budget deficit in the school district down from $2 million to $762,000. The challenge will be to account for this windfall as a stopgap measure and not as an ongoing source of funding. The final budget will be up for adoption June 16.

In response to a recent citizen comment at a board meeting where a parent expressed concern over elementary school buses utilizing Interstate 78, Russ Leibensperger, of Paragon Transit, was present to facilitate discussion of the issue.

The issue the parent presented was that at the time the decision was made to close Western Salisbury Elementary School and combine students into the Harry S Truman Elementary School building, families expressed concern over bus routes and children being transported via the highway to their new school.

The board at the time agreed to draw up bus routes that would avoid the busy thoroughfare.

Leibensperger explained when routes are devised, they come to the transit company as a list of stops rather than a map of how to get from point A to point B. The roads taken are up to the discretion of the driver and can often change based on traffic, construction, accidents, etc.

Drivers were not directed to specifically avoid Interstate 78 and thus have been using the road for timing.

Leibensperger also said almost all area school districts utilize Interstate 78 and Paragon Transit has about 550,000 miles logged on that road.

Board members Sarah Nemitz and Carol Klinger expressed concern the issues at the heart of the complaint were such small children would be transported on the highway and parents were told specifically the road would not be used, only to find out later that was not the case.

For the time being, the transit company has agreed to stay off Interstate 78 for elementary routes and also will likely offer a safety presentation, which they hope will illustrate that due to several factors, children are actually safer in school buses on the highway than in their family cars.