The Salisbury Township School District reorganization meeting took place Dec. 13 after a one week delay as a result of the deferment of the certification of elections in Lehigh County due to a pending legal challenge. The newly elected members sworn in at the meeting for 4-year terms are Laura McKelvey, Christopher Freas, Rebecca Glenister and Joseph Gnall.

Leadership roles among the board also changed this election year. Sarah Nemitz will now serve as the board president and Joseph Gnall will take the reins as vice president. Christopher Freas will assume duties as treasurer.

There are two remaining seats on the board to be filled and seven applications were received. The board decided they will interview candidates Jan. 6, 2022 and render a decision before the Jan. 12, 2022 meeting so new members can be sworn in at that time. The remaining seats are 2-year terms.

In addition to serving on the Salisbury Township School Board, members are also needed to serve as representatives on the boards of Lehigh Carbon Community College, Lehigh Career and Technical Institute and Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit. Sam DeFrank will continue to serve on the board of LCCC and Sarah Nemitz will finish out her term at LCTI. Laura McKelvey will sit on the board of CLIU.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, masking was the hot topic. The State Supreme Court recently struck down the K-12 mask mandate for school students. Community members pressed the board for answers related to masking during school, at athletic events and the quarantining of healthy students.

Emily and Bryan Pojanowski remarked the masking plan from the Pennsylvania Department of Health is less restrictive than what the school district is requiring. Emily Pojanowski also pointed out in other districts namely Nazareth, Saucon Valley, Bangor and Northampton, masks are optional.

Student Skylar Taylor made an impactful statement about how much she has missed in school because she had to quarantine due to exposure in the school cafeteria even though she received the vaccine and had a negative COVID-19 test. She was not allowed to Zoom into her classes so now she is behind in her classwork.

The board, now having seated six members, debated and discussed the issue of masking during athletics for all athletes using district facilities. A motion was passed by a vote of 5-1 in favor of optional masking for athletes regardless of age level when actively competing or practicing.

The board declined to discuss the matter of a change in the Health and Safety Plan for school students so the public will have an opportunity to participate more fully in the discussion.

The board did review a presentation of the most recent survey results which went out to families and staff Dec. 9. The questions pertained to the issues of masking preferences in school and vaccination rates for families and staff. The survey can be viewed on the school board website under board docs.

The board also discussed and passed a motion to combine curriculum and technology operations meetings into one monthly work session meeting.

Going forward, there will be one school board meeting and one work session meeting per month.

The next work session meeting will be held 7 p.m. Jan. 12, 2022. The next school board meeting will be held 7:30 p.m. Jan. 19, 2022. Both meetings are held in the administration building.