The Salisbury Township School Board District Operations Committee met April 12 to discuss various wide-ranging topics affecting the current school year. The committee reviewed the current enrollment status noting changes from last year to this year with enrollment numbers reflecting fluctuations in kindergarten and middle school grades due to move-ins and staff reallocations.

There has been no significant changes in the leadership team. However, staff changes were noted with current members assuming multiple functions covering responsibilities for the transportation director role as well as clerical and administrative staff functions split between elementary and middle schools.

Administrative support at the elementary level is also serving in a piecemeal capacity, with two full-time administrative assistants serving in dual capacities between administrative and payroll responsibilities and the other serving as assistant in the high school during mornings and at the elementary school in the afternoons. Salisbury Superintendent Lynn Fuini-Hetten described the challenges with the current setup stating reallocation of staff is necessary in order to maximize the efficiency of these roles.

Class sizes between all schools remained constant between 20-30 students with some variants in middle school class sizes which is largely dependent upon the number of students accepted into the Project Wonder program.

The board also noted a trend in late enrollments into kindergarten classes which affects the number of classes and staff needed at the elementary level. District sponsored community events and the roll out of online registration to encourage timely enrollment has proved effective after the district experienced an influx of new student registrations in recent years. This created an undue burden on staff resources stating the process of paper registration being highly time intensive with a propensity to create administrative backlogs. Early registration is highly encouraged.

Regarding facilities and space planning, Director of Facilities Bill Brackett presented information regarding specifics around the installation of temporary versus permanent modulars as a follow up to the presentation during the March school board meeting. Brackett compared the expenditures for temporary and permanent modulars to a brick and mortar build out.

Longevity, expenditures and maintenance of modulars were topics explored.

According to Brackett, temporary and permanent modulars are built the same and pose no increase or variation on maintenance outside of typical routine building maintenance tasks. The structure, depending on whether it’s built as a temporary or permanent addition has a life span of 20-30 years under normal conditions. The only difference is installation of a temporary versus a permanent modular.

A temporary modular is set atop pillars for easy removal while a permanent modular is built on a typical brick and mortar foundation.

The cost for a permanent structure as quoted by Modular Genius is $1.2 million. Together with soft costs from D’Huy Engineering including site surveys, building tie-ins and permitting the cost would be approximately $2.3 million for temporary modular or a permanent install for $2.5 to $2.7 million.

A modular structure is typically used as a temporary building annex while plans to either build a permanent structure or activities to secure funding to build a permanent structure are underway. The decision is left to the school administration on which direction to take if going the modular route and will be up for consideration in the near future.

Comparison costs of modular to brick and mortar with six classrooms, one level is $4.85 million, including those soft costs and two levels would be $9.25 million. There is also the possibility of building one level now and leaving it so a second level can be added later if needed. If the administration decided to go this route, the timeline for completion would be approximately a year and a half out.

The board asked about any preliminary maintenance work needed at the elementary school before a modular install, specifically referencing the incident of water found entering the middle school.

Brackett is still investigating this issue but shared details about the investigation.

“That building has a perimeter drainage, basically right at the base of the foundation. And that perimeter drainage is a porous type material. So, [for] part of our investigation, we brought cameras in so we could get down into the sewage system and see if we have cracks in our pipes and into our drainage system to see what that looked like.

“Those weren’t pretty. We believe we have, a lot of our roof drain systems that goes under the building, that have collapsed and cracked. So that’s part of our problem. But we also believe that porous type piping system around the entire perimeter has clogged over the years.”

He suggested a repair. To build another type drainage system right beside it would consist of “excavating all the way around the entire perimeter of the building to drop a new piping system in to catch water before it gets into the building ... the cost of all this I’m sure is not going to be pretty.”

The board continued to discuss affordability and possible funding sources to cover these large projects.

Brackett went on to discuss scenarios around “mothballing” Western Salisbury Elementary School. Mothballing is a practice of decommissioning equipment or facilities, so they are no longer being operated but can be used again in the future. For WSE, Brackett’s objective would be to maintain the infrastructure integrity. This action would work to prevent freeze ups that can lead to pipe bursts, mold prevention and lowered cost in utilities and building upkeep. He outlined three methods to obtaining this goal.

The first method would be to drain all water out of the HVAC systems, the sprinkler system, domestic plumbing, minimize lighting, turn off HVAC controls and shut down the generator and elevator. This would greatly reduce the utilities and operational costs. However, with this option, there is still a potential for pipe freeze, mechanical system failure and higher recommissioning costs if the building is put back in service in the future. This process would run $17,028.

The second process would entail retaining the water systems and adding glycol (antifreeze) to the system to prevent freezing. All heating and cooling would be reduced to absolute minimums, but systems would continue to run. The advantage here is the building remains operational should the board decide to reopen. The disadvantage would be utility and maintenance costs would remain, although there would be a slight decrease of about 50%. The cost of this process would run about $43,891. The third process would be to keep everything running as it is.

These scenarios were born out of the elementary school’s HVAC system’s lack of humidity control and potential widespread mold issue.

Concluding the presentation, the board discussed the need for long-term financial planning in order to move forward with any of these options.

The board also asked for other critical facilities projects for which funding is available, those include replacing stair treads in the elementary school, replacing the water heater and bleachers at the middle school, replacing the boiler and HVAC controls in the high school and replacing HVAC controls in the administration building.

Other items brought up for the facilities project list by the board included paint for the middle school and replacing stained and broken ceiling tiles. Some of these projects qualify for funding through a 2019 bond fund containing $450,000 that must be used within a specified time frame.

The last item discussed was the Reading Olympics, an activity hoping to promote a love of reading in students. Teams of between 8-15 students read from a predetermined list of about 45 titles. They read over a course of several months and compete at the intermediate unit where they go through three rounds of questioning.

The team is assigned coaches. Karen Orman, one of the coaches at the middle school, is looking for fundraising projects for the students. This will provide more learning opportunities as the students work to plan their campaigns and raise funds for the club.

The board will be presented with a proposal to open a student activities account for the funds they raise.