The Salisbury Township School Board held an operations committee meeting June 7 to address water infiltration issues in two of the district’s schools, updating the district’s master facilities plan and filling the July 1 vacancy left by Joseph Kuzo.

The meeting commenced with a presentation by D’Huy engineers Andrew Mather and Arif Fazil. The engineers outlined their stormwater and groundwater repairs feasibility study which was created to solve the intermittent and unpredictable infiltration of subsurface water into classrooms at Salisbury Elementary School.

The two main contributing factors for the water infiltration issues were identified to be groundwater pushing through the floor of the building due to a compromised under-slab drainage system and clogged under-slab stormwater piping that can lead to backups at the roof drains.

These under-slab drainage systems make finding a solution a challenge because it is difficult to see the exact problem due to the inherent inaccessibility of the system. Exterior foundation drains had previously been scoped and revealed disjoined piping and debris which contributed to the overall problem.

In an effort to mitigate the problem, engineers plan to collect and reroute as much water as possible from around the building by installing new exterior perimeter underdrain piping as well as new sump pumps near each pod to usher the water away from the building as quickly as possible and connect to an existing manhole adjacent to the bus drop off area.

Essentially there are two systems at play, one to pick up roof water and the other to mitigate groundwater.

The price tag for the three month long project is estimated to be $910,000.

The next issue for the engineers was addressing the water infiltration issue in the kitchen area at Salisbury High School. At this time, engineers have been on site to conduct interior and exterior surveys and have developed a preliminary system to reroute water.

D’Huy will continue to work on the details of the project in time for the August operations committee meeting.

The next item discussed was the school district master facilities plan. According to Bill Brackett, director of facilities, this information is already accessible to the district as D’Huy had previously formulated a plan in 2006 and an updated capital improvements plan was created in 2019. The district has been working with D’Huy on various projects since 2013.

Mather and Fazil walked the board through the 2019 facilities master plan and explained how they can refine and prioritize projects along with the associated costs.

Plans of various lengths of time can be formulated although Fazil cautioned that any plan formulated should be accompanied by a funding plan.

If the district decides to update the facilities master plan, a comprehensive plan can be developed at a total cost of $18,000.

During the discussion of whether to engage D’Huy to update the existing facilities plan, director Sarah Nemitz expressed her hesitancy to spend the money when it is difficult to know if funds will be available to dedicate to capital improvement projects in the coming years. She also questioned whether the money to pay for these services will come from the current budget or next year’s budget.

Chief Financial Officer Dawn Nickischer explained at this point the district has already overspent the engineering services budget by $16,000 and she has only budgeted $8,000 for next year. Monies will need to come from somewhere else in the budget to cover the cost of the updated plan and there is nothing left for any other engineering services that may come up in the future.

Brackett reminded the board the costs listed on the 2019 capital improvements plan are based on pre-pandemic pricing and will be significantly higher in an updated version.

Director Laura McKelvey also voiced her concerns about committing money to future projects when the district has no available financial forecasting information necessary to make competent financial decisions.

Director Chris Freas summed up by saying there are currently no funds allocated in the budget for the plan update so the board needs to figure out how to pay for the report before taking the next step.

The next agenda item for board discussion was the cafeteria point of sale system which is outdated and needs to be replaced with a cloud based server compatible with the district’s current student information system.

Three companies were researched based on cost, customer service, equipment, ease of use for the district and parents. It was determined i3 Education fit the bill although it comes with an increased cost of $2,000 in comparison with a $1,400-$1,600 increase with the two other companies being considered.

Nemitz questioned the transaction fees associated with using a credit card to deposit money into student accounts using the i3 Education system. Credit card transfer fees are passed directly onto families which did not sit well with several board members, leading them to call for a comparison of the fees charged with the other companies before making any decisions.

The next order of business for the board to discuss is how to fill the vacancy left by the July 1 resignation of Joseph Kuzo. The vacancy must be filled by Aug. 1 and the term would run July 1 through Dec. 6. Although the board can appoint an interested candidate to complete the remainder of Kuzo’s term the standard procedure for filling a vacancy is to publicly post the opening, receive applications, conduct interviews and then vote.

Freas suggested appointing a candidate but ultimately the board decided that following the democratic process would be the best way to proceed.

The next meeting for the operations committee is scheduled 7 p.m. Aug. 2 in the administration building, 1140 Salisbury Road.