The Salisbury Township School District operations and finance committee met May 8 with a full agenda including reviewing reconfiguration information for Salisbury Elementary School. Fuel bid costs were also reviewed as well as the ongoing work on the 2024-2025 preliminary budget.

Andrew Mather, with D’Huy Engineering presented the preliminary scope and budget review for the classroom reconfiguration at Salisbury Elementary School. The purpose is to “reconfigure existing spaces to create additional teaching areas and security features” including converting four kindergarten classrooms to six classrooms in the A-Pod, reconfiguring the library to provide security and a new conference room and modifying the door layout at the day care to gain access to the toilets.

A plan to convert the B-Pod toilet rooms to a classroom was deemed not feasible based on code required fixtures.

All of this work would cost an estimated $1,707,000 and could be completed in the summer of 2025 if approval is given by August.

Superintendent Lynn Fuini-Hetten said the affected rooms are currently 1,100 square feet and would be reduced to between 850-890 square feet. The intervention teachers would be affected by the renovation and Fuini-Hetten said “they don’t love the idea.”

A previous proposed plan to connect six modular units to the building was estimated to cost $2.6 million. An estimated $6.3 million was quoted for a single floor brick and morter addition.

Fuini-Hetten was asked if this reconfiguration would accommodate the growth needed for this district.

“If we get 40 students from the townhomes proposed for the land we sold, we’d be fine.”

She said if the district had five to eight students who would need additional support, a new room would be needed. She said if the district is willing to have higher class sizes that would also be taken into consideration.

“One of the reasons I like this idea [reconfiguration of rooms] is that it doesn’t deter us from doing other things later on,” Board President Joseph Gnall said.

For next steps, Fuini-Hetten said the administration needs time to work through this presentation. She asked what the board needed regarding the presentation.

Gnall said he doesn’t need more information; he needs to decide what is the better investment.

“It’s a matter of what’s best for the district,” Gnall said.

Fuini-Hetten said she believes a recommendation can come to the board next month with proposed funding identified for the reconfiguration.

Regarding the fuel bid, Director of Facilities Bill Brackett aligned with the Keystone Purchasing Network Consortium for the last couple of years and had two companies provide bids.

For ultra low sulfer diesel, Brackett is recommending a fluctuating price of $2.6436 per gallon. The firm price was $2.6722 per gallon.

There were no bids for the fluctuating price for 87 octaine unleaded so he is recommending the firm bid for $2.8896 per gallon.

He said the district uses approximately 30,000 gallons of diesel fuel. Brackett said it is actually a little more than that but the district is “on the hook to pay for a higher amount if it isn’t used. If we go over 30,000 we pay current rate after that.”

Coordinator of Technology Chris Smith provided an update on the E-Rate project.

E-Rate is a federal funded program making telecommunications and information services affordable to schools and libraries. The project was started in 2022. Through this program, the district was eligible for a 40% reduction in costs.

The project included replacing outdated equipment, improving Internet connectivity and providing additional security.

“There were a lot of challenges; lots of moving parts moving from 1 GB to 10 GB,” Smith said. “The bigger challenge was supply chain issues. The main switch in the administration building was the last item to come in - it came in this fall. That had to be installed before we could put the project into place. We waited a year and a half with 98% of internal access points up. The work will be finished in the summer.”

Smith said 360 degree Wi-Fi at the high school will be available for access when the project is completed.

The total cost of the project was $274,547.75 with Salisbury’s share being $109,819.10

Smith and his team were thanked for their work on this project by the board.

Finance committee chair Ian Riccaboni and Chief Financial Officer/Board Secretary Dawn Nickischer provided a year-to-date analysis, a review of the monthly chart of accounts and year-end projections.

Lastly, the committee reviewed the 2024-2025 budget and the proposed 5.3% increase to taxpayers. The adoption of the proposed final budget is expected to be approved at the May 15 meeting with the budget being available for public review May 16. Additional discussion will happen at the June 12 finance and operations committee meeting with final adoption of the budget June 20.

The proposed budget is $46,255,899 for 2024-2025. The 5.3% increase in taxes based on the median residential assessed value of $186,800 would be $225.13.

Nickischer said there are many budget issues still needing resolution.

The state budget still has not been approved so the district does not have an exact amount of funding to be received. There are many pending tax assessment appeals – both owner initiated and district initiated. The number of employee retirements are unknown at this time; professional staff must notify the superintendent at least 60 days prior to retirement. The number of district students attending charter schools in 2024-2025 is also unknown at this point. Nickischer said administration continues to look at savings and additional budget requests.

Fuini-Hetten asked the board for direction on the 5.3% increase; board members gave their approval to proceed.

The next meeting of the operations and finance committee will be 7 p.m. June 12 at the administration building, 1140 Salisbury Road, Allentown.