The Salisbury Township School District operations and finance committee held a meeting June 12 where they heard an update on the ongoing care of the athletic fields, continued a discussion concerning facilities space recommendations and reviewed the details of the final budget.

Directors Laura McKelvey and Thomas Spinner were not in attendance.

During the citizens comments portion of the meeting, Ellie Al-Khal expressed her concern over an administrative decision to allocate a teacher in second grade rather than in fourth grade despite fourth grade class sizes topping 26-27 students. She noted the average class size in other grade levels was 19-21 students and remarked these fourth graders were the cohort of students who began their kindergarten year online. She believes allocating a fifth teacher at the fourth grade level is a “cost neutral” solution to alleviate the large class sizes.

Director of Facilities Bill Brackett provided an update about the condition of the baseball field and provided an overview of the ongoing care of the district’s athletic fields.

In his presentation he noted the turf at the stadium field will be groomed and fluffed, the varsity softball field will be edged and work will be done on the softball, baseball and football practice fields to improve drainage. The soccer, field hockey and practice fields will be aerated and seeded and work will be done on the press box gutters to redirect rainwater.

The next item on the agenda was a continued discussion of the facilities space recommendation. District Superintendent Lynn Fuini-Hetten recapped last month’s discussion which centered around renovating A Pod in Salisbury Elementary School to convert four kindergarten classrooms into a total of six classrooms. Additionally, there is a need to increase security in the library.

In her presentation, Fuini-Hetten informed the board this school year a co-teaching model will be implemented at each grade level so it is possible that classroom space needs may shift after the pilot is complete and needs are re-evaluated. She also noted dividing A Pod into six classrooms will only yield one classroom due to the need for three classrooms to be utilized by interventionists.

Taking into account projected enrollments and possible class sizes, Fuini-Hetten acknowledged the concerns presented by Al-Khal about class sizes in fourth grade. She also explained how co-teaching affects class size due to a lower number of students in a co-teaching classroom.

Looking ahead to special education programming for the upcoming year, it will be necessary to add a new autistic support classroom based on the needs of early intervention students.

When comparing updated pricing for three or six full-size modular classrooms, the totals reflected an outlay of $1.9 million and $2.5 million respectively, versus creating additional spaces within the existing building which totaled $1.7 million.

Fuini-Hetten continued her presentation by explaining more about the co-teaching model. The purpose of a co-teaching model is to create a more inclusive environment to best meet the needs of special education students and allow them to engage with their peers of the same age. Implementation of this model allows two or more teachers to work together to plan, organize and deliver instruction.

As Dr. Tracey Jacoby, director of special education, remarked, the concept of co-teaching isn’t new but the main benefit is a special-education teacher will be dedicated to one classroom except when they will be teaching in a small group instructional setting. In the past, a special-education teacher was assigned to multiple classrooms.

Several board members expressed their approval of the co-teaching model including Carol Klinger who successfully taught students using this model. Other board members asked for further clarifications related to what the model looks like in a classroom, the benefits for the regular and special education students and whether parents of regular education students will be notified that their child will be in a co-teaching classroom.

The next topic of discussion was the cost for aesthetic renovations within the Salisbury Elementary building as previously requested by some board members. Andrew Mather with D’Huy Engineering projected a total cost for one floor in one pod to total $664,000. There are six pods in the building.

Other renovations aligned with board requests include new flooring in SES and Salisbury Middle School at a cost of $12,000 per classroom for a grand total of $672,000, replacing carpeting in the library at a cost of $20,000 and replacement of carpet on music room risers totaling $7,500.

While pricing for these renovations were obtained, the administration recommended only two projects for completion. The first is the library project which reconfigures spaces, adds a small group space and increases library security and comes at a cost of $390,000. The second project entails installing a door near the cafeteria/gym area to allow access to the restrooms from the cafeteria and enclosing small group spaces totaling $15,000.

After a brief discussion the board decided to move ahead with the door installation project which will come to a vote during the next regular school board meeting.

Director Ian Riccaboni remarked that funding for the project could be covered by interest earned from the recent land sale.

During the finance committee portion of the meeting, finance committee chair 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.

Nickischer went on to discuss the final budget which has seen no changes since it was presented in May. Currently, the governor’s budget has not yet been passed and it will most likely not be passed before the June 30 deadline.

The proposed budget for 2024-2025 is $46,255,899 which matches expenditures. The 5.3% tax increase will yield $1,595,766 with an increase of $225 per household based on the median residential assessed value of 186,800.

The additional $1.5 million tax increase will not cover the increased budget cost drivers for the coming year. These budget drivers include a $1.3 million increase in personnel salaries and benefits, a $620,000 increase in special education costs, a $222,000 increase in insurance costs and a $164,000 increase in charter school tuition.

A vote on the final budget will take place at the June 20 regular school board meeting.

Director Rebecca Glenister questioned whether it is possible to add one more teacher position to alleviate large class numbers especially at the fourth grade level. As mentioned earlier, one of the two teaching positions added to the proposed budget was reallocated to staff an additional autistic support classroom due to student needs.

Both Fuini-Hetten and Nickischer explained the problem with adding a new position is the ability to fund the position in the future as it is a recurring expenditure of approximately $80,000-$100,000. The money can be taken from the fund balance but this line of spending has caused the district financial problems in the past.

Fuini-Hetten also informed the board the district has recently been notified federal funding has been decreased by $75,000 which will need to be made up by the district.

In new business, Joseph Gnall apprised the board concerning the recent selection of Sarah Oswald as the new director of student activities. The board will be asked to support the administration’s recommendation to hire Oswald at the next school board meeting.

The next regular school board meeting will be held 7 p.m. June 20 at the administration building, 1140 Salisbury Road, Allentown.