At Tuesday night’s Blairsville-Saltsburg School Board meeting, discussion continued on the closure of the Saltsburg Middle-High school, including what the next steps are going to be in the process, and an amendment to the resolution passed last Thursday night.
During his presentation, superintendent Philip Martel showed that one of the biggest advantages to the district reconfiguration plan was the eventual savings from early retirement incentives. Martel said that about $7.1 million would be saved in five years time and about $10.6 million in savings in nine years.
During the meeting, the board approved by a 6-3 vote a resolution that makes a change to the resolution detailing the permanent closure of Saltsburg Middle-High School. The change was to have the final day of operations at the school be June 30th. Not only does that have the closure fall in line with the end of the district’s fiscal year, but it also will extend a notification window should the district need to furlough teachers, according to board president Rick Harper.
A second resolution was approved by a similar margin, which details the administration’s next steps in the reconfiguration process, including developing plans for the reassignment of students and staff, developing a new master schedule and proceeding with the creation of the STEAM campus at the Saltsburg Middle-High School Building.
Harper also took an informal poll on whether or not to bring kindergarten to fifth grade students back to the district for the end of the school year, but the idea was not given a positive reception. The return would happen after the PSSA tests were administered and there would only be a few weeks left in the year, so there was in the board’s opinion, no point in moving forward with bringing the elementary grades back to the classroom.
