The Salisbury Township School District Board of Directors held an operations and finance committee meeting Sept. 10 to review the master facilities plan, discuss budgeting for the high school HVAC replacement and receive an update on the audit process.

Director of Facilities Bill Brackett and CHA engineers Bill Niswender and Matt Fornes began the meeting with an update of the district’s 5-year master facilities plan. According to Niswender, the buildings overall are in good condition due to past renovations and regular upkeep.

After reviewing the 2025 completed projects including the Salisbury Elementary School library configuration and the installation of a fire alarm system at the middle school, they presented an overview of upcoming projects through 2030.

In the coming year, several paving and concrete projects are on the docket while in 2027, work on the high school chiller and upgrades to the middle school athletic fields dominated the discussion. The board discussed pricing and options for turning over and reseeding or resodding the soccer and softball fields as well as correcting persistent drainage issues. Completing this work is not only costly but the fields will not be usable for a significant amount of time creating a space issue for scheduled games and practices.

During 2028, the plan is to upgrade the electronic access hardware in the elementary and middle schools to match that of the high school and to install closed circuit TV systems in all schools. Expenditures during this year will be less in light of the 2029 full HVAC replacement at the high school at a cost of $11.6 million.

Niswender cautioned that due to the size of the high school, this project may run into 2030 and possibly 2031 before it is completed.

Directors Ian Riccaboni and Sarah Nemitz questioned whether it would be advantageous to either move the HVAC project up one year or spread the project out over three years so payments could be made over three years. Niswender said both are viable possibilities and the job could be done in phases.

Brackett went on to discuss in detail the various concrete and paving projects slated for 2026 with the goal of receiving approval to begin moving forward with the master facilities plan and in turn, securing bids for the work to be done next year.

Chief Financial Officer Dawn Nickischer added she had budgeted $500,000 for the concrete work and while the total cost for the work is over budget, she is confident the difference can be made up with earned interest.

Nickischer informed the board the Act 1 Index for the fiscal year 2026-2027 is 3.5%. She also wanted to make the board aware there are a large number of assessment appeals in the offing due to an unnamed law firm targeting taxable office buildings offering to help them find ways to reduce their taxes. She expressed concern as this may cause a reduction in assessments and the board needs to be aware of this for planning and budgeting purposes.

In her finance report, Nickisher reported the audit process has begun and the goal is to try and complete the audit before the Thanksgiving break.

She also presented a side-by-side comparison of the Forecast5 year-end projections with the CSUI year-end projections and clarified discrepancies brought up during the August operations and finance committee meeting by Director Laura McKelvey. The CSUI system will save the district $18,000 annually.

The Salisbury Township School Board will hold an operations and finance committee meeting 7 p.m. Oct. 8. A curriculum and technology meeting followed by a regular school board meeting will be held 7 p.m. Sept. 17. All meetings are held in the administration building, 1140 Salisbury Road, Allentown.