The Salisbury Township Board of Directors held a regular school board meeting Sept. 17 to vote on a new health plan option, approve personnel changes and receive board reports.

The board voted to approve the financial report with dissenting votes from Directors Thomas Spinner and Laura McKelvey. The report reflects expenditures, investments and the current status of the land sale money through August.

During the curriculum and technology portion of the meeting, the board approved a special education placement agreement for a student, the seventh grade Learning Lab curriculum and an agreement with Intermediate Unit 20 for equitable Title I services for a student attending a nonpublic school.

The operations committee portion of the meeting brought a motion to approve a high deductible health plan option available for confidential administrative assistants and administrators. Coordinator of Human Resources Ralph Lovelidge explained the plan in detail outlining cost savings for members who chose this option. The motion was passed.

The board also approved additions to the district’s school per capita tax in the amount of $90.

Personnel committee matters were next up on the agenda starting with the retirement of Nancy Fenstermaker who served the district for 10 years as both an instructional assistant and an administrative assistant.

The board rescinded the appointment of instructional assistant Rachel Wolff due to failure to commence employment retroactive to Aug. 25.

New hires receiving approval include John Sigafoos, full-time music teacher, chorus director, concert band director and jazz band director, Nneka Ortiz, full-time special education teacher, Erin Bross, full-time business/information and technology teacher, Chase Anthony, full-time family and consumer science teacher and Victoria Unangst, middle school cheerleader coach.

Also approved were Christopher Butynnskyi and Erin Bross who will serve as co-freshman class advisers and Jeannie Zettlemoyer and Shayla Adams as co- student council advisers at Salisbury High School.

Approval was granted for Barry Frick and Stanley Griffis to mentor John Sigafoos and Elizabeth Kantzaridis who will mentor Nneko Ortiz.

Performance objectives for both the superintendent and assistant superintendent for the 2025-2026 school year were also approved.

Several policies were approved for final reading and adoption during the policy committee portion of the meeting.

During board member reports, the board approved an agreement with the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21 for TransPerfect Remote Interpreters products and services for the 2025-2026 school year.

Lehigh Carbon Community College liaison Sam DeFrank reported the number of students attending this fall was up 2.1% although the number of credit hours was down. There was an uptick in dual enrollment students.

He also explained how the college is being affected by the impasse in the governor’s budget and the plan going forward.

Additionally, he presented a summary of the completed capital projects noting the cost of the projects and the amount of grant money obtained from the state and federal government to help defray costs.

Lehigh Career and Technical Institute board member Sarah Nemitz reported the student population for the current year is nearing 2,600 students.

She highlighted some of the upgrades that have taken place over the summer months including new dental equipment, cosmetology lab and web design furniture as well as fresh paint in lab spaces completed by students in the painting and design program.

In her superintendent’s report, Lynn Fuini-Hetten noted the professional learning area of focus this year is navigating AI in schools. Policies have already been approved and administration is continuing to work on administrative regulations, providing information for students as well as generating discussions with department chairs.

Applications for this year’s Alumni Wall of Honor are due by Oct. 1 in the district office.

Fuini-Hetten also announced a Falcon Pride promotional video is in the works in partnership with 2025 Alumni Wall of Honor recipient and Emmy award winner Rocky Urich and his FireRock Productions company. This yearlong project is currently in the planning stages and will most likely be completed by the fall of 2026.

Students in grades 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 will be administered the Pennsylvania Youth Survey Oct. 22. Information gathered will be compared to results from 2023 to identify any areas of concern or positive outcomes attributed to changes made after analyzing the 2023 results.

Fuini-Hetten reported she attended an LCTI PAC Strategic Thinking Summit where multi-craft manufacturing was discussed as a future pathway for LCTI students.

In an effort to promote consistent attendance, the district is promoting a “Falcons Strive for 5” program. Attendance rates are tracked at each grade level and published in the community update.

She expressed her appreciation to the Salisbury Education Foundation which has awarded six mini-grants for special projects, supplies and books for teachers to utilize in their classrooms for the betterment of students.

The Salisbury Township School District board will hold an operations and finance committee meeting 7 p.m. Oct. 8 and a regular school board meeting 7 p.m. Oct. 15. All meetings are held in the administration building, 1140 Salisbury Road, Allentown.