Salladasburg Elementary School. SUN-GAZETTE FILE PHOTO

JERSEY SHORE — Emotions ran high and tempers hot after the Jersey Shore Area School board voted 6-3 to close Salladasburg Elementary School.

Vows from parents to pull their children out of district schools and threats of voting out the current board in next year’s election followed the decision which, although swift, has been years in the making.

School closure has been a topic in the district for some time, though perhaps a vote last year by the former board members had lured district parents into thinking that the issue was settled. Students had been moved to the smaller Salladasburg facility to even out class sizes and everyone was told it was time to move on. But a new board sworn in at the beginning of this year soon resurrected the topic, and following a 90-day cooling off period, which ended with the vote this week, closure became a reality for students and faculty at Salladasburg.

To say parents were unhappy with the decision, would be to understate the situation.

“You made a comment about how there’s a lot of emotion here,” said district parent Brandi Carothers.

“How can we not be emotional about our children? These are our children and their best interest is supposed to be what’s at stake here, not the dollar amount you’re saving,” she said.

The amount of money saved by closing Salladasburg had been estimated at just over $800,000, but parents contended that amount will be offset by the cost incurred when a number of students who will be taken out of the district to attend charter and cyber charter schools. The cost for that to the district could be over $600,000 for 50 students.

One argument for keeping the Salladasburg school open was its smaller size. Parents liked the fact that the staff there knew their children and interacted with them. They fear when the 200 students are assimilated into the larger Jersey Shore Elementary School, that would be lost.

The frustration of the parents both before and after the vote was obvious. They argued that the board was not listening to them and not doing what they wanted, which was to keep the school going.

A petition circulating in the district in favor of keeping Salladasburg open had been signed by over 400 parents.

“I’m wondering why 433 voices of people who signed the petition to not close the school doesn’t hold any weight,” Lauren Crouch, a district parent, said. “Do they matter?”

Like many of the parents, Crouch urged the board to put the students first and not focus so much on the finances.

“They should matter first,” Crouch said.

“To each of you,” she said addressing the school board, “it seems like all of this talk of buildings and borrowing money and spending and all the back and forth between sides for the last several years, that somehow the kids have gotten last lost in the mix and what’s best them has not taken a priority.”

Another issue which both sides of the argument — for and against closure — mentioned was school safety. Parents argued that students were safer, in the event of an emergency, to be in the Salladasburg school, which is one floor and could be exited easily, as opposed to Jersey Shore Elementary (JSE) which has two floors.

However, board member Jessie Edwards said she felt that having students in the borough at JSE would make response times by first responders quicker so that would be the safer location.

Once the vote was taken, with only board members Michael Allen, Kayla Calhoun and Mary Thomas on the side of keeping the school open, the room erupted with frustrated parents leaving. Others stayed to voice their anger.

Raye Bierly, a district resident who has been vocal at past meetings about her opposition to the closure, said that she feels sad about the board’s decision because the students who will be affected have been through a lot of things in their educational journey.

“What makes me sad about this vote to close Salladasburg or Avis or any school, is the fact that this is happening for our COVID kids — our kids whose lives have already been disrupted by the COVID pandemic. Kids who are falling behind and trying to catch up and you’re putting one more blockade in their way by expecting them to transition to a completely new environment. And that just makes me very sad,” Bierly said.

Bierly also accused the board of having a lack of respect for the parents.

“I was taught by my parents that respect is a two-way street and that respect is earned. It’s not freely given and not necessarily something that you get to have forever,” Bierly said.

“Think about us,” Bierly said. “We sit here in these meetings, month, week, over and over and over and bring good questions, hard questions and we’re greeted with nothingness, blank states, people kind of twiddling with their papers and never get answers to these questions. Is that respect to us?”

One resident urged everyone to look ahead to December when the board reorganizes in hopes that a new president will be chosen.

“We need someone from this board, whoever it is, to step up and bring this community back together to move forward,” he said.

The closure will take place at the end of the current school year and students from Salladasburg will be moved to JSE for the start of the 2025-26 school year.

Board members who voted in favor of closing were: Cheri Peters, Bill Pfirman, Tim Mc Donnell, Michelle Stemler, Harry Brungard and Edwards.