Salladasburg Elementary School. KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

JERSEY SHORE — Efforts to change the leadership at the Jersey Shore Area School board failed as the president, vice president and treasurer — all of whom voted for closure of the Salladasburg Elementary School at the last meeting — retained those positions. The vote took place during the reorganizational meeting this week.

Michelle Stemler remains president of the board, Harry Brungard is vice-president and Tim McDonnell, treasurer. Kayla Calhoun, who agreed to continue as assistant board secretary, was the only member of the slate of officers that voted to keep Salladasburg open.

Although the vote for school closure was taken two weeks ago, the anger from some community members has not cooled as several of those people spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting, giving voice to their concerns.

“I’d like to make a simple request that the board rescind its vote to close Salladasburg Elementary School, a vote that was taken without the necessary planning and preparation to make such an impactful decision; a vote that I fear, if allowed to stand, has the potential to do real harm to both students and taxpayers in our district,” said district resident Raye Bierly.

“The board depends on its administrative team to do that planning and to provide the information necessary for the board to make a truly informed decision that is in the best interest of all in our district,” she added.

Bierly claimed the administrative team and the superintendent had failed to do this, contending that there was no formal plan developed to determine what would be needed at the Jersey Shore Elementary (JSE) to accommodate the students transferring from Salladasburg and what the associated costs would be.

“There was no traffic study to determine how bringing these students to JSE would impact traffic flow in the borough. No transportation study has been completed to inform board members of the scope of the impact on our youngest student bus riders. No evaluation of the available free yard space at JSC and whether there was enough room for outdoor recess with that increased student population, no development of an evacuation plan for students and staff, no study of how the cafeteria schedule would be affected by the influx with over 200 young children …” Bierly said.

She contended the superintendent did not respond to questions submitted online after the school closure hearing.

“Dozens and dozens of questions asked by both board members and residents have been ignored-questions whose answers were needed before an informed decision could have been made,” she said.

Bierly noted that a petition with over 400 signatures of district residents had been submitted supporting a no-close vote. She stated that the petition had been ignored.

“The superintendent failed to properly submit a grant request for Salladasburg Elementary that could have provided millions of dollars to do the needed renovations to that building,” Bierly claimed.

The board, she said, never looked into options other than closing, even though the public had been asking that the superintendent and the board do that before considering closure.

“We didn’t talk about how much fund balance could be used to pay the interest if we borrowed. We didn’t talk about waiting until the debt was paid off to borrow or about the fact our buildings are well maintained by district staff and require no immediate renovations,” Bierly said.

“Oh, but the public talked about these things. We talked about them until we were blue in the face, but it seems all the board heard was the superintendent telling them over and over and over again, their only option was to close Salladasburg,” she continued.

“The board needs to talk about all of these things, and by rescinding this vote to close, the board will have additional time to do just that, and then decide if they even need to close the school, which I hope they will find out that they don’t,” she said.

Several other district residents spoke, all but one in favor of rescinding the vote.

Superintendent Dr. Brian Ulmer had reported to the board that the administrative team had been meeting to work on the “action plan for movement of staff and resources at Salladasburg Elementary.”

“I have also met with both the teachers’ association and the teachers themselves at Salladasburg to start dealing with their questions and concerns,” Ulmer said.

The next meeting of the board will be at 7 p.m. Jan. 13 at the District Administration Building, 175 A&P Drive.