Trending
Lillie Langlois
Cummings Township
At the Jersey Shore Area School Board meeting on Monday, Nov. 11, the board voted 6 to 3 to close Salladasburg Elementary School. Very few details have been given this year as to how this will happen, but we know it will take effect in the next school year 2025-2026. Superintendent Dr. Brian Ulmer stated that all ~215 Salladasburg students will be moved to Jersey Shore Elementary School, which currently has around 490 students.
JSASD is highly dysfunctional. Just last year (April 2023), the previous school board voted to keep Salladasburg open and redistributed students across the three elementary schools. This decision was partially made to satisfy JSE parents and teachers who complained it was too crowded. Now, JSE parents -- tell your kids to make room for the 200+ Salladasburg students to move in next year.
The board members who voted in favor of closing Salladasburg included two members who voted to close in 2023, Michelle Stemler and Jessie Edwards, plus four new board members: Harry Brungard, Tim McDonnell, Cheri Peters and Bill Pfirman. Three of the new board members have not publicly asked questions or engaged in any discussion about this huge decision. Instead, they remained silent and cast their vote to close.
If you don't like this new scenario, there is still time to voice your opinion -- you can email the entire board or your board representative, or better yet show up at the next meeting (Tuesday Dec. 3 at 7p.m.).
If you do not want to send your child to JSE next year with 700+ students, there is a team of parents banding together to find alternatives. Watch the recent school board meeting recordings and find out who to contact. We don't have to stand for this.