Salem Grade School Superintendent Dr. Leslie Foppe says it will not be feasible to have a separate administrative building north of Hawthorn School. The board discussed the idea at its February meeting to free up space at Hawthorn and Franklin Park for student activities. However, at the time the board agreed to the concept only if available ESSER III federal COVID relief funds and one cent sales tax revenue was sufficient to pay the cost.
“Every time something would come up it was cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, it’s just getting more and more out of control. So its better to just pull the plug, which is what we said we would do if it wasn’t within the realm of being able to do. I don’t feel comfortable doing it, so it’s better to go with other ideas because there are other things that do need to be done.”
At Hawthorn Grade School, Foppe says they are now looking at door replacement this summer.
“Franklin Park we were lucky when we did our renovation that we could do our exterior doors. The exterior doors at Hawthorn are original to the building. There are some classrooms where you can see space and they don’t latch well and just the age of things. And a lot of kids going in and out these doors.”
Foppe says they are also looking at replacement of the original hot water heater at Hawthorn. She reports those projects will not qualify for ESSER III but would be life safety projects.
At Franklin Park, Foppe wants to begin replacing classroom carpeting with tile.
“Whenever we had the HVAC system put in, we knew they were going to destroy the carpet that was already hurting. And it has gotten worse and worse. So that’s another thing I talked to our architect about if that is something that can be used with Health Safety money as well, and he said it absolutely can.”
Foppe says that project would also possibly qualify for funding through the remaining ESSER III money that has to be spent by September 30th. She’s looking at starting in the 5th and 6th grade area this summer and continuing the project in future years.
Foppe will be bringing more information about the proposed projects to the board at a special meeting or at the April meeting.
The board approved Monday, April 8th, as a teacher workshop day with no student attendance due to traffic concerns with the full solar eclipse that day.
The school calendar for next year was adopted, with the first day of student attendance on August 15th. The calendar includes a two week Christmas break and one week spring break prior to Easter.
A Salem woman who allegedly left a threatening voicemail at the school threatening students and the driver of a specific bus has been barred from school events and school property for one calendar year. Marisa Starnes did not appear at a public hearing held before the board took a vote on the issue. Foppe says contact with school busses would be included in the Denial of Admission. The February report on the incident from Salem Police is still under review by the Marion County State’s Attorney’s office for possible criminal charges with no decision made.
