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

It comes after years of decision-making, though swift, with parents vowing to pull their children from district schools and threatening to vote for the current board in next year’s election.

School closures have been an issue in the district for some time, but perhaps a vote by former board members last year convinced district parents that the issue was resolved. Students had been moved to the smaller facility in Salladasburg to equalize class sizes, and everyone was told it was time to go. But the new board, sworn in earlier this year, quickly revived the issue, and after a 90-day waiting period that ended with a vote this week, the closure became a reality for students and faculty at Salladasburg.

To say that the parents were unhappy with the decision would be an understatement.

“You made a comment about how much emotion is going on here,” district parent Brandi Carothers said.

“How can we not be emotional towards our children? “These are our children, and their interests should be at stake here, not the dollar amount you save,” he said.

The amount of money saved by closing Salladasburg was estimated at just over $800,000, but parents argued that this amount would be offset by the cost incurred if some students were moved out of the district to attend charter and cyber charter schools. This could cost the district over $600,000 for 50 students.

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

Parents’ disappointment before and after the vote was obvious. They argued that the board did not listen to them and did not provide what they wanted, which was to keep the school going.

More than 400 parents signed a petition circulating in the region to keep Salladasburg open.

“I wonder why the voices of the 433 people who signed the petition to not close the school don’t matter at all,” district parent Lauren Crouch said. “Does any of this matter?”

Like most parents, Crouch urged the board to put students first and not focus too much on finances.

“Those things have to matter first,” Crouch said.

“It seems to each of you that all this talk and back-and-forth between the parties over the last few years about buildings and borrowing and spending has somehow suggested that kids come last,” he told the school board, addressing the school board. They got lost in the mix and what was best was not prioritized.”

Another issue that both sides of the debate for and against closure talked about was school safety. Parents argued that in case of emergency, it is safer for students to stay at the single-story and easily accessible Salladasburg school rather than the two-story Jersey Shore Elementary School (JSE). But board member Jessie Edwards said she felt having students in the district at JSE would speed up response times for first responders and therefore make it a safer place.

After the vote was taken, with only board members Michael Allen, Kayla Calhoun and Mary Thomas in favor of keeping the school open, the room erupted as angry parents left. Others stayed to vent their anger.

District resident Raye Bierly, who has voiced opposition to the closure at past meetings, said she was saddened by the board’s decision because the students who will be affected have been through a lot in their educational journey.

“What saddens me about this vote to close Salladasburg, or Avis, or any school, is that this is happening for our children whose lives have already been disrupted by the COVID pandemic—our Covid-19 children. You put another block in front of the children who are left behind and trying to catch up, expecting them to move on to a brand new environment. “This makes me very sad,” Bierly said.

Bierly also accused the board of not respecting parents.

“My parents taught me that respect is a two-way street and respect is earned. It’s not something that’s freely given and it’s not something you necessarily have forever,” Bierly said.

“Think of us,” Bierly said. “We sit in these meetings again and again, month after week, and we bring good questions, hard questions, and we encounter nothingness, empty situations, people fiddling with their cards, and we never get answers to those questions. Is this respect for us?

One resident urged everyone to look ahead to December, when the board will be reorganized in the hope that a new president will be elected.

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

The closing will occur at the end of the current school year, and Salladasburg students will move to JSE at the start of the 2025-26 school year.

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