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SALEM--Salem City Schools will see several new faces in administrative positions beginning in the 2023-2024 school year.
Monday's board of education meeting saw the board approve the retirement, and the resignation of two long-serving district principals. Southeast Elementary Principal Lisa DeRose officially began her retirement. Junior Senior High School Associate Principal Hank Brock has left the district to begin a new position.
DeRose' impending retirement was first announced in the board's June meeting, with her successor Jenny Pancake being hired at the same meeting. However, DeRose' retirement was only approved by the board and made official Monday. DeRose served 34 years in public education; 15 of which were as the principal of Southeast Elementary.
Superintendent Sean Kirkland said that he would miss DeRose, and that he had come to truly appreciate her advice as an administrator in his time as superintendent.
"I can tell you that over the last for years I don't think there's been anyone in the administration I've called more often than her for advice other than Dr. Shivers, so I'm going to miss her because her advice and genuine care for the decision I was making and the advice she was giving me was always truly appreciated," said Kirkland.
Kirkland's glowing comments on DeRose continued noting that DeRose's incredible skills as an administrator and an educator would be apparent to anyone entering Southeast Elementary.
"If you walked into her building it didn't take you long to understand it was a really, really well-run building; and if you spent any time in that building and saw Lisa at her craft, the number one things you'd realize was her ability to create relationships that were genuine with her kids, the parents of those kids, and with her colleagues," said Kirkland.
Kirkland and the board thanked DeRose for her decades of dedicated service to the district and its students, presenting her with a large gift basket in celebration of her retirement.
"Salem is a better place because you were here, Southeast is a better place because you were there," said Kirkland.
DeRose said that she had loved her time in the district and that while she was happy to be retiring, she would miss education, and would miss the students.
"I have loved my time here, and what I've done here and having the opportunity to do it, and I appreciate everyone supporting as I had my highs and lows every day, I'm going to miss it," said DeRose
Kirkland said that Brock had been with the district for approximately 17 years, the bulk of which were as associate principle. Kirkland said that Brock had filled what could be a very taxing position well for years with compassion, loyalty, and generosity.
"Hank was one of the most caring, generous, loyal, hardworking men I have ever met. He was a teddy bear at heart and wore his emotions on his sleeve most of the time; but he did a job that's extremely hard to do for a long period of time. An assistant principal's job is tough, it can be negative, from a wide group of people," said Kirkland. "Typically, kids aren't happy because you're dealing out the consequences, parents aren't happy because you're calling them all the time about their kid that's getting a detention, teachers aren't happy teachers usually aren't happy with you because you didn't give out a hard enough consequence. So nobody is usually happy with you and that's a tough position to be in and it can weigh on you after time, and Hank was a strong individual with some big shoulders and handled it really well."
Kirkland said that in spite of his superlative ability in the role, Brock missed interacting with and teaching students more directly, taking a teaching position with the Springfield City School District to re-enter the classroom.
"He missed, he truly truly missed, being around the kids and that's where he wanted to get back to, he wanted to be with them. He used to coach quite a bit, but he's had some problems with his back and can't quite do those things like he used to, but he has the opportunity at Springfield to get back into the classroom," said Kirkland.
Monday's meeting also saw the board approve the hire of Brock's successor Melanie Carfolo, who will have an annual salary of $85,000, the same as the recently hire Pancake. Carfolo comes to the district with extensive administrative experience having served as the Head Director of the Rich Center for Autism, the director of federal programming and special education at East Liverpool City Schools, and the assistant principal at Wellsville High School last year where Kirkland noted she had "turned things around in a year."
Kirkland said that the district had been fortunate to find a new administrator this close to the beginning of the school year.
"We're extremely lucky because it's late in the year to try to hire somebody, especially in an administrative position," said Kirkland.
Kirkland explained that when they had completed the hiring process for Pancake in preparation for DeRose's retirement, they had kept the possibility of needing to replace another administrator in mind and maintained contact with the final applicants.
"I remember telling the candidate that didn't make it that night that 'it's literally so close I could flip a coin, and your both phenomenal and I wish I could hire both of you, and if a position comes open, I will come after you and I will recruit you.' I just didn't think it would actually come to fruition, but it did, and thankfully her superintendent is a good guy and let her out of her contract," said Kirkland.
Kirkland concluded his report by announcing that for the first time Salem had received a grant award from the Ohio Department of Transportation in the amount of $240,000 for the Safe Routes to School Program. These funds will be used to enhance students' abilities to walk and bike to school through safety improvements to city sidewalks such as crosswalk, and signage improvements, sidewalk, and sidewalk ramp repairs and replacements, and the installation of school zone beacons at several key locations within the city. The building also saw an update on Reilly Elementary's ongoing program to promote emotional and social growth and development within their student body.
"At Reilly we want to help our kids to succeed in all areas and we want them not only to find academic success, but to be well adjusted kids that can make really good choices," said Reilly Elementary School Principal Cindy Viscounte.
Viscounte explained that to that end, for several years the staff at Reilly had been developing and implementing a social and emotional learning plan. Viscounte said that while the program has already begun to see improvement from those kids struggling with emotional and behavioral issues, with consistent behavioral and communicative improvements; the staff are "ready to up the ante," by adding new educational elements and support structures to the plan.
Thus far the program has focused on giving students the skills to understand, and appropriately express their feelings, as well as how to identify the source of and de-escalate those negative emotions, which can serve as the groundwork for future personal development and provides teachers with vital information. Viscounte explained that by teaching students these skills, teachers can prevent outbursts, and help the students resolve those feelings so that they can better manage future emotional issues.
"So why is that valuable for the teacher to know? Because they don't have to wait for the eruption to happen, they know there's something brewing, and they can be proactive and help that child from the beginning. It might be getting them an extra breakfast, or something sensory, or having them go to the nurse, and take proactive measures; and if they know they're working in partners they'll be mindful of who they're pairing them up with," said Viscounte.
Viscounte said that promoting that growth in emotional management was the current goal now that the students had developed those necessary skills of identification and expression. Viscounte recounted a comparison between developing those skills and building muscle made by the presenter at a recent conference on social and emotional learning in Las Vegas that several members of the Reilly team attended.
"He had two examples that I just thought were excellent, about when we're trying to change the behavior of our kids and improve their choices, and one of them was that it's like building muscles. When we're trying to make a change, and trying to get stronger in an area we have to build our muscles. But for that to happen the child has to take part and they have to do the work; they have to lift the weights if change is going to happen."
"Our role as educators is to spot them, to help them, but not to relieve them of the work because they have to do it. Where it gets tricky is how much do you spot them, because as educators we want to help them, and sometimes we over spot and their muscles don't grow because we alleviate to much of the weight, but if you don't spot them enough or at all they fail, so it's really about finding that central spot where they can grow and get stronger in that area," said Viscounte.
The meeting also saw several administrative and personnel items approved ahead of the start of the upcoming school year.
Personnel items approved included: Pay scale increases for Victoria Paolucci (MA+15 to MA+30), Timothy Taafe (MA to MA+15), Erinn Urioste (BA to BA150), Alex Ring (BA to BA150), Karlyn Lundquist (MA to MA+15), Mark Winn (MA to MA+15); the list of certified and classified substitutes; the hire of Mary Groff as Bus Garage Custodian one-day per pay period; the hire of licensed School Psychologist Larry Truzzie to provide intervention services for Salem students, and counseling services for St. Paul School students; an athletic supplemental for Girls Soccer Team Manager Emma Minamyer; workers for the Junior High Orientation Camp on August 16 and 17; the resignation of Junior/Senior High School Associate Principal Hank Brock; the hire of Junior/Senior High School Associate Principal Melanie Carfolo; the retirement of Southeast Elementary Principal Lisa DeRose, effective Aug. 31; staff for the crisis prevention institute de-escalation and restraint training; the resignation of Southeast Elementary Nurse Leah Minard; the hire of school nurse Devon Brown; a contract addendum for Midde School Principal Matt Ziegler for the period of Aug. 1, 2023, to July 31, 2026, with an annual salary of $85,000 for fiscal year 2024 and increasing two percent in fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2026; and fall game workers for the 2023-2024 school year.
Administrative items approved included: transportation stipends for On-Bus-Instructors Carol Speece, and Brianne Frank; transportation routes for the 2023-2024 school year; in lieu of transportation payments for applicable students; out of town trips cost calculation for the 2023-2024 school year at a rate of $1.20 per mile; Fall game worker positions for the 2023 Fall athletic season; a standby agreement with Emergency Medical Transport to provide medical services for Salem High School events; a contract with Wills Mobility and Vision Services, LLC for the 2023-2024 school year; consulting agreement with SJL Educational Consultants for Professional Development in the form of two sessions, K-6 and 7-12 on October 6, 2023, in the amount of $815.00 for the Professional Development including travel; a contract with GCL Education Services LL., for the LEAP Program for the 2023-2024 school year; and a service agreement between the Columbiana County Educational Service Center Governing Board and St. Paul's School for Title I, Remedial and Intervention services for the 2023-2024 school year.
As the meeting concluded Kirkland gave a reminder of the open house times for the upcoming school year, Kirkland said that the Junior/Senior High School would be holding its open house from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 21, while the district's three elementary schools, Buckeye, Reilly, and Southeast will be hosting open houses from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The first day of school this year will be Aug. 23, and the board of education will meet next 7 p.m. Sept. 25.