Salem County school board awards $2.25M construction contract, raises minimum wage and approves personnel and program actions

The Board of Education for the Special Services School District and the Vocational Technical School District of Salem County approved a $2,250,000 contract for the Salem County Career and Technical High School 2024 Addition and Renovations project and a series of personnel, funding and service actions at its Dec. 18, 2023 regular meeting in Woodstown.

The board voted to award GA#21-125 to Straga Brothers, Inc., covering the base bid plus Alternate #1 for the SCVTS addition and renovation project. The contract award and other agenda items were recorded as approved during roll call. The minutes record the contract amount as $2,250,000.

Why it matters: the contract funds capital work at the county career and technical high school that the board identified on its agenda for 2024 construction and renovation. The same meeting also approved related operational and staffing measures that affect the district's budget and services.

In personnel and compensation actions, the board approved increasing the district minimum wage for 2024 to $15.37 per hour (the minutes note the 2023 rate as $14.13). The board approved multiple hires and personnel changes across both districts, including hires for instructional and related-services roles, FMLA and leave requests, and retirements. Notable personnel approvals recorded in the minutes include hiring Melissa Bundy as a career mentor/instructional basic skills teacher (Adult Post Secondary and Literacy Programs), Gianna Rodriguez as a speech therapist for early intervention, and several paraprofessionals and part-time instructors. The board also approved payment for unused sick and vacation days for retiring staff, and recorded the termination of an employee (An'Yah Kent) for job abandonment effective Nov. 30, 2023.

The board accepted several grants and program agreements. It approved acceptance of additional WIOA Title II FY24 state match funds in the amount of $49,238, additional Perkins secondary funding of $15,639, and a Memorandum of Agreement with the New Jersey Department of Education to administer GED testing through Dec. 31, 2027. The board also approved an Authorized Test Center Agreement with Pearson VUE for GED testing at a Salem Community College satellite site, a High School Plus agreement with Camden County College and a dual-credit agreement with Salem Community College.

Contract and facilities actions approved at the meeting include: renewal or award of vendor contracts and service agreements (including a Soliant Health LLC contract to provide physical therapy services at $88 per hour through June 7, 2024), replacement of door locks at the Cumberland campus by Oak Security LLC for $26,233.01, a contract with Xtel to replace an expired Windstream POTS-line contract, tree removal and trimming at Daretown by Bergholz’s Tree Experts for $7,500, and a concrete pad installation at Cumberland by W.J. Gross for $11,100. The board also approved payroll and warrants for SCVTS and SCSSSD including monthly payrolls and bill lists recorded in the minutes.

Student- and program-level approvals included creating student activity funds for girls soccer and girls volleyball, renaming The Friends of Rachel’s Club to the Salem Tech Impact Club, approval of field trips and facility uses for the 2023–24 school year, and approval of Extended School Year (ESY) dates running July 8–Aug. 15, 2024. The board approved the AFJROTC cadet participation in the Wreaths Across America event at Fort Mott on Dec. 16, 2023 (four cadets, chaperoned; no cost to the district).

The minutes record retirement resolutions approved for Jean Pilieri, Laurie Taormino and Eva Helen Hoffman, and acceptance of smaller insurance-incentive payments from the GCSSD JIF totaling amounts cited in the minutes for both districts.

The board adopted an executive-session resolution listing personnel, negotiation, legal, finance and safety matters as permissible closed-session subjects. The minutes indicate the meeting proceeded to executive session and later adjourned.

Record-note on the minutes: the board minutes header and several agenda headings are dated Dec. 18, 2023; one paragraph within the opening text also references a meeting “held ... on Tuesday, November 21, 2023.” The record includes multiple, inconsistent time stamps for executive session and adjournment. Those inconsistencies appear in the posted minutes document and were not resolved within the text; this summary uses Dec. 18, 2023 as the meeting date because it is the date used in the minutes' title and repeated agenda headers.

The board listed administrators and attendees in the minutes, including Superintendent John Swain and Assistant Superintendents/Board Secretaries Frank Maurer and Dr. Jennifer Bates. The meeting record shows routine board business completed and adjournment later in the evening.