Photo by Gwen Sour Fort Frye Superintendent Stephanie Starcher discusses meeting items with Fort Frye Board of Education President Lloyd Booth before Thursday’s board meeting.

LOWER SALEM – Fort Frye Board of Education met Thursday at Salem-Liberty Elementary School for its regular monthly meeting.

Lowell Elementary School is now open to bid for the restoration process following a unanimous vote from the board.

The project aims to begin in the summer of 2025 and the probable cost is estimated around $1.5 million. There are already plans to work with East Ohio Gas to run gas into the Lowell Elementary building to switch to gas heat during the winter months.

Bids are anticipated to begin in September, according to Stephanie Starcher, the superintendent of Fort Frye School District.

“We’ll go to bid in September, and then we have a meeting to set up to go over those bids,” said Starcher.

Starcher also mentioned that the Building & Grounds Committee is finishing up smaller projects around the school district, which are mainly paving projects. Following a recent storm in the area, water began to pool in certain paved areas around the district and there are plans with the committee to repair these zones. Additionally, the committee is still working on collecting donations and grants to develop a greenhouse within the school district.

The cellphone survey that was suggested at last month’s meeting has been postponed due to the district releasing a survey on bullying within the district. The bullying survey went out to staff, students and parents to figure out the main source of the issue and how it was affecting students within the district. The district then plans on taking action pending the results of the survey.

Starcher said that the cellphone survey, when it is released, will be sent out to staff, parents and students in grades 9-12. The current cellphone policy dictates that students in those grades are allowed to have their cellphones between classes, before school, after school and at lunch.

The current policy has faced issues, according to Starcher.

“I think one of the common incidents was that we weren’t being consistent as a staff and administration,” she said.

Fort Frye Local School District saw the resignation of Cappi Kehl, Allison Bates and Sabra Lanning. There, however, was the employment of five new employees in the district: Lisa Treadway as an educational aide at Salem-Liberty Elementary School, Kelly Casto as a van driver for Ewing School, Ashley Huck as a cook at Fort Frye Middle and High Schools, Charlene Canterbury as an auxiliary clerk at St. John’s Central Elementary School and Janet Crum as a Title I teacher at St. John’s Central Elementary School.

The next board of education meeting will take place on Sept. 19 at 5:30 p.m. in the Beverly-Center Elementary School.

Gwen Sour can be reached at gsour@newsandsentinel.com