For more than fifteen years, the grassroots group Save Our Schools has been fighting to keep the Saltsburg schools open within the Blairsville-Saltsburg School District. Having carried the day until now, the group is gearing up to answer the challenge yet again.
Save Our Schools will hold a rally tonight to – in their words – “prevent the closure of the Saltsburg schools and to prevent the students of Saltsburg from being bused to the Blairsville schools.”
They expect more than 200 people at the event tonight. As he has since Save Our Schools was formed, attorney Joel Sansone will help steer the group and will address the rally, outlining the steps they plan to take.
Save Our Schools and the school district have done battle in Indiana County Court twice before, in 2006 and again in 2012, in lawsuits presided over by now-retired Indiana County Judge Greg Olson.
With the last election cycle, the Blairsville end of the district has a board majority that could lead to the realignment of the district’s schools and the closure of the Saltsburg Middle/High School. Last month, the board hired former Homer Center Superintendent Charles Koren as a “facilitator” to “investigate the possibility of reconfiguration” of the district’s schools.
Tonight’s Save Our Schools rally will be held at 7 o’clock at the Saltsburg Fire Hall on Salt Street.
