Greensburg Salem School Board has added to its elementary faculty to reduce class sizes for kindergartners.

The district also is looking to expand instructional staff who provide extra assistance to struggling students.

The board hired three elementary teachers this week. Two were faculty additions prompted by large kindergarten classes at Metzgar and Nicely elementary schools, according to district business manager J.R. Dzurica.

He said the third elementary hiring was needed to replace a teacher who retired.

The new instructors are Miranda Anker, Lauren George and Kylie McSwaney. Anker will receive a prorated starting salary not to exceed $53,237, reflecting the first step of the pay scale for teachers with bachelor’s degrees. George and McSwaney each will have prorated salaries of no more than $56,637, the first pay scale step for those with master’s degrees.

Administrators recommended the moves after noting there were as many as 28 kindergarteners per teacher at Metzgar, which is in Salem.

“It’s the largest incoming class we’ve had in some time,” Acting Superintendent Ken Bissell said.

Instructor John Milcki was hired to fill a vacancy in the social studies department, at a prorated salary of no more than $56,637.

The board also hired three classroom instructional assistants — Erin Ewing, Susan Johnson and Courtney Paul — each at a prorated salary of $30,476; and nine Raising Readers after-school teachers, including Anker and Johnson, at $29.50 per hour.

The district is advertising for a social worker, at a salary of $56,637, and up to 45 additional teachers to offer students in grades K-12 extra help before or after school, at a rate of $29.50 per hour.

The extra instructional assistants and after-school teachers are part of the district’s effort to help students who struggled with remote online instruction that was provided during the height of the covid-19 pandemic.

“It’s really to support the students,” Dzurica said. “We realize there was a lot of learning loss over the last two school years.”

Greensburg Salem offered students after-school assistance during the most recent spring semester, followed by a Summer Success program.

Costs for the instructional assistants, social worker and after-school teachers are to be covered by Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds that have been approved for the district.

Students are attending school in person five days per week. The district initially adopted a policy that gave students the option to wear masks, but that has been superseded by a state mask mandate.

To comply with the mandate that all those inside school buildings must wear face coverings, school board members and officials donned masks while meeting in the middle school. The public wasn’t permitted to attend in person but had the opportunity to view the meeting and participate via a Zoom link.

The only public comment was from 1996 district alumnus Joseph Polka, who voiced his objection to the mask mandate.

“With the mask situation, I feel we have gone away from what we were taught at Greensburg Salem about tyranny,” he said. “I don’t like the direction things are going.”

Bissell said plans are to continue with a Zoom link for the public at next month’s board meetings — a Nov. 3 discussion session and a Nov. 10 voting session.

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