Now she has a way to visit with them, even when she has to rest.

Brandy Castle of SAE in Atlanta presents a MacBook to Madison Rose on June 10. With them is Madison's brother Jordan, who donated a portion of his liver to her in January.

Last week, the 13-year-old received an unexpected gift: a laptop, complete with video and skype hookup. Her brother, 20-year-old Jordan, got to witness his sister’s excitement because he was volunteering in the dunking tank during Field Day at East Salem Elementary where their mom, Diane Rose, is principal.

The laptop was hand-delivered to Salem by a friend of their aunt who lives in Charlotte, N.C., and was donated by SAE Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Ga.

SAE Administrative Manager Brandy Castle, who has known Madison’s aunt, Cora Player, since they went to Abingdon High School together, said she just wanted to do something for Madison, “so I went to my company and asked if they would donate a 13-inch MacBook to her.”

The two friends drove up from Charlotte on June 10 to deliver the laptop.

It will help Madison keep up with her school work at Andrew Lewis Middle School where she is finishing the seventh grade.

Since returning to Salem in March after the transplant operation in Pittsburgh in January,

Madison has been doing school work with tutors. By the end of the school year, she was getting that tutoring at ALMS, which made it possible for her to eat lunch with her friends several days a week.

Still, that wasn’t enough time for young teens to talk. “I’m going to use my laptop to visit with friends during the summer,” Madison explained, as Castle showed her the various features of the MacBook, including music and songs.

“We set it up for you with Garage Band, and you can make music and songs,” Castle pointed out.

“Oh, great,” Madison exclaimed, when she saw the laptop had iTunes.

Madison and Jordan underwent surgery Jan. 10, she at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and he at a different hospital.

Together, their surgeries operations lasted most of the day.

The daughter of East Salem Elementary Principal Diane Rose and her husband, Tom, was flown to Pennsylvania on Jan. 6 after her liver started failing.

Symptoms came on suddenly. She was hospitalized on Jan. 4 for tests, and after doctors were unable to disgnose and treat her, they decided she needed to be transferred to the Pittsburgh hospital.

Several of the Rose family were tested for compatibility before tests showed Jordan, a Virginia Western College student, would be the best match.

Andrew Lewis Middle School student Madison Rose underwent surgery Jan. 10 at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Her brother, Jordan, donated a portion of his liver. Together, the two operations lasted most of the day.

Madison Rose and her brother, Jordan, from their mother's Facebook page.

The 13-year-old daughter of East Salem Elementary Principal Diane Rose and her husband, Tom, was flown to Pennsylvania on Jan. 6 after her liver started failing.

Symptoms came on suddenly. Only nine days ago Madison was attending her middle school classes. She was hospitalized on Jan. 4 for tests, and after doctors were unable to disgnose and treat her, they decided she needed to be transferred to the Pittsburgh hospital.

Several of the Rose family were tested for compatibility before tests showed 19-year-old Jordan, a Virginia Western College student, was a match.

Jordan’s surgery began around 7 a.m. on Monday morning at a different hospital in Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Montefiore Medical Center, Diane Rose said in a phone call Wednesday morning from his hospital room.

Madison received the transplant that evening, and according to her mother, her new liver was already working and she had been removed from the acute liver failure list.

Rose thanked teachers, staff, students and people from the community for their prayers upholding the family and the medical staff treating Madison and Jordan.

Salem School Superintendent Dr. Alan Seibert said because the family felt the need for prayer and support was so great before Madison’s surgery, her mother permitted him to use the school division’s e-mail list over the weekend to keep fellow employees and Madison’s current and past teachers informed.

West Salem Elementary Principal Trula Byington, former principal of G.W. Carver Elementary where Diane Rose was her assistant principal, plans to set up a page so that friends and coworkers can be informed of how Madison is doing, and so they can keep in touch with the family.

She also allegedly struck a police officer while they were trying to arrest her, and had previously been banned from the school grounds, police said.

Late Monday afternoon Salem Police released information about Amy L. Harrell, 32, who had previously been banned from the school and its grounds, police said.

Monday she was charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, two counts of trespassing and possession of a firearm on school property.

She was arrested that morning at 10:11 a.m., police said. Police found an unloaded gun in her vehicle, they said.

Having a firearm, even an unloaded one, on school property – except for police officers – is against the law in Salem.

Salem School Superintendent Dr. Alan Seibert released a statement that afternoon saying Harrell never stepped inside the school, and the students were not in direct danger. He added that the incident was not in direct view of children in the classrooms.

He praised the principal and others involved. “I commend Principal Diane Rose and her staff for implementing the appropriate actions based on the plans we have in place at all of our schools,” Seibert said.

He did not go into details about why Harrell had been banned from school property before, except to say it was because she did not comply with the school division’s guidelines for visitors.

Tuesday night in a closed session, members of the school board discussed appointments and approved the changes. Overnight School Superintendent Dr. Alan Seibert contacted the administrators and made the announcements early March 10.

Leading Salem’s schools next year will be:

G.W. Carver Elementary School will have a new principal next year, when Principal Trula Byington moves to West Salem Elementary and other administrators change positions.

• Dr. Joseph Coleman, principal of G.W. Carver Elementary School and Division Director of Assessment;

• Donnie Spangler, supervisor of Adult Basic Education and AIIMS Reading Intervention;

• Trula Byington, principal of West Salem Elementary School;

• Debbie Carroll, Assistant Principal West Salem Elementary School

• Chris King, assistant principal for Activities and Instruction, Andrew Lewis Middle School

• Kristyn Shepherd, assistant principal of East Salem Elementary School

Coleman is already director of assessment for the school system and was formerly principal of South Salem Elementary and before that, Carver where he was principal from 1983-1989.

Byington is moving from the principalship of Carver to West Salem where Principal John Millard is retiring this summer after 25 years.

Carroll moves over from the assistant principalship at East Salem Elementary where she has been since 2004. She is filling Spangler’s vacancy. The director of adult education is funded by a new state grant to Salem Schools.

King has taught for 17 years in Salem and is a Certified Athletic Administrator who coached at ALMS. He will be filling the vacancy at ALMS left by Mike Akers, who is retiring after 35 years.

Shepherd is a Nationally Board Certified teacher at South Salem who was Outstanding Teacher of the Year from the Virginia Council for Learning Disabilities in 2008.

Seibert said more than 20 internal and external candidates were interviewed as part of the search process to establish the Leadership Team for 2010-2011. “Change is seldom easy, but this innovative restructuring will safeguard instruction and maintain a high level of leadership experience,” he said. “Talented teachers, remarkable students, and supportive communities will ensure the continued success of the involved schools and their leaders.”

He said additional adjustments in roles and responsibilities will be necessary in the months ahead, but added the net result is a reduction in the current Division Leadership Team “that will provide savings in salaries and benefits to help close the budget gap and ultimately save the jobs of other employees.”

Seibert continued, “We will all be doing more with less next year and it is important to start with the leaders who will be asking the same of all who serve in the school division.”

Salem Schools have already targeted ways they can save about $1-1/2-million through reducing costs and not filling vacancies when teachers, administrators and staff leave or retire.

“We still need to come up with about $500,000 more” that could be cut from next year’s school budget, Seibert said before Tuesday night’s School Board meeting.

Salem School officials are waiting until Virginia House of Delegates and the Senate finish their work combining their proposed state budget figures to determine if more or less than $500,000 needs to be trimmed.

The FY 2011 proposed Salem School budget is $42.1 million, with $11.4 million of the school budget is from local City of Salem funds – but that, too, isn’t final. The city will adopt its budget later.

The legislature is scheduled to adopt a final budget by March 13, the end of this year’s 60-day session. The Salem School Board is scheduled to adopt its budget on March 23, and is expected to consider pay scales for teachers and other personnel at its April meeting.

The board also promoted from within to fill leadership positions at the elementary schools and Andrew Lewis Middle School.

Tuesday night in a closed session, members of the school board discussed appointments and approved the changes. Overnight School Superintendent Dr. Alan Seibert contacted the administrators and made the announcements early March 10.

Leading Salem’s schools next year will be:

• Dr. Joseph Coleman, principal of G.W. Carver Elementary School and Division Director of Assessment;

• Donnie Spangler, supervisor of Adult Basic Education and AIIMS Reading Intervention;

• Trula Byington, principal of West Salem Elementary School;

• Debbie Carroll, Assistant Principal West Salem Elementary School

• Chris King, assistant principal for Activities and Instruction, Andrew Lewis Middle School

• Kristyn Shepherd, assistant principal of East Salem Elementary School

Coleman is already director of assessment for the school system and was formerly principal of South Salem Elementary and before that, Carver where he was principal from 1983-1989.

Byington is moving from the principalship of Carver to West Salem where Principal John Millard is retiring this summer after 25 years.

Carroll moves over from the assistant principalship at East Salem Elementary where she has been since 2004. She is filling Spangler’s vacancy. The director of adult education is funded by a new state grant to Salem Schools.

King has taught for 17 years in Salem and is a Certified Athletic Administrator who coached at ALMS. He will be filling the vacancy at ALMS left by Mike Akers, who is retiring after 35 years.

Shepherd is a Nationally Board Certified teacher at South Salem who was Outstanding Teacher of the Year from the Virginia Council for Learning Disabilities in 2008.

Seibert said more than 20 internal and external candidates were interviewed as part of the search process to establish the Leadership Team for 2010-2011.

The superintendent said additional adjustments in roles and responsibilities will be necessary in the months ahead, but added the net result is a reduction in the current Division Leadership Team “that will provide savings in salaries and benefits to help close the budget gap and ultimately save the jobs of other employees.”

For the complete story, read the March 11 issue of the Salem Times-Register.