Security Changes for Bucktail School Complex

by Christopher Miller

FARWELL – There was a great deal of student support at this week’s Keystone Central School Board meeting for a beloved school attendance/security officer.

John Tarantella, School Attendance/Security Officer at Bucktail High School will be transferred from Bucktail to the same position at Central Mountain High School, effective December 2015. To those who know him and attended the Thursday school board meeting at Bucktail High School, Tarantella is a very friendly, kind and fair security officer who, they said, will be greatly missed by the students, faculty and staff.

The Tarantella transfer was explained by the district’s Resource Officer Brandon Coleman, “John lacks the proper training, credentials and certification to be a uniformed police officer, which is what is needed in this part of the county,” speaking of the lack of police presence in western Clinton County. “We’re doing more than the community around us to keep kids safe.” Bucktail and Renovo Elementary are located in Chapman Township, which provides no police services.

Citing his own education and experiences, Coleman pointed out various locations in the commonwealth where people may receive the training and skills to be a uniformed resource officer. Most of these locations, though, are in or near the major metropolitan areas with Indiana University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater, being the closest.

Tarantella will fill the void at Central Mountain High School, created by the near-term retirement of security officer Roy Schrack. The board approved the hire of Rob Getz Sr. of South Renovo as an itinerant school police resource officer with arrest powers. Getz retired after a long career as a police officer at Lock Haven University. District officials said he would serve the Bucktail campus but could be sent to schools as needed. His pay was reported at $14 an hour for an 8-hour day.

The board also approved Central Mountain High School athletic director/assistant principal Che Regina as the district’s new human resources director, his pay set at $90,000 annually. He replaces Mona Calhoun who is retiring in January; her pay is in the mid-$60,000 range. She was approved as an “administrative substitute” upon her retirement.

District officials had no additional comment on the status of Scott Owens, its Career and Technical Education program director. Therecord-online had learned and reported earlier that Owens had been removed from his office on Tuesday of this week, the office locked. There is now a report he has been placed on leave, his responsibilities being shared by others in the district administrative set-up. Superintendent Kelly Hastings offered a prepared statement Thursday night, declining comment on a “personnel issue.” The board held an extended executive session, closed to the public and press, prior to its public session Thursday.