KC Board Talks Liberty-Curtin Build, Staff Turnover

By Christopher Miller

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – Keystone Central School Board met Thursday evening for their March Work Session. 

Superintendent Dr. Frank Redmon gave his Super Report, rejoicing in the fact that Kurt Lynch, Director of Keystone Central Career & Technology Education, secured a $157,000 grant for more equipment for the CTC program. He also stated that Bucktail Middle/High School, Central Mountain Middle and High School, and Sugar Valley Rural Charter School will be combining forces next week for the County Band Festival Tuesday night, 6 PM, at Bucktail High School in Farwell. “This is the second year in a row that there has been a county band festival and we are so pleased this could be resurrected after laying dormant for 20 or so years,” Frank said.

Dr. Redmon also spoke about the new English/Language Arts (ELA) curriculum being implemented and that goals have been identified for next year, thanking the teachers for making the new curriculum engaging, interesting, and captivating.

Lastly, Dr. Redmon also said that the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is now at a 94% accuracy level as opposed to 69% last school year. This means that things are being implemented correctly, with observations and reports showing more than favorable results. 

“This program, coupled with the weekly and quarterly incentives we have in place, resulted in fewer discipline write-ups than last year,” Redmon said.

Board Member Jeff Johnston gave updates on the Liberty-Curtin Elementary School build, including mentioning that the plumbing has been 80% completed and that demolition of the existing building is slated to begin mid-June with residency in the new building by July or August. “Further progress will be given at the May meeting,” Johnston said, “the new marquee will be a fully-programmable LED electronic structure and there are quotes for between $19,000 and $34,000 with the masonry company donating the labor and materials to build the brick structure to hold it in place. We are very thankful for their time and energy to do this as a donation to the school and building,” Johnston said.

During the portion of the meeting where board members discussed the new electronic marquee sign, it was revealed by Chris Scaff that he may be able to help shed more money off of the project price tag.

“Someone put one up for Sugar Valley Fire Company for around $6,000,” Scaff said, “it is programmable with an app and can be updated and changed at will, lots of fire companies use this company that we went with and I can get you the information if you like.” 

It was also brought up that perhaps the CTC students can assist with the building of the brick structure to support the sign.

“I liked the idea and I pitched that early on,” said Sam Hoy, Director of Property Services, “but the problem is it being hard to get the kids off campus for that amount of time.”

Board Member Butch Knauff recalled the construction class at Bucktail High School building the sign in front of the school, saying that the stone for it came from the Renovo High School.

The school board also heard about the need for Superintendent Redmon to be able to make immediate hiring decisions regarding support staff vacancies within the district.

“We have a lot of turnover for staff positions, and we need to be able to fill those immediately so we don’t lose excellent candidates,” Dr. Redmon said. “There are some support roles that happen most often where we cannot wait for the normal board meeting cycle to vote on, and it becomes operationally problematic.”

The board will vote on this measure next Thursday night. They also asked Dr. Redmon to put together a list of job titles that this need would apply to.

Representatives of the Mill Hall Community Pool recently requested a donation in the amount of $100,000 from the school district, according to reports made by board member Chris Scaff to the board.

“I don’t understand the need for it, but I don’t see how we could fund that, asking us for $100,000 when we are talking about having to raise taxes again,” Scaff said. “I do not see how we can fund it.”

Board Member Bill Baldino added input, saying that it sounds like a useful asset, but to come to the school board for the money is impossible, stating that the current board is trying to save dollars and cents here and there and to donate this amount of money would be “irresponsible,” but mentioned maybe a cooperative effort could be made to find ways of fundraising.

“I am between a rock and a hard place, being a former coach and a swimmer I would like to see us support this, but with fiscal responsibility I do not see how we could,” Bill said.

General consensus with the group was a hard “no,” but a suggestion of doing a district-wide fundraiser was offered by board member Butch Knauff.

“The girl from Central Mountain Middle School said that their goal for Mini-THON is $25,000, if they can raise that there who knows how much they could raise as a district. Maybe if the kids fundraise for it they will respect the pool more.”

Briefly discussed, the school board tabled the discussion of hiring a second music teacher for the Renovo Elementary School/Bucktail High School campus.

“We will be tabling this discussion for next month, pending getting more data on the amount of students in the program and student interest,” Butch Knauff said.

An Executive Session was held from 5:30 PM to 7:02 PM for legal issues.

Lastly, the March 13 Voting Meeting time has been changed to 7 PM rather than the 6:30 PM normal start time.