KC CTC to be Recipient of TRAK Machine Tools Donations and Other News
By Christopher Miller
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – Keystone Central School Board met Thursday evening for their Work Session.
Up for approval next week is a donation by TRAK Machine Tools to Keystone Central School District for a TRAK TMC5 Mill and 1630RX Lathe, valued at a combined $109,212.00 to the Machine Trades and Agricultural Mechanics programs.
Board member Butch Knauff praised CTC Director Kurt Lynch for finding things like this for the students and the CTC program. A future honorary presentation of thanks will be planned between the school board and TRAK will be planned.
In other news, the Public School Health Insurance Cooperative (PSHIC) insurance rate was reduced by 2.5%, equating to a $200,000 savings for the district. This was due to the insurance claims amount dropping.
The school board praised Ashley Crust, the Central Mountain High School Band Director.
Up for vote next week is an Out of State Field Trip Request Form for the marching band to travel to France to perform in the D-Day Commemoration Parade and Ceremony in Normandy. Fundraisers will be taking place over the next two years to assist with sending the 35 band members, associated staff, and chaperones on their multi-continental journey to Europe.
Superintendent Dr. Frank Redmon gave his monthly report in which he detailed the summer breakfast and lunch program within the district.
With seven meals being served daily between multiple sites, the district has been able to serve over 3,400 meals in the month of June alone.
He also detailed that on June 30 he learned that the Office of Budget Management is withholding various “Title dollars” pending a review on what they will be used for in the coming school year.
“This is for every school district in every state,” he said. “The $300,000 that was allocated for the 2025-2026 school year, which the board had already passed the spending of in its budget, will be held” indefinitely. “I don’t know if we will be seeing this money. We were going to use this for various professional development items and conferences, and we have the summer covered already, but we may not be able to do much come September.”
Dr. Redmon met with local representatives Glenn Thompson and Senator Dave McCormick in Washington D.C. recently where he spoke to them about reductions in education funding.
“It seems that other stuff aside from teaching and learning is going away putting us in tough straits,” Dr. Redmon said.
A brief discussion ensued about Procurement Card (P-Card) users. Business Manager Joni MacIntyre expressed that five years ago there were 30 p-cardholders within the district and that number has dropped significantly to only 12 currently.
“Each cardholder is responsible for their own card which is either locked in their office, or if out attending an event, is in their possession and signed-off with administration that that person is in possession of the card and they are 100% responsible for it,” she said.
The school board will be voting on sending board members Dr. Willam Baldino and Roger Elling to the upcoming Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) School Leadership Conference in the Poconos in October.
Dr. Redmon suggested that the school district “buyout” the Enterprise vehicles that are currently being leased in a more efficient way to save money for the district.
“As leases are coming closer to becoming expired we typically turn in a vehicle and get a new lease, but if we buy out the vehicles at the end of the lease period, we can then keep them for another 10 years which would be more advantageous since they are already low in miles, and could save the district more than $600,000,” he said.
Board members Chris Scaff and Dr. Baldino then asked about using the vehicles in the school’s Automotive CTC program for learning and preventative maintenance.
While Dr. Redmon was very on board with the notion, he also mentioned that this would have to be done while balancing the tasks and lessons in the curriculum for the Automotive CTC program.
An executive session was held from 5:29 p.m. to 5:37 p.m. for discussing personnel issues.
Board member Tom Cannon was not present.
