Keystone Central announces plans for Homeland Security Program
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP, PA – Citing a community need and a great opportunity for students, the Keystone Central School District Thursday night unveiled plans for a new Homeland Security Program, an offering through the district’s Career & Technology Center.
As explained by CTC Director Kurt Lynch, there is student interest in such a program and a community need in the area of first responders, volunteers and career personnel. He talked of a three-pronged program: EMTs, fire protection and criminal justice and said the new offerings would provide professional career paths in Clinton County.
Lynch said students were surveyed at Bucktail and Central Mountain High Schools, through 11th grade and the Central Mountain Middle School. 96 students in all said they would be “highly likely” to take the program.
He detailed the community and student benefits:
Provide certification and qualifications for students to enter the workforce upon high school graduation…
Exposure to real world experience and foster interest in further education…
Provide an employment pool of trained individuals and volunteers…
Fostering open communication and community partnerships between educators, students, professional services and volunteers…
Economic benefits of increased personnel and students staying in Clinton County…
Community stabilization…
Lynch said he has been in touch with Commonwealth University and that institution is “on board.”
Superintendent Jacquelyn Martin said the cost would be some $100,000 to add a fulltime professional to the staff for the new program.
Gerard Banfill, Lock Haven EMS Chief, and Scott Kemmerer, Clinton County Emergency Management Coordinator, were on hand to lend their full support to the proposal. Banfill said, “We’re all in” and Kemmerer said his office is “proud to partner” with the new program. Banfill said his agency will be donating a decommissioned ambulance for hands-on training, along with additional training gear. He talked of providing a scholarship through the Keystone Central Foundation for a student who moves through the various levels of advanced schooling.
Banfill called the program a “valuable resource for the community” and said job placement possibilities are “huge” in the county and elsewhere.
Superintendent Martin also said the district is looking at instituting an education career path program, given the nationwide teacher shortage.
