School board July work session highlights ‘differing opinions’ on Nittany Learning Services

By Christopher Miller

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – The Keystone Central School Board met Thursday for their July Work Session meeting.

Visitors to the school board meeting, Tawnee Page and recent CMHS graduate Axel Welch-Yost, spoke to the board at length about being in favor of Nittany Learning Services providing “out of school” behavioral support resources to those students in need.

“If it were not for this program I do not know if my son would have graduated high school this year,” parent Tawnee Page said. “I feel like my son was heard, seen, and that he could do this to get back on track and into the classroom.”

Recent alumni Axel Welch-Yost had this to say about his time at Nittany Learning Services.

“I feel if you take the right steps to try to get better, it will help you accomplish your goals…there were multiple support teams at the facility I was at in Pleasant Gap.”

Superintendent Dr. Frank Redmon briefly mentioned wishing to start an Open Communication Committee made up of representatives from all of the school buildings, administrators, and community members in an effort to wrangle how information is shared from school district to parents and the community. He said, “I have heard from the community and staff that our website is not the easiest to access information and I want to know what the problems are so we can correct them and have a more intuitive system to access information.”

Under the Business portion of the meeting, board member Elisabeth Lynch expressed her feelings of being “opposed to the school board secretary having to be employed to assist the superintendent and the school board.”

“I think we should have some separation there,” Lynch said. “I understand why the school district would do it, but I think the school board secretary should be a separate entity from the superintendent’s secretary.”

Board member Dr. Baldino also agreed, saying that “we should have someone more dedicated to the school board without a double-allegiance to the superintendent, too.”

The school board spoke at length about the possible contract with Nittany Learning Services, the behavioral intervention organization that the school board has contracted with in the past to provide services to students in an out-of-school setting.

Board member Chris Scaff requested to receive reports on how the students enrolled in Nittany Learning Services are progressing if they were to renew the contract for the next school year.

“Tonight we had one student here saying that NLS was great, but we had a few parents call saying that it did not work for their kid and we know it won’t work for all kids, but it would be nice to hear a report every quarter or sooner about the kids currently in it,” he said.

Superintendent Redmon expressed more of an interest in an annual report for the sake of anonymity.

“Because there can only be 10 of our students in there at a time, I think a quarterly report is too much and makes it possible to identify the students,” he said.

Board member Elisabeth Lynch reiterated there there is no “competition” here in regards to an alternative organization to send students to.

“We have no other alternatives to look at, so I would still like to look at an in-house option in the future, so make sure we have options and can evaluate the best product,” she said. “I do not like the fact that there are personal relations with people who work here (KCSD) and the owners of the company.”

“We have lots of people who work here who we work with their significant others outside the schools,” Redmon added.

“I just want to know absolutely what is the best product for our kids,” Lynch said.

Dr. Baldino added that he would like a feasibility study to be completed to possibly “do our own program” here in the school.

The school board is expected to vote on renewing this contract for the 24-25 school year this Thursday night.

Tom Cannon, Polly Donahay, and Tracy Smith were absent from Thursday’s meeting.

said. “I feel like my son was heard, seen, and that he could do this to get back on track and into the classroom.”

Recent alumni Axel Paige had this to say about his time at Nittany Learning Services.

“I feel if you take the right steps to try to get better, it will help you accomplish your goals…there were multiple support teams at the facility I was at in Pleasant Gap.”

Superintendent Dr. Frank Redmon briefly mentioned wishing to start an Open Communication Committee made up of representatives from all of the school buildings, administrators, and community members in an effort to wrangle how information is shared from school district to parents and the community. He said, “I have heard from the community and staff that our website is not the easiest to access information and I want to know what the problems are so we can correct them and have a more intuitive system to access information.”

Under the Business portion of the meeting, board member Elisabeth Lynch expressed her feelings of being “opposed to the school board secretary having to be employed to assist the superintendent and the school board.”

“I think we should have some separation there,” Lynch said. “I understand why the school district would do it, but I think the school board secretary should be a separate entity from the superintendent’s secretary.”

Board member Dr. Baldino also agreed, saying that “we should have someone more dedicated to the school board without a double-allegiance to the superintendent, too.”

The school board spoke at length about the possible contract with Nittany Learning Services, the behavioral intervention organization that the school board has contracted with in the past to provide services to students in an out-of-school setting.

Board member Chris Scaff requested to receive reports on how the students enrolled in Nittany Learning Services are progressing if they were to renew the contract for the next school year.

“Tonight we had one student here saying that NLS was great, but we had a few parents call saying that it did not work for their kid and we know it won’t work for all kids, but it would be nice to hear a report every quarter or sooner about the kids currently in it,” he said.

Superintendent Redmon expressed more of an interest in an annual report for the sake of anonymity.

“Because there can only be 10 of our students in there at a time, I think a quarterly report is too much and makes it possible to identify the students,” he said.

Board member Elisabeth Lynch reiterated there there is no “competition” here in regards to an alternative organization to send students to.

“We have no other alternatives to look at, so I would still like to look at an in-house option in the future, so make sure we have options and can evaluate the best product,” she said. “I do not like the fact that there are personal relations with people who work here (KCSD) and the owners of the company.”

“We have lots of people who work here who we work with their significant others outside the schools,” Redmon added.

“I just want to know absolutely what is the best product for our kids,” Lynch said.

Dr. Baldino added that he would like a feasibility study to be completed to possibly “do our own program” here in the school.

The school board is expected to vote on renewing this contract for the 24-25 school year this Thursday night.

Tom Cannon, Polly Donahay, and Tracy Smith were absent from Thursday’s meeting.