School Board Discusses Filling Positions, Hand Dryers, Bank Erosion at Bucktail
By Christopher Miller
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – Bucktail High School student Kedda Bissman presented the Bucktail Middle/High School student government report to the school board Thursday night.
The boys basketball team took 3rd place in districts and qualified for states. The girls team made it to the playoffs with only seven players. That is impressive. Bucktail held a pep rally to send the basketball team to the state game. All students participating in competitions were recognized. Dalton Perry placed 2nd in the PIAA boys state wrestling tournament and Kendall Wagner placed 3rd in the girls state wrestling tournament. Both students attend Bucktail. Also congratulations to Patrick Tarantella for placing first in the district wrestling tournament. This previous Tuesday, Bucktail hosted the 2025 county band concert with a very successful concert featuring Central Mountain, Bucktail, and Sugar Valley Rural Charter School. We are looking forward to it taking place next year at Sugar Valley. The 2025 softball season starts March 24 with a scrimmage and baseball season starts on the 26th. Bucktail graduation project presentation day is March 17. Good luck to everyone presenting. Our state fossil project is now being called the Harry the HYnerpeton Project. On April 8 we will be talking on the 92.1 radio station for Profiles in Education, and then talk to Robb Elementary students about our project. On April 15 we will have state representatives come to Renovo campus to discuss starting state legislation to alter history by changing our state fossil. We would like to thank Elizabeth Whitty for helping us with this project. She is helping us with a mascot, stickers, and buttons for the project.
School board member Elisabeth Lynch asked Bissman to consider reaching out to local television stations, asking if they would come out to the April meeting with state representatives.
A presentation was given by Sugar Valley Rural Charter School CEO Tracie Kennedy and Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction K-12 Broc Phillips. Details of the presentation are available in a separate news story.
The school board voted in favor of moving the agenda with the exception of certain line items discussed below.
Board members voted to set a date for a public hearing for renewal of the charter for Sugar Valley Rural Charter School. This date is planned for Thursday, April 17 at 6 PM.
Board Member Elisabeth Lynch spoke out in opposition of authorizing the superintendent to fill existing support staff positions, calling the action “unprecedented and unneeded.” Meanwhile, board member Chris Scaff also disagreed, saying that “no one should have the authorization just to hire at will as they want,” also saying that the district needs a new policy on nepotism.
School board member Jeff Johnston spoke up on the matter, saying that “this is to help in the areas of support staff, maintenance and culinary/cafeteria which sees turnover and is hard to keep people in the positions. Cafeteria people are short-handed all the time. He should have authority to do it, I do not think he will abuse it, but these are the most short-staff positions right now which is the whole point behind this.”
Board member Tom Cannon spoke up, saying, “I don’t know that we need to have that many positions filled so close to the end of the school year,” and that “I don’t think there is a vacancy that dire that it has to happen and cannot take place at a monthly meeting.”
Board members Chris Scaff, Dr. William Baldino, Tom Cannon, and Elisabeth Lynch all voted against the motion.
The school board voted to pay the bills for the previous month’s voting meeting, February 13, and the current month, March 14. Last month’s bills for payment were split, leading to not all the bills being voted on for payment.
Next, board members voted to purchase the new marquee sign for Liberty-Curtin Elementary School. The sign, with a price tag of $19,990, is estimated to be four feet tall and eight feet wide, featuring an all-electronic message board beneath the name of the school. Last week’s Work Session included the announcement of the masonry company donating their time and materials to build the brick and mortar enclosure which will hold the sign in place.
Dr. William Baldino, Tom Cannon, Elisabeth Lynch, and Chris Scaff all voted against passing the quote for the new sign.
The board also voted against the purchase of new electric hand dryers at Central Mountain Middle School. Board member Chris Scaff read aloud, saying that, “paper towels dry hands more efficiently” and that they are more superior than electric dryers. “Cleveland Clinic also says that hand dryers are not only spewing bacteria onto your hands,but into the air and all surfaces the air touches, causing cross-contamination around what you touch with your hands.”
“The hand dryers blowing everything everywhere, I don’t think it’s really worth it, but I think we should use the round, perforated paper towels,” Elisabeth Lynch said. “I know this is something small, but I know it is pretty gross when you read the data.”
Board member Butch Knauff then spoke, saying that Lynch had been advocating for years for hand dryers, to keep paper towels out of the sewers running to Mill Hall Borough. Jeff Johnston also spoke up, confused and “baffled” about the matter.
“I am baffled as well, to curb our spending, but all tonight I have heard is spend, spend, spend,” Tom Cannon said. “Where is the commitment to our community to curb our spending?”
Board members Chris Scaff, Tom Cannon, Elisabeth Lynch, Butch Knauff, and Dr. William Baldino all voted in opposition resulting in the motion failing.
Butch Knauff then brought up a motion to repair the damage to the riverbank around the storm water drain outlet adjacent to the Bucktail softball field not to exceed $50,000.
“What’s basically going on is we have been talking about stormwater problems at Bucktail, with attempts made through the school district, township, PennDOT, and the railroad who all have water that drains here to the river. What happened a week ago was that the pipe carrying the stormwater was eroded enough from the storm that a 40 feet wide section of the bank exposed the forced main sewer line from the North Bend area to the plant in Renovo, exposed to the elements. It just so happened that a contractor was there putting in the new scoreboard, walked over and looked at it, called the Western Clinton County Municipal Authority (WCCMA) to look at it when the pipe was exposed. If something happened to the line it would be an environmental catastrophe. The board knows they have to do something immediately. The sewer authority got a bid to repair an 80 feet length of pipe, building it back up with stone and stone, and planting grass over top of it. The $50,000 is the price for the contractor to repair it. I think it was around $250,000 to replace the entire line.”
“That’s the kicker,” Lynch said. “Is repairing the pipe a temporary fix? Is it a patch or is it a replacement?”
Knauff responded that it is not a replacement, but “getting the fix now so no more embankment washes out with rain expected on Sunday.”
“All I am concerned with right now is having this repaired,” Knauff said. “We are hoping this bill is divided between the township and the school district since it is their line but comes across our property.”
All school board members voted in favor with Butch Knauff abstaining from this vote due to his position with the WCCMA.
Board member Chris Scaff brought up the idea of instituting a hiring freeze due to the district losing kids “left and right” and “incurring added expenses of hiring extra people, and to look at a hiring freeze until the board gets things ironed out.”
Elisabeth Lynch agreed with Scaff, asking Superintendent Dr. Redmon to look into why there is “such a high turnover rate” and to get “real data and potential solutions” to the problem.
Jeff Johnston mentioned that “the reason why is there are competitive wages at Walmart and Sheetz.” Butch Knauff added that he agrees with Jeff, looking at the wages saying that it is a “low amount and people can go other places to make more money.”
“Why are we approving all these changes, most are back in January and February,” Scaff said. “To go along with Jeff and Butch, I agree but before anyone should get a raise, our security officers need a raise, “because they are the lowest paid officers of anyone around us.”
“When officers are leaving we will not be able to attract any others, who are you going to call then? If we are talking about raises, then the security force needs to go first,” Scaff said.
“If you look at all the industries in the area, they are leaving for other conditions, not just money, I have experienced it where I work,” Tom Cannon replied.
Board members Chris Scaff and Tom Cannon were the only ones to vote no to the matter.
An executive session was held from 5:34 to 7:53 Thursday evening for legal purposes.
All school board members were in attendance.
