Keystone Central Looking at No Tax Increase Budget for New School Year
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – There was some prospective good news for Keystone Central School District property owners at the school board’s virtual meeting Thursday night.
District Superintendent Jacquelyn Martin and Business Manager Susan Blesh provided the board and the public a presentation on the status of a budget for the 2020-21 school year, a document that must be approved by the board by the end of June. As presented Thursday night, the budget at this stage is balanced at $76.888 million. It calls for no tax increase and would not tap the district’s reserve fund.
Martin offered a number of points in erasing a projected multi-million dollar deficit discussed at earlier budget presentations. These included an $848-thousand decrease in expenditures. Items accounting for that include a $208,800 reduction in the district operating budget, some of that savings resulting from lessened in-school operational costs from the COVID-19 pandemic. The number also includes $342,000 in savings due to a smaller payment to the Sugar Valley Rural Charter School. Martin said that figure is assuming there will be an agreement on a new SVRCS charter; she said that agreement is “pending.”
Martin said, “We feel comfortable” with the proposed no tax hike budget. She also reported the district has learned it will receive $1.22 million in federal funding under recent emergency legislation from Washington. Martin said the district is seeking additional information as to how and when those dollars can be used. An unknown variable at this point, she said, is what the final subsidy from the state will look like. The state legislature has yet to complete action on Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget proposal. On a positive economic note, the superintendent reported on information she received from Mike Flanagan, CEO of the Clinton County Economic Partnership. He reported, she said, that “almost all of the top 30 employers in the county are still working.”
The board spent some time discussing a draft of the district’s 10-Year Facilities Plan. Some of those projects on the draft reviewed Thursday appear to be ticketed for this calendar year. These would include air conditioning at Bucktail High School and the Central Mountain Middle School, along with a new artificial surface at Malinak Stadium at Central Mountain. A couple dozen projects were listed on the draft plan, Martin noting the district had been putting off projects for some time.
During her report to the board, the superintendent said the district has served more than 27,000 meals to district children since schools closed March 17, a reimbursable item, she noted. At this point the district does not know if the meal program will be continued past the June 2 end of school. She said she noted with sadness word from Gov. Wolf that schools will remain closed through the school year because, she said, the administration had been hopeful that something could be done in terms of a traditional commencement for seniors at Central Mountain and Bucktail High Schools; she said other options are being pursued for the seniors. Her report also included word that academic performance and attendance have both improved this year across the district. And she thanked district network supervisor Keith Kern for his better than two decades’ service to the district as he will be retiring later this month.
