KCSB: Butch Knauff returns to board; Smith re-elected president

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP, PA – The Keystone Central School Board held its annual organizational meeting Thursday night. It saw the swearing in of three incumbent board members re-elected in November in Tracy Smith, Elisabeth Lynch and Roger Elling, along with newly returned board member James “Butch” Knauff.

Smith was re-elected board president for a one-year term and Randy Strouse was returned as board vice-president. For Renovo area representative Knauff, it was a return to the board after having lost out in 2016 to Eric Probert who did not seek re-election. Longtime board member Wayne Koch welcomed Knauff’s return to the board, noting he was “grayer” than the last time he saw him.

The organizational meeting was followed by a brief executive session devoted to, according to board president Smith, “personnel and legal” matters.

A brief voting meeting followed, virtually all agenda items approved with little debate. Superintendent Dr. Jacquelyn Martin, in her report to the board, detailed recent discussions with local health care officials. She said she was told those who are vaccinated for COVID are “faring much better” than those who choose not to be vaccinated. She urged that community members “look at reliable sources of information” in making their vaccination decisions.

The superintendent was told, she said, that nine of 10 of those passing away locally from COVID had not been vaccinated. Martin said school district staff will continue to monitor the local 14-day rolling averages of cases to make “the best decision” for district students, the aim to avoid closing the schools. The district masking policy meanwhile remains in effect until at least Dec. 8 as the state masking mandate is again before the state Supreme Court.