KCSD school board, public get look at athletic facilities study

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP, PA – Stressing time and again the report is only a “starting point,” Keystone Central School District officials Thursday night unveiled the district’s long-awaited athletics facility study. The study was carried out by ELA Sport of State College and offers an inventory and related recommendations for some 17 fields at three schools, Bucktail and Central Mountain High Schools and the Central Mountain Middle School.

The variety of projects, from tearing down the tennis/pickleball courts at the middle school to multi-million dollars in improvements to Dwyer Memorial Stadium at Bucktail High School, carry an estimated price tag of better than $14 million. But as board facilities committee chairman Jeff Johnston said, “The report gives us some real options to look at, not that we’re going to do all of them or any of them.” Johnston said the committee will digest the report contents over the next several months.

One former district administrator, Dr. Mark Rowedder, made a pitch to preserve the tennis/pickleball courts at the middle school site. He said their destruction would be a “loss to the community” and said anywhere from 10 to 30 people use the courts several times a week. District superintendent Dr. Jacquelyn Martin said the district is aware of the pickleball use and physical education department needs for the courts. Board member Elisabeth Lynch called the courts “an outdoor recreational opportunity for the community.”

The costliest proposal listed on the study was a $3.1 million conversion of the track and field area at the middle school into a stadium with lighting and new bleachers; the nearby McGill Memorial Field would become a practice facility only. The study also lists a better than $3 million price tag for a new baseball field at an excavated area near Central Mountain High School; $2.3 million for upgrades at Dwyer Memorial Field; and $3.2 million for improvements to traffic circulation and parking at the CM Middle School.

Both Todd Smith from ELA Sport and board member Johnston continually noted that the study is, as Johnston said, “what we might want to do.” The presentation and discussion last half an hour Thursday night.

Superintendent Martin also reported that despite recent concerns, there are enough prospective players to continue the football program at Bucktail High School. She also reported the district budget for the next school year will remain unchanged as it is expected to receive final passage at next week’s voting session; taxes are due to remain unchanged for the 2022-23 fiscal year.. She said the budget does not include additional money for the district as proposed in Gov. Tom Wolf’s pending state budget, stating “We don’t want to spend what we don’t have.”