Keystone Central plans public meetings on school safety
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP, PA – The Keystone Central School District is continuing with plans to hold public meetings on the issue of safety within district schools. Board president David Dietrich provided an update on that process at the school board’s Thursday night work session, a 90-minute meeting which produced a lot of news.
Dietrich’s comments at the meeting’s outset were a follow-up to a similar announcement at the most recent February board meeting; they came in the wake of student comments about safety in the schools. Thursday night Dietrich said a “couple meetings” have already been held over the safety concerns and said the district is seeking input from the county court system to develop a plan. He said there will be public meetings and said he “feels positive” about the direction the district is moving on the issue and said he hoped the public will share that view.
Board member and facilities committee chairman Jeff Johnston reported on a Tuesday committee meeting with a representative from Crabtree Architects, the firm designing a new Liberty-Curtain Elementary School in Blanchard.
Johnston said the committee got to see proposed drawings for the new building. He said the project is out of the “schematic phase” and moving into the design phase; something the committee hopes to bring to the full board by October or November. Superintendent Jacquelyn Martin said a public meeting to obtain feedback on the plans will be held in early April.
District business manager Joni MacIntyre offered district plans to turn as much as $1.9 million through stepped up investments of the district’s general fund balance, now listed at $17 million. MacIntyre called the three-pronged plan the “use of our money to make money.” These include an increase in the return on the funds from one to two percent (earning $300,000); a money market at four percent (earning $1.2 million alone) and a CD at 5.18 percent earning $372,000. These would be done with the district’s present financial institution, First National Bank.
Superintendent Jacquelyn Martin reported she has held meetings with students who recently voiced concerns about the length of the school day at Central Mountain High School and some issues at Bucktail High School and indicated those sessions went well.
A panel of district administrators offered reports on district student performance levels in a number of areas. Those reports included word that student achievement levels are back to pre-COVID-pandemic readings; graduation rates at the district’s two high schools are good; and the CTC achievement and participation levels continue to grow.
