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MILL HALL -- The future of the Sugar Valley Rural Charter School is still in limbo.
At Thursday's Keystone Central School District voting meeting, board president Boise "Bo" Miller announced that a vote on the revised charter for SVRCS would not be happening that night.
"The way that needs to happen is, actually, the charter school board of trustees needs to vote on it before we do and they have not yet voted on it," Miller explained.
It is possible that the board could vote on the revised charter at a special facilities meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 17 at the Central Mountain High School auditorium. However, it was undecided as of press time if the meeting would take place due to the closing of all Pennsylvania schools.
"There is a possibility, just to let the board members know, I was informed by (Sugar Valley Rural Charter School CEO) Tracie Kennedy that the charter school is meeting at 6 p.m. on that same evening to approve the revisions that we've agreed upon. I don't know if there is a quick enough turnaround for her to call me and say yes they've done their approval," said KCSD superintendent Jacquelyn Martin.
Board member Jeff Johnston said that he likes the idea of putting the SVRCS revisions to a vote on Tuesday.
"I think it would be great if we could do that," Johnston said.
If the board does not vote on Tuesday, it would be pushed to next month's voting meeting, which is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 9.
At Thursday night's voting meeting, a check for Sugar Valley Rural Charter School was pulled from the "bills for payment" portion of the agenda. The check, in the amount of $532,638.11, was pulled by board member Eric Probert. It was then tabled by the board.
The school's charter, which runs for a five-year period is good until June of this year.
The saga between KCSD and SVRCS has dragged on for several months. Last year, in denying the renewal, the Keystone Central board cited Sugar Valley's poor performance in standardized testing over a period of time.
The charter school was established in 1999. The current enrollment is 492 students, primarily from the Keystone Central School District as well as the Jersey Shore Area and Penns Valley Area school districts.