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Newly-passed PA budget will impact KCSD

MILL HALL — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf recently signed the state budget, which will impact public education — but in a good way.

During Thursday night’s Keystone Central school board voting session, superintendent Jacquelyn Martin talked about the impact of the budget during her report.

“This budget includes historic increases for funding public schools, including an $856.1 million in subsidy increases and $260 million in additional grant funding,” Martin noted.

It’s significant, Martin said, because the school board recently passed the 2022-23 budget which did not count on any increased funding from the state.

“I’m pleased to inform you that we have received increased funding in three main areas for a total of approximately $1.6 million. In basic ed funding, it was approximately a five percent increase for about a little over $1 million there. Special education funding was increased by approximately $282,000, which was a 7.8 percent increase … and for school safety and mental health, we received an additional $300,000 there,” Martin said.

Martin said that in addition to the budget, state legislators passed several additions to the school code, including adjustments to Keystone exam requirements, certification requirements and access to career and technical programs.

“I am still reviewing the new requirements. There’s a nice thick packet and a lot of reading,” Martin said.

In other business Thursday night, the board unanimously approved the purchase of Bloomz. Bloomz is an electronic platform to help facilitate communication between the district and parents of students.

“It will allow us to improve communications internally within the district and externally to parents and stakeholders — families and so forth,” Martin said.

Bloomz will allow families to have one app for all children, Martin said.

“It kind of a one stop shop,” she said.

Parents will still have to sign up for Bloomz to make certain that it is effective.

“We will do our best to communicate with families and encourage them to sign up,” Martin said. “We believe this has the potential to be very successful.”

The contract with Bloomz is not to exceed $30,900.

“We are working with the owner to reduce this amount. It should not exceed this amount. I expect it to be less,” Martin said.

Martin said that it’s simply a piece of internal software which will be used to contact families.

“It’s a two-way communications tool so parents can also message back. It also has the capability to tell us — if we send a message out — how many parents actually opened the message. We can pull reports, we can track a lot of data from this tool as well,” Martin said.

The cost is based on 3,270 communications devices at $5 per unit, per year. There is a one-time implementation fee of $3,000.

“I’m really excited about this … it’s a great way to get information out … it’s money well spent,” said board member Jeff Johnston.

According to its website, “Bloomz is a place where parents feel more connected than they ever have to their children’s world. And Teachers have more time than ever before, because they have everything they need, in one simple-to-use tool.”

The website also says that it is in use in more than 30,000 schools nationwide.

The cost ($30,900) is based on 3,720 communications devices at $5 per unit per year, along with a one-time “implementation fee” of $3,000.

The Keystone Central school board will meet again for a work session at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 4 at Central Mountain High School. The meeting is open to the public and will be streamed live via Zoom through the district’s website.

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