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LOCK HAVEN -- Just days before the Pennsylvania Department of Education's June 30 submission deadline, the Keystone Central School District Board of Directors approved a $94 million budget for the 2026-27 school year.
The budget includes a 3.5 percent property tax increase for district residents.
The board had recently rejected a $92 million budget in a 5-3 vote at its voting session last week, citing concerns over a proposed tax increase of that size.
During that previous meeting, the board instructed Business Manager Joni MacIntyre to prepare a revised budget featuring a 1.8 percent tax increase rather than the proposed 3.5 percent. That revised budget was presented for consideration at the board's special voting meeting Wednesday but ultimately failed to gain approval. Region VII's board member, John Miller, made the motion to rescind the requested adjustment to reflect a 1.8 percent tax increase, and all nine board members assented.
Immediately afterward, the board voted 6-3 to approve the new $94,268,550 budget, which included the original 3.5 percent tax increase.
Board members Shelby Bohartz, Roger Kshir, Elisabeth Lynch, Jason Smith, Richard Wykoff and Dr. William Baldino voted in favor, while Miller, Manuel Rodriguez and Chris Scaff voted against.
"If it had to be done, it should have been done a little bit over a couple of years so the taxpayers didn't get hit all at once," Rodriguez said in budget discussions last week.
Approving the tax increase was a tough pill to swallow for many board members who had promised their constituents they would oppose any such measure. The district's fiscal situation, however, necessitated drastic action to curtail the threat of receivership, which would have placed the district's finances in the state's hands.
"I see there is pain and difficulty with this. But there is greater hurt and pain down the road that I can see if we don't do this," Smith said last week.
The board then approved the corresponding homestead and farmstead property tax exclusion by an 8-1 vote. Initially, Scaff joined Miller in opposing the measure but changed his vote, saying it was "because I just read something else in there."
The board also moved to pass a new Act 93 Administrative and Supervisory Agreement with the district's employees who are not part of a collective bargaining unit.
The agreement, which is valid from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2029, passed 7-2 with an amendment that Article 20 should reflect an additional provision stating that the $800 annual amount may be increased if the board provides prior approval.
Lynch, Miller, Smith, Wykoff, Baldino, Bohartz and Kshir voted in favor, while Scaff and Rodriguez, who said he wasn't voting against the agreement because of the amendment, dissented.
This vote negated an Act 93 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with retirees regarding three employees that was also being voted on Wednesday. All nine board members voted against that MOU.