MILL HALL — At a special meeting, the Keystone Central School District Board of Directors voted 6-2 to amend its policy related to charter school renewals to allow its Ad Hoc Committee time to meet with representatives of Sugar Valley Rural Charter School to discuss its renewal.

Superintendent Dr. Francis Redmon made the request for Policy 140 during a special voting session on Thursday night.

Redmon told the board SVRCS submitted its application for another 5-year renewal on Dec. 2, 2024. From there, based on the board’s policy, the charter school and the district’s Ad Hoc Committee had 45 days to meet to review the application.

“We haven’t had time to get together — the Ad Hoc Committee — with the board reorganization and all of that,” he said. “The 45 days would have expired (Thursday). So I’m asking that the board suspend that 45 days or give me up to 90 days to have the initial meeting with the charter school.”

Redmon said he was requesting just an additional 45 days to allow him ample time to set up a meeting. He noted a meeting was already scheduled for Jan. 23, which would move forward as long as the board gave the OK for the temporary amendment to Policy 140.

He added the 45 days timeline isn’t a requirement for the renewal procedure.

“In the law it says that upon initial approval of a charter school the school board must meet with the charter organization asking for approval of a charter within 45 days,” he said. “The 45 days is not a requirement for renewal.”

Redmon said he spoke with the district’s solicitor and reviewed the law himself for bringing his request to the board.

“It will be a temporary amendment. Then we can come through the Policy Committee if we want to make it a more permanent change,” he said.

Board Member Chris Scaff questioned by the Ad Hoc Committee was unable to meet with the SVRCS representatives within the 45 days.

“We’re expecting them to be spot on and have everything done on time and holding them to a timeline and yet we’re not doing it ourselves,” he said. “This should have been done in December.”

Redmon said the board’s reorganization meeting on Dec. 12 caused the issue.

“In that board reorganization meeting there’s a reassignment of committees. So there was no official notice for who was going to be on the Ad Hoc Committee until right before we came back in January,” he said.

Scaff questioned if the 45 to 90 days would be necessary.

“All it would be is an extension of 45 days. Which would be a total of 90 days,” Board President Roger Elling clarified.

Redmon noted he’d already been in contact with SVRCS to set up the Jan. 23 meeting so they were aware of the timeline.

Board Member Jeff Johnston said he felt the request was simply procedural.

“I don’t see any reason why going with the extension — especially since we have a meeting set up that soon — is bad. It’s mainly just a procedural kind of thing,” he said.

It was noted by Redmon and various board members the 45 day extension doesn’t mean the board is unable to move forward with further action regarding the renewal, it just ensure the district was following its policy.

Board Member Elisabeth Lynch asked if the extension could be short, suggesting two to three weeks instead.

“I truly believe that we’re so organized, and they are so organized, we could have gotten this done sooner,” Lynch said. “It was a misstep. I feel we’ve already had plenty of time to get this done prior to now.”

Following discussion, the board voted to temporarily extend the time frame to allow Redmon and the Ad Hoc Committee to meet with charter school representatives in a 6-2 vote, with Lynch and Board Member Dr. William “Bill” Baldino voting no.

Board Member Tom Cannon was absent from the board’s special meeting.