A $19,268.41 Pennsylvania School Boards Association deal approved by Lehighton Area School District’s board of directors Monday will bundle its 2026-27 PSBA membership, a Keystone Agenda board meeting platform and an administrative regulations package.

District staff, at a board workshop two weeks ago, had reviewed five competing platforms, with cost estimates ranging from roughly $5,000 to $10,000 annually to replace Board Docs, a web-based platform used by districts to publish meeting agendas, store minutes and manage board policies in a searchable, publicly accessible format.

The PSBA’s offer to include Keystone Agenda for $2,000 as part of the district’s membership renewal changed the calculus entirely.

“PSBA is moving away from Board Docs and Diligent — they’re looking for a new agenda platform, which was Keystone Agenda, which was the most reasonable that we have looked at,” Board Secretary Janine Partenio said Monday. “Board Docs is set to end June 30, but there is a migration period that needs to be done before that, which PSBA is willing to help with, which they are willing to start that process once they get the affirmation that we’re willing to do our membership, even though we’re not paying for it until July 1. So they need to have a go ahead in order to start moving towards the new platform.”

The PSBA renewal passed 6-3, with directors Tim Tkach, Lori Frey, William Howland, Heather Neff, Alex Matika and Denise Hartley in favor; and David Bradley, Jeremy Glaush and Joy Beers opposed.

The renewal also includes a complimentary Policy Portal for member districts, covering ongoing policy maintenance services. According to Monday’s agenda, district policies can be downloaded as Word documents or PDFs and attached directly to agenda items in Keystone Agenda. A link to the active policy manual can also be embedded in the district’s Keystone Agenda site.

Prior to the vote, Bradley questioned why a nearly $20,000 expenditure was being approved without going out for competing proposals.

He argued that at least one alternative existed, the National School Boards Association, and that the board had not adequately explored it.

“The PSBA is holding you hostage with our own information,” Bradley told his colleagues. “They are a lobbyist organization. They do take in millions of dollars from us and other school districts, they have a captive audience, and they have been known to provide policies that are not in accordance with the Constitution, and have been professionally spanked for doing so, costing districts hundreds of thousands of dollars, including Policy 903, which was the public participation portion of the PSBA, which was told to stop.”

District solicitor Beth Shore acknowledged the board could still legally choose to bid the contract, but cautioning that walking away from PSBA carried real operational costs.

“Could you do it legally? Yes, you could,” Shore said. “You would have to make the policy call and your judgment as a board whether it makes sense to put out a bid and knowing that if you’re not part of the PSBA system, you might lose the efficiency to post all of your minutes, agendas, policies easily through a platform that you’ve been working with.”

A motion to table the PSBA renewal until staff could obtain a competing proposal from the National School Boards Association failed, 6-3, with Bradley, Beers and Glaush, voting in favor of tabling.