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<p>Wilkes-Barre Area School Board members haven&#8217;t heard the last word from residents dismayed by their plan for building a new high school.</p><p>And this time, they may have to listen for more than the three minutes they allotted citizens to voice concerns.</p><p>An army of formidable activists is slowly but surely mobilizing to overturn the board&#8217;s plan to spend at least $100 million to demolish Coughlin High School, build a new school there and merge it with Meyers High School.</p><p>The school board is about to learn a lesson. Don&#8217;t mess with the Mohawks. But, actually, there seems to be more of a concern that the board&#8217;s decision is so flawed overall that it is not in the best interests of the district, its students or its taxpayers.</p><p>Questions remain why the board decided to build a school on the Coughlin site which is much smaller than Meyers. And why the cash-strapped district didn&#8217;t opt to sell that prime piece of real estate in downtown Wilkes-Barre.</p><p>Some are concerned that other factors may have been at play here, including some board members&#8217; ties to individuals like Thom Greco who own properties surrounding Coughlin. Greco struck a lucrative deal years ago when Luzerne County purchased his Market Street train-wreck complex for almost $6 million. The county may now have to settle for a recent offer of $1.2 million to unload it.</p><p><strong>Legal action considered</strong></p><p>Dr. Mark Schiowitz, who received a standing ovation before he even stood to speak at the board&#8217;s game-changing June 10 meeting, is considering filing a complaint with the state Department of Education over the board&#8217;s plan. That could impact the district&#8217;s rushed application to beat a deadline for uncertain partial reimbursement. This move cost taxpayers another $67,000 on top of the $400,000 they paid architects to devise a feasibility study of the district&#8217;s aging facilities.</p><p>The district recently explained the rationale for hiring a team of four firms to do the study.</p><p>The four firms all have offices in Wilkes-Barre, providing quick access, the report said. Also, the four architects, six engineers and their staffs &#8220;have collectively over 150 years of experience in local projects of this nature.&#8221; Now, really, who could possibly be mad at spending $400,000 for that?</p><p>The board may soon find out.</p><p>Robin Shudak, a feisty 40-year-old Meyers graduate, who worked for the federal Environmental Protection Agency, has been doing some homework and asking her contacts in Washington to assist her. She has read the district&#8217;s structural report and soils and mining analyses and maintains they are flawed.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a bad decision in so many ways,&#8221; Shudak said.</p><p>Her mother Barbara Shudak, who likewise worked for the federal government, as a claims examiner for the Bureau of Labor, has also been doing research into the board&#8217;s decision.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not so much saving Meyers High School; it simply doesn&#8217;t make any fiscal sense,&#8221; she said. She added activists might want to &#8220;follow the money&#8221; to see whether anyone is benefitting from this plan. This kind of stuff doesn&#8217;t happen in Luzerne County, does it?</p><p><strong>Board ignored expert</strong></p><p>Another puzzle is why the board didn&#8217;t jump at the chance to meet with facilities and education curriculum plan expert Dr. Robert Paullin, from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Paullin offered to volunteer his services because of his friendship with local resident, Dr. Richard Holodick, an expert in his own right, who has been aiding the board. All Paullin requested was that his expenses be covered.</p><p>Holodick said not one board member contacted him. &#8220;I am disheartened and disappointed by the turn of events to date,&#8221; he said. Perhaps the board didn&#8217;t feel Paullin met the &#8220;quick access&#8221; advantage.</p><p>The board meets Monday in its tiny administrative offices on South Main Street, where those in attendance can barely hear what&#8217;s being discussed.</p><p>But one way or another, the members are going to get an earful.</p><p>That&#8217;s because a well-organized group is gathering data on different fronts, including legal, financial and educational, to challenge what they consider to be a potentially disastrous plan.</p><p>They may also encourage write-in campaigns in November&#8217;s general election to oust some directors seeking re-election.</p><p>Dino Galella, John Quinn and James Susek may rue the day they voted with Joe Caffrey, Denise Thomas, Ned Evans and Elmy to push through this plan.</p><p><em>Editor&#8217;s note: An earlier version of this column contained inaccurate information. It has since been updated.</em></p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Betty Roccograndi</p><p>Zeroing In</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Betty Roccograndi is a Wyoming Valley resident and award-winning journalist. Zeroing In appears weekly.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Zeroing in: Wilkes-Barre Area School Board may finally have to listen to growing Meyers army