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<p>A Wilkes-Barre Area graduate has a stunning plan unlike any we&#8217;ve heard so far to preserve the district&#8217;s neighborhood high schools.</p><p>The grad, a private developer/investor who lives locally, asked me to withhold his identity for now because of the delicacy of the anticipated proposal. He said he&#8217;s associated with a national investment firm interested in financing the renovation of Meyers and possibly some of the district&#8217;s other facilities.</p><p>The out-of-state organization has previously financed projects involving municipalities, universities and parking garages, he said.</p><p>The investor has met with area heavy hitters, hoping to topple the plan the WBA School Board approved on June 10.</p><p>That&#8217;s when seven of nine board members ignored passionate pleas from the public not to rush into a decision to close Meyers, tear down Coughlin and build a new high school in downtown Wilkes-Barre. That plan, estimated to cost approximately $100 million, also includes adding middle school classrooms to the Kistler Elementary School behind Meyers High School.</p><p>Although disappointed, citizens filed out of that board meeting not saying much. But it didn&#8217;t take long before some of them mobilized behind the scenes in an attempt to reverse the board&#8217;s decision. Who says you can&#8217;t fight City Hall - or a school board?</p><p><strong>Investors interested</strong></p><p>A few weeks ago I wrote that a determined army was forming. Make that a battalion.</p><p>The local investor contacted his out-of-state associates about the plight of WBA&#8217;s neighborhood schools, particularly the beloved Meyers. He said this pool of around 50 investors, with billions of dollars in capital, is interested in fronting the money to renovate Meyers and transform it into a state-of-the-art, energy efficient high school.</p><p>If the board agrees to this surprising new offer of a public/private partnership, which would be a first for Pennsylvania, the district would pay back the investors over a 15- to 30-year period at an interest rate of 4 percent, the local businessman said.</p><p>He doesn&#8217;t agree with district officials that its schools cannot be saved. &#8220;Anything can be rebuilt and brought back to something brand new,&#8221; he said during a recent interview. He&#8217;s expected to meet on Monday with WBA Superintendent Bernard Prevuznak and sometime this month with the board, possibly at its Monday night meeting at the Kistler school.</p><p>Also, some community leaders from the newly-formed Save Our Schools group are planning a public forum for 2 p.m. on Aug. 3o to explain the plan in more detail, including its estimated costs, and to share its own research into legal, historical and related financial issues. Gus Genetti has reportedly offered one of the ballrooms in his downtown hotel at no charge for the forum. The SOS group is expecting 300 to 400 people to attend.</p><p>Some of that group&#8217;s organizers are local lawyers, educators, architects and government officials, including Wilkes-Barre City Councilman George Brown, who has expressed concern about the impact on South Wilkes-Barre the closing of Meyers may have.</p><p><strong>&#8216;Missing master plan&#8217;</strong></p><p>Dr. Richard Holodick, a former school administrator, has been urging the board for some time to get the public onboard for this monumental undertaking. He successfully convinced district officials to form a task force to study the issues surrounding the facilities plan. Two were formed, one comprised of district personnel and one of community members. Some members complained privately that their time and efforts were in vain.</p><p>Holodick has also expressed his frustration for what he called a &#8220;missing master plan&#8221; and that no priorities were established &#8220;to address district problems such as student achievement, students fleeing the district and other major concerns that extend beyond bricks and mortar.&#8221;</p><p>As for community input, that translated into the school board giving concerned citizens three minutes to speak before members Lou Elmy, Joe Caffrey, Ned Evans, John Quinn, Denise Thomas, Dino Gallella and James Susek voted for the unpopular plan to close Meyers and build at Coughlin, a much smaller site. Christine Katsock and Shawn Walker voted against it.</p><p>If the school board majority thought its June 10 decision was the final word, it may have thought wrong.</p><p>&#8220;It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people&#8217;s minds,&#8221; founding father Samuel Adams said.</p><p>This tireless minority of community leaders, along with a former district graduate, may yet prevail, but this time possibly with the approval of the general public. Isn&#8217;t that how it&#8217;s supposed to work when a sizeable amount of public money is involved?</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: Can mysterious investor save Meyers High School?