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Stabbing at Sherman Hills complex

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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Opposition to the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board&#8217;s decision to consolidate Meyers and Coughlin high schools may have started with a disparate crowd of passionately angry residents, but during the monthly board meeting Monday and a gathering of district residents, it&#8217;s clear the district faces a diverse group &#8212; including some heavy hitters.</p><p>Tuesday&#8217;s gathering at Rodano&#8217;s restaurant, organized by Wilkes-Barre City Councilman George Brown, offered a cross section of past and current clout, a group of people disgruntled for different reasons but united in the ultimate goal: Keeping three neighborhood high schools.</p><p>Along with Brown, Democratic city council candidate Beth Gilbert attended. Running in District C, Gilbert said she is concerned that GAR High School is missing from the debate.</p><p>&#8220;They are leaving GAR out of the equation,&#8221; Gilbert said. &#8220;I think it&#8217;s going to become the school nobody wants to attend.&#8221;</p><p>Another city council candidate, Tony Brooks, also attended Tuesday&#8217;s meeting. Brooks, the former executive director of the Luzerne County Historical Society and an active member of the Wilkes-Barre Preservation Society, won the Republican nomination for District B.</p><p><strong>Process questioned</strong></p><p>Several members of the task force formed by the school board to help decide what to do about the three aging high schools also have joined the opposition, openly questioning the process used by the board. The task force was comprised of an internal committee of district employees and an external committee of residents</p><p>&#8220;It felt like, in the process, the work the committee did was pointless,&#8221; external committee member Shane Case said.</p><p>While the committees started with broad choices and extensive reports outlining each, he added, cost seemed to radically narrow the choices members could consider in the end.</p><p>The school board and district officials &#8220;threw much of it out the door when they realized they couldn&#8217;t afford it.&#8221;</p><p>Dave Wilson, another member of the external committee, also joined the opposition, as did district secondary teacher Kevin Welles, a member of the internal committee. Both spoke briefly at Tuesday&#8217;s meeting.</p><p>In fact a few district employees have become particularly vocal.</p><p>At Monday&#8217;s School Board meeting, school secretary Diane Lorenzotti said she had been told that an unnamed board member had been questioning her motives in attending board meetings. Lorenzotti warned the board any such scrutiny of employees would lead to more scrutiny of the board.</p><p><strong>&#8216;No color here&#8217;</strong></p><p>High school teacher Deborah Pride also spoke at both the Monday and Tuesday meetings, and while she opposed the consolidation plan approved by the board, she also warned the group gathered at Rodano&#8217;s that more people need to be involved, particularly minority families.</p><p>&#8220;I have a concern because I see no color here,&#8221; Pride said as she looked around a room full of overwhelmingly white participants. &#8220;If we expect to count, where are the rest of our families?&#8221;</p><p>Doug Richards, who has coached in the district, also has been speaking out against the consolidation.</p><p>At Tuesday&#8217;s meeting he criticized the construction of seven safety sheds over the entrances of Meyers High School and the installation of fencing around the perimeter. The district contends the risk of masonry falling has grown bad enough to warrant the safety precautions, costing $240,000.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re out there building a bomb shelter,&#8221; Richards said of the large plywood sheds rising around the doors at Meyers. &#8220;You could drop a tank on the roof (of the sheds) and it&#8217;s not going to go through. It&#8217;s ridiculous.&#8221;</p><p>Dr. Mark Schiowitz, who was appointed in 2011 to finish the term of Teresa McGuire when she resigned, joked Tuesday that he &#8220;learned a lot serving an 18-month sentence on the board.&#8221; He has opposed the consolidation from the start, repeatedly citing statistics showing advantages of small, neighborhood schools.</p><p><strong>Process questioned</strong></p><p>Attorney Kim Borland, his wife Ruth and son Joe all attended Tuesday&#8217;s meeting. Collectively they and other volunteers have been responsible for the success of the Meyers Speech and Debate Team, and Kim Borland has made no secret of his preference the school remain open.</p><p>But all three said they are more concerned about the process the board used in reaching the decision to consolidate Meyers and Coughlin.</p><p>While the board took months to review options &#8212; spending more than $400,000 on a feasibility study, forming the task force and holding public meetings for input &#8212; the decision to merge Meyers and Coughlin in a new building at the Coughlin site was rushed when board members learned Gov. Tom Wolf was talking about a moratorium on the state&#8217;s &#8220;PlanCon&#8221; system used to determine if school construction projects are eligible for state reimbursements.</p><p>In April Joe Caffrey, the chairman of the board&#8217;s feasibility committee, said he had been told the district must submit the initial paperwork, known as PlanCon A, by July 1 to be sure the project would be eligible for money. The district has estimated the reimbursement as high as 20 percent of the cost, projected at about $100 million.</p><p><strong>&#8216;36-hour turnaround</strong>&#8217;</p><p>Citing that constraint, Caffrey proposed the consolidation plan at a board meeting June 8, and the board held a special meeting June 10 to approve it. On Tuesday night Kim Borland said the decision had too great an impact on students and the community to be made &#8220;based on a 36-hour turnaround.&#8221;</p><p>Steven Barrouk, the former president of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry, attended Tuesday&#8217;s meeting as well. Along with his desire to keep neighborhood schools, Barrouk brought a historical perspective, noting he had been part of a school district &#8220;Advisory Committee&#8221; in 2002 that looked at the three high school system.</p><p>That committee worked with an outside firm, EdVise, contracted to study the district&#8217;s school configuration and make recommendations. The advisory committee ultimately recommended keeping all three high schools.</p><p>&#8220;And what came of that?&#8221; Barrouk said Tuesday. &#8220;Absolutely nothing.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Brown </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Brown-George3.jpg</photo0><caption0>Brown </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Tony-Brooks1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Brooks </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Tony-Brooks1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Brooks </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Pride-Deborah1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Pride </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Pride-Deborah1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Pride </caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Borland-Kim1.jpeg">
<div class="neCaption">Borland </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Borland-Kim1.jpeg</photo3><caption3>Borland </caption3><photoCredit3></photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Heavy hitters lining up against Wilkes-Barre Area high school consolidation