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LCCC clubs support Brandon’s Forever Home in Hazleton

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Andy Gegaris resigns as Nanticoke City manager

WILKES-BARRE &#8212; The Pennsylvania Department of Education has given Wilkes-Barre Area School District permission to use split scheduling for Coughlin High School students next year, Superintendent Bernard Prevuznak said.&#8220;We were approved late last night officially from the state,&#8221; Prevuznak said Thursday. &#8220;We&#8217;re going to hold a special meeting on Feb. 1 to hear from Coughlin parents, to get their input, and I suspect at the Feb. 8 board meeting a decision will be made.&#8221;The Feb. 1 meeting will likely be only for input from the audience and not board action, Prevuznak said. It is set for 6 p.m. in the cafeteria of the Solomon/Plains Memorial School complex.Split schedules would bring two grades in for classes in the morning and two in the afternoon. Students would attend classes at the recently renovated Mackin Elementary building, where ninth and 10th-grade students <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/500472/the-end-of-coughlin-high-school-is-set-to-begin-with-the-new-year" target="_blank">began attending</a> upon returning from Christmas break. The older section of Coughlin was closed and students restricted to the newer annex.District officials have promised students would still get all their courses and access to extra-curricular activities. Class times may be more compressed but by state law, students must get 990 hours in the school year.Split scheduling is one of three primary options still on the table for handling Coughlin students as the district follows through on plans to raze the building and construct a new school on the site. The others are modular classrooms and buying or leasing a nearby building to house half the students while sending the other half to Mackin.The board voted last June to merge Coughlin and Meyers into a new building on the site of Coughlin, but has struggled to find a way to house students during construction. The board looked at purchasing a nearby building, including an October inspection of the <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/490957/wilkes-barre-area-considers-purchase-of-times-leader-building" target="_blank">Times Leader</a> building, put up for sale by parent company Civitas Media, which plans to move staff to offices in a nearby building housing the press.In November, the board voted to <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/493495/coughlin-juniors-seniors-to-be-schooled-in-modular-rooms-next-year" target="_blank">buy modular classrooms</a> at a projected cost of more than $2 million, but never followed through. The board also applied to the state for permission to use <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/498910/split-scheduling-for-coughlin-students-likely-w-b-area-superintendent-says" target="_blank">split scheduling</a>.At the Jan. 11 meeting, Panzitta Enterprises presented a <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/local/502488/new-option-presented-to-w-b-area-on-high-school-project-involves-tl-building" target="_blank">fourth proposal</a> to the school board, offering to buy the Times Leader building, renovate it to hold about half the Coughlin students, lease it to the district for 20 years and then hand title to the district.Prevuznak said Thursday all options are still being considered but admitted, &#8220;The modulars have slipped pretty far down.&#8221;Prevuznak also said the district has yet to hear from the state regarding a review of district finances. The district reviewed finances internally and decided the entire project couldn&#8217;t cost more than $100 million without requiring voter approval for additional debt, eliminating several other construction options that had been under review.The district took advantage of the opportunity to get a review through the state at no cost.<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Mark Guydishmguydish@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</shirttailMeta></div>

State gives Wilkes-Barre Area green light on split schedules for Coughlin students