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Letter to the Editor: Restore Ten Commandments to government buildings and public life

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Letter to the Editor: Presidential contender Hillary Clinton’s failures exposed for all to see

<p>The Wilkes-Barre Area School District recently reached out to the South Wilkes-Barre community, which appears to be the biggest loser in the district&#8217;s high school facilities plan.</p><p>Two pieces in the board&#8217;s original blueprint were never included in official cost estimates but appear in this addendum &#8211; with some other items that seem attractive at first glance but which add to the cost and complexity of the facility redo.</p><p>The new offer preserves a core building in the Meyers High School complex, which contains the historic auditorium and its irreplaceable Tiffany stained glass ceiling and windows. Recognition of this building&#8217;s historic value is welcomed. However, the rest of the building will be sacrificed, and that selective demolition is likely to be still more expensive than earlier estimates.</p><p>Then, future plans call for this remnant&#8217;s conversion to an arts magnet high school &#8211; a great concept &#8211; but this would require an addition to the building after knocking down most of the original school. </p><p>It makes little sense to restore a segment of Meyers, demolish a larger portion, then add a wing in the future. While awaiting the arts school, which might never come, property values in South Wilkes-Barre will drop. Kistler Elementary will become a too-large elementary school, and the neighborhood elementary/secondary campus that so many families depend on will be destroyed.</p><p>Another element in this new plan calls for reconfiguring the track at Memorial Stadium so it has regulation curves and perhaps could host larger meets. However, that&#8217;s a bit wasteful, since there already is a regulation track at the Plains Township complex.</p><p>Lost in the conversation is the long-suspected decision to move football &#8211; the sport with the greatest positive economic impact on a neighborhood &#8211; to Plains Township. So, move the main spectator stadium away from a neighborhood that needs it, where infrastructure (though aging) exists, to a spot which has none for likely $10 million?</p><p>I believe Memorial Stadium can be beautifully restored, and that the alumni of the schools could spearhead that project and complete it without taxpayer dollars.</p><p>This supplemental district plan might be an olive branch to South Wilkes-Barre, but these ever-expanding machinations do not rectify the costly, multi-part and educationally wanting overall facility plan. Mergers and large schools decrease achievement, participation and security, while increasing the dropout rate. Ironically, consolidation also generally increases cost.</p><p>Do some math: It is clear with GAR High School, Mackin, the new school, the Times Leader building, and possibly an arts school, that the oft-stated issue is <em>not</em> maintaining three physical plants, but rather that the district feels it is overstaffed with teachers and that consolidation provides a legal means to pare that number.</p><p>It would be the ultimate irony if attrition and a firm no-hire policy brought the district to a more manageable number of employees by the time the students are shoe-horned into the non-campus on Washington Street. Then the whole painful exercise will have been for naught. We will have lost neighborhood schools, property value, families and landmarks.</p><p>The alternative plan advanced by Save Our Schools should receive serious consideration.</p><p><strong>Mark F. Schiowitz</strong></p><p>Wilkes-Barre</p><style>
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Letter to the Editor: Latest plan for Meyers High School leaves much to be desired