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Students mark Feast of All Saints garbed like the great

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Limited competition in most school board races

<p>With a controversial $121 million consolidated high school project in the works, the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board race could have the biggest impact among Luzerne County&#8217;s 11 school districts.</p><p>Five seats are up for grabs. Tuesday&#8217;s vote comes as walls rise at the Plains Township site, and though critics have repeatedly and unsuccessfully called for a referendum, they didn&#8217;t mount a full slate of opposition candidates until this year.</p><p>Three of them made it through the primary to Tuesday&#8217;s election: Terry Schiowitz and former district guidance counselor Beth Ann Owens won on both tickets, while Robin Shudak won the Republican nomination.</p><p>Shudak submitted a letter to the Luzerne County Election Bureau saying she was withdrawing from the election but it was too late to remove her name from the ballot. In the letter she also said she will not serve if she wins enough votes to take a seat on the board, but Attorney Michael Butera, the solicitor for the county election bureau, said it&#8217;s not that simple. The letter does not actually withdraw her from the race. If Shudak does garner enough votes, she will be certified as a winner and will have to resign the position.</p><p>Two other anti-consolidation candidates have launched write-in campaigns: Newcomer Jody Busch, and Debra Formola, who narrowly lost a spot on the ticket in the primary. While Formola and Schiowitz have been adamant in opposition to the project, particularly citing the risk of building on former mine land where coal ash was buried, Owens and Busch have conceded it may be too late to fully stop the project and offered alternatives if elected.</p><p>Busch, from Laurel Run Borough, said if enough anti-consolidation candidates get on the board, it may be worthwhile to pause work on the school and see if it can be scaled down to a smaller school, with upgrades on the existing buildings. Owens has stressed how her experience could help save the district money and improve services for students, and has said if the new school is inevitable, she will work to ensure the consolidation &#8220;offers the best opportunities academically and socially to our students.&#8221;</p><p>The challengers face three incumbents. Mark Atherton and John Quinn cross-filed and won on both tickets in the primary, while Shawn Walker only ran on the Democratic ticket.</p><p>Quinn has supported consolidation since the idea was put forward in 2015, though initially the plan called for combining grade 9-12 from Coughlin and Meyers high schools in a building at the Coughlin site. That plan died when the Wilkes-Barre Zoning Hearing board denied a needed permit, and the new site was selected.</p><p>Atherton joined the board five months before the spring primary. He was selected to complete the term of Dino Galella, who moved out of the district. He is a teacher in the Crestwood School District but has noted he lives near Meyers High School and has suggested the site be converted into a sports facility. He staunchly defends the safety of the new high school site.</p><p>Walker has been on the board for six years and is the only minority member. He was reluctant to embrace consolidation in the early stages, but not only has come to defend it, he was the board member who moved to expand plans for the new building to hold students from all three high schools. Among his accomplishments, he cites helping draft an anti-nepotism hiring policy and new procedures to maintain school buildings. </p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Masons set bricks in the new gym at the new Wilkes-Barre Area High School. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_TTL100319School2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Masons set bricks in the new gym at the new Wilkes-Barre Area High School. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></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>

W-B Area high school project makes it a pivotal school board race