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Three Books About The Wilkes-Barre Area School District

http://savewbschools.com/toxicschoolfree.pdf   The Big Toxic School

http://savewbschools.com/wbasdcorruptionfree.pdf   Corruption in the Wilkes-Barre Area School District

http://savewbschools.com/toxicchroniclesfree.pdf   The Chronicle of Inept Governance & Corrective Actions.

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The Big Toxic School!

Wilkes-Barre Area’s Tale of Corruption, Deception, Taxation & Tyranny

A struggle for safe, enduring neighborhood schools.

We can’t wait until there are no WB high schools and the tax burden is unsustainable.

As the title says, this book describes the travesty perpetrated by the now famous corrupt Wilkes-Barre Area School Board. Ask the Auditor General how the board is doing so far. Not so good!  

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The Citizens Voice signaled hope for Wilkes-Barre Area in a February 2019 article: https://www.citizensvoice.com/news/save-our-schools-backing-five-candidates-for-w-b-area-board-1.2446881. Since the article was written the candidates have changed to the names below: 

On November 5 in the General Election, please vote for the five Save Our Schools  (SOS) endorsed candidates for School Director. Do not vote for any of the current members of the board. They have betrayed us. They have not represented the Citizens of Wilkes-Barre well and because of them, our taxes will be heading through the roof; Wilkes-Barre will have no high schools; and WB Area students will be breathing in toxic waste eight hours a day.

 

To repeat, please vote for the five endorsed Save Our Schools candidates. Three won the May primary and their names will be on the ballot:  Terry Schiowitz, Robin Shudak, and Beth Anne Owens.  Debra Formola and Jody Bush are also endorsed by SOS and are running as write-in candidates at the people’s request. See the flier at the end of this article to learn how to use the write-in facilities of the County voting machines. 

 

Please note that together, these candidates, all five of them, will form a large enough voice for the people to survive the WB Area School Board’s betrayal of its citizenry. Finally, the people will prevail in this major travesty.

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http://citizensvoice.com/opinion/time-to-end-w-b-area-board-s-intimidation-1.2188893

Time to end W-B Area board’s intimidation,

CITIZEN’S VOICE LETTER TO THE EDITOR / PUBLISHED: MAY 5, 2017

Editor: What do outdated, scarce textbooks and supply shortages have in common with administrative raises, cavalier hiring, crumbling buildings, nepotism, crippling debt and misspent funds? It’s their home at the Wilkes-Barre Area School District.

Three incumbent board members are seeking reelection despite a gruesome record of achievement: Student performance is abysmal, taxes, the highest allowed by law, and nearly every facility fails state standards. One historic high school is unusable and abandoned. Two others have been systemically neglected and may meet the same fate. The board’s remedy which has yet to be fleshed out could cost a quarter of a billion dollars. While not all these problems are attributable to these three board members, in their first facility foray, these incumbents spent $4.9 million on a consolidated school site without zoning approval which ultimately was denied. Under this board, a surplus has rapidly approached a $70 million deficit. The fiscal response was “Pathway to the Future” which cut 37 teachers who served the very programs which keep some of our students in school. Further teacher and program cuts are to follow. In the meantime, administrators were getting raises and buyout incentives. A proposed high school consolidation does not include GAR, the high school with the largest number of impoverished children. Candidates Thomas, Caffrey and Evans approved this plan. While GAR students keep their neighborhood schools, they will not share in state of the art technology. A more recent iteration of the “plan” leaves the city without a high school, altogether, which will be a death knell for our neighborhoods.

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An Obituary printed in the London Times.....Absolutely Brilliant!! Postscript uses poetic license. 

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. 

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At 2PM on one of the most dismal days of this new summer, Saturday, June 17, 2015, thanks to organizer Lisa Barth, hundreds of Meyers High School supporters joined together to send a loud and clear message to the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board. "End your foolishness before it goes any further."

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Press Release: 

June 18, 2015

The Wilkes-Barre Area School Board, after going through the motions pretending it was not a Dunn Deal, on Wednesday June 10, 2015, finally announced their plans to build a brand spanking new high school. They not only made a poor decision, they made it worse by picking the smallest spot available where Coughlin now stands.

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I saw a good article today about nepotism in the WBASD. I was surprised that the Times Leader would risk its neutral stance on everything to offer a bone to citizens of Wilkes-Barre. Yet, they did. If you find my comment then they are not in the editing out business for those who they deem not worthy. Check out the article and the comments at: http://www.timesleader.com/news/editorial/154085479/OUR-VIEW-Nepotism-sinks-trust-in-schools

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Press Release June 15, 2015: Save Wilkes-Barre Schools (www.savewbschools.com) is a web site initiative launched recently to help persuade the WB School Board, which we the citizens elected, to reconsider their recent decision to destroy Wilkes-Barre's legacy high schools and the accompanying positive culture created by neighborhood schools. More will be released on the web site soon. 

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May 29, 2015

****** PRESS RELEASE ******
 
Bill Crawford writes: when 'Being Rushed' is the problem . . . rushing is never the solution." Just because officials think they have done enough planning does not mean they have a workable plan.

And so, here we are again with a more pressing high school building crisis. With a few thousand people at the LCCC graduation at the same time as the meeting on the schools (great timing) on May28, I am sure there would have been at least one more person in attendance than the 100 who thankfully cared enough to make the meeting. I was at the graduation and I would not have missed it for the world. 

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Becoming a School Board Member in Litchfield Park, Arizona

We all have thought over the years that our school board has done its best to serve us. Yet, we find just about any building in the school district that you look at is in disrepair. I asked the WB Area Superintendent's Office yesterday if there were a big Mahoff in a position such as Executive District Engineer, who understands buildings and who would understand what is needed so that the School Superintendent would not have to be an architect or an engineer. I received no answer. However, the next day my question was gracefully answered. There is no architect or engineer. 

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Go to the red asterisks for the save our schools section.  I am the same Brian Kelly who was shellacked in his attempt to become Mayor of Wilkes-Barre. Hoping that I could attract voters to my Web site, I put a lot of my thoughts into words. I have placed a set of asterisks way below so you can skip all of this stuff that was intended for those evaluating my candidacy.

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Contact information will be updated in future releases.

Contact:          Brian Kelly  
Date:               June 16, 2015
         ****** PRESS RELEASE ******
Note to Press: You may use all or part of this press release in a report or column. It was written by Brian Kelly.  The reason Brian writes so many press releases is because he believes the media in NEPA does not represent the people effectively.  He hopes and objective source will pick up on what is really happening in Wilkes-Barre. The media companies in NEPA are short of staff and they go with the flow because they have nobody to respond if they actually take a stance and the people want to gain a better explanation.  So, to keep the profits rolling, the savants in local media cannot actually do their jobs because they are not given the time by their management to help the people. 

Probably the worst thoughts of the people in a community are expressed when unpaid School Boards decide to build something about which the people, who feel they have a stake in the decision are against. Some citizens who cannot figure out why the school board would be against the people, go so far as to suggest that the only way an unpaid board gets paid is to build something.

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This letter was published in the Citizens Voice in late December, 2014

http://citizensvoice.com/opinion/special-landmarks-do-not-have-to-be-destroyed-1.1810674

Editor:

The fixes required for Wilkes-Barre Area School District high schools have been depicted as unaffordable by taxpayers regardless of the approach — fix it or demolish and build it again cheaper. I don’t think so. I don’t buy it.