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.

The collective promise of the candidates will save the WB Area taxpayers from having to move out of the area to afford life after the monster boondoggle school to be built over an unhealthy mine shaft scenario in Plains, PA while the three WB high schools are destroyed. Despite their neighborhood and historical significance, and despite their being well-built "forever" schools, Coughlin, GAR, and Meyers are scheduled to be destroyed by the wrecking ball in the not-too-distant future. 

As you know, for years now, the current board has taken action against the best interests of the people of Northeastern PA, whose children / students are in attendance. This may be our last chance to end this abomination before it is too late.

Five of the nine seats on the school board are up for election this year. Those who voted for this scourge on the people of Northeastern PA must be defeated. Please vote against the Rev. Shawn Walker, John Quinn and Mark Atherton. All have followed their personal interests rather than what is best for Wilkes-Barre and surrounds. Former board member James Geiger is not seeking re-election and James Susek was defeated in the primary. That fact is good for the people.

The biggest losers over the last several years have been the students at Coughlin High School who literally lost their high school to Board mismanagement and they were forced to use the Coughlin Annex and the Mackin Elementary School to complete their high school education.

The second biggest losers in this perpetration by current board members are the homeowner taxpayers, especially those in the City of Wilkes-Barre. With Wilkes-Barre City itself as the largest city in the immediate area, after the demolition of Coughlin High School, Meyers High School, and the reworking or demolition of GAR High School, it speaks very poorly of the City to be placed in a situation in which no high schools exist in Wilkes-Barre proper.

Those considering moving their businesses here or relocating their families here will see this as City mismanagement and/or malfeasance at its worst and will rightfully resist setting up roots in a town in which the wrecking ball rather than the construction crane is the highest visible object. The current Wilkes-Barre Area School Board voted for this scourge on the people. Now Shawn Walker, once for the people, John Quinn, and Mark Atherton are asking you to reelect them. Say no to their request as they have not represented any of the people of this area by ramming this decision down our throats..

Who would blame businesses for rejecting Wilkes-Barre City. With the loss of three high schools, the City will look like it is dying and nobody invests in a dying city. But taxes will still go up. We, the voters of Wilkes-Barre Area, PA can stop the destruction and make the best of this situation  by electing the five SOS endorsed candidates and rejecting the three perpetrators who have brought this calamity on the people. 

With the blight caused by torn down high schools, soon the highways will be filled with former Wilkes-Barre residents getting out of town before the crime rate gets worse and before the taxes are so high that the people will need to seek refuge in the poor house.

But it does not have to be this way. WB School Board Candidates Terry Schiowitz, Robin, Shudak, Beth Anne Owens-Harris, Debra Formola (write-in), and Jody Busch will change life for the better for all of us if we all give them the opportunity. It is up to us.

Click here to see the write-in flier. It is in two parts. In the printed version, the scond part would be the back side of the flier.