Wilkes-Barre Area School Directors

There are five candidates running for four seats on the W-B Area School Board. Two incumbents, John Corcoran and Brian Dunn, received both the Democratic and Republican nominations. Mr. Corcoran is rumored to be on the short list to succeed Dr. Hudock as Coroner and says he is interested in the job. The other two were not as fortunate. Jim Height received the Democratic nomination and is running as a team with with Brian Dunn. Charles Luce was the odd man out and received the Republican nod. As I pointed out before he has sent out a mailer reminding voters that he is a Democrat running on the Republican ticket. They all claim to be opposed to tax increases but they raise them every year. Dunn and Height say they are against closing any of the schools and Luce wants to look at consolidation.

The newcomer in the race is Lynn Evans who received a duel nomination and was the second highest vote getter in the primary. I met her a few months ago and she came across as very knowledgeable about the challenges facing the district. She wants to take a look at these tax free KOZ zones to find a way to get some revenue out of them and she opposes closing any of the high schools. She also addresses the way the board does business and nepotism in an article in The Citizen Voice:

"I don't play the whole political game very well," Evans said. "I hope that just being me works."Evans hopes to bring more urgency to the board and to get rid of what she considers to be "secrecy." She vows to be open about the board's decision making and will not make decisions behind closed doors, she said. Evans also wants to work to keep the district's three high schools in operation. Bringing in money to the district is important, Evans said, and she wants to work toward squeezing money out of tax-free KOZ zones in the district. To really dig in Evans wants to enact "some kind of fair hiring system," she said."That seems to be a biggest thing people talk about," she said.

"People have had enough with nepotism."

Amen to that.