Wilkes-Barre Area School Board

The reorganization meeting of the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board was anything but organized according to the story by Peter Cameron in the Citizens Voice  with 2 breaks for executive sessions and Christine Katsock calling the meeting illegal.

Former Coughlin HS teacher and sports coach John Quinn was elected President and Barbara Youngblood Louis Elmy as VP. The Secret Service was interested in Quinn's son a few months ago according to the TL.

You have to wonder who would even want the job of school director in Wilkes-Barre. It doesn't pay anything and you get a lot of grief in the local papers after you hire a relative for a position. Or maybe that's it.

This is a body that has seen 3 members convicted of corruption. Jim Height, Brian Dunn and Frank Pizzella. After Pizzella was indicted he was elected as board President with the support of former reformer Christine Katsock .    If there is any government body in Luzerne County that needs to change it's public persona it's this one but that doesn't seem to faze this bunch much. They made a hash of hiring a new superintendent and the new hiring policy is a joke.

Four seats are up in the upcoming election in May. The incumbents are Christine Katsock, Lynn Evans, Phil Latinski and Bob Corcoran. I haven't heard if any of them will seek reelection.

Katsock ran for many offices as a Republican reformer before she finally a spot on the school board.  She came within 800 votes of defeating Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton in 2003 and gave State Rep Eddie Day Pashinski a run for his money in 2006. She switched to the Democrats  when she ran for the board and had no comment when asked to explain her vote for Pizzella but it's not hard to figure out if you look at her Campaign Finance Report. Frank Pizzella was her top cash contributor pitching in $3000. She also got $1800 as a in-kind contribution from the Friends of Frank Pizzella.

Evans voted against Pizella and the new super and revealed the pick system of filling jobs.

Latinski goes along. 

Bob Corcoran has other troubles. Update: Corcoran barred from home, contact with son

Pure Bunkum has a couple of insightful posts about this subject.

I think we should get rid of school boards and KeystonePolitics proposes putting the Intermediate Units in charge

Harry Haas for school board

A few weeks ago I suggested that Harry Haas should be appointed to the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board to take the place of disgraced former board President Frank "kneecaps" Pizzella. Harry finished 5th in the recent election to choose 4 board members and if they follow recent precedent in choosing replacements for admitted crooks he should be a shoo in. Christine Katsock was the top vote getter in the primary so she was chosen to take the place of previous board President Jim Height who plead guilty to taking a bribe. The other admitted (so far) crook on the board, Brian Dunn, didn't stand for reelection.

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The TL reports that 8 people have applied for the vacancy but the identity of the applicants is a secret. When will these people ever learn? The Luzerne County GOP put out a press release backing Haas which will probably be a kiss of death.

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WILKES-BARRE (Feb. 24, 2010) – The Luzerne County Republican Party is urging the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board to “do the right thing” and appoint Harry Haas to the open seat on the board.

Haas, a Republican, finished fifth in the November 2009 race for four seats on the school board. Haas missed out by 116 votes.

“We are asking the School Board to do the right thing,” Republican Chairman Terry Casey said. “Harry is exactly the type of person we need to make decisions for the district, its taxpayers and most importantly, its students. He is intelligent, open-minded, fair and has a background in education.”

Appointing Haas to the vacancy created by the resignation of Frank Pizzella would offer the school board the opportunity to prove to residents of the district that it is “not business as usual, or even, politics as usual,” Casey said.

Haas, 34, of Wilkes-Barre, is a teacher in the Dallas School District. During his campaign last year he advocated the preservation of the Wilkes-Barre Area School District’s old buildings, promised a fair-hiring process and supported training and advanced technology to meet the needs of a changing student body.

Haas has submitted a letter of interest to the school board which is expected to make an appointment on March 8.

This week in Luzerne County corruption

Wilkes-Barre Area School Board President Frankie "Kneecaps" Pizzella pleas not guilty to being part of a job selling scheme in 2004 before he became a school director.

17 Down and Hundreds? To Go

Finally, one of the people who has been paying bribes is charged.

CV: Richard Emanski, owner of King Glass and Paint Co., has agreed to plead guilty to one count of bribery, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court. Prosecutors say he installed carpeting in the home of an unnamed school board member between November and December 2004 in return for the board member's support of his efforts to secure a district carpeting contract.

The School Director is not named in the indictment but it's either James Height or Brian Dunn.

Luzerne County Redevelopment Authority Director Allen Bellas and president of the Wyoming Valley West School Board admitted that he took a $2,000 bribe from a contractor who secured a government loan through the authority for one of those great job creation schemes called Tax Increment Financing which is similar to the Keystone Opportunity Zones. They keep telling us that the benefit of these programs is that they will bring "good paying jobs to area because of our great work ethic." I think it's corporate welfare and you and me pay more property taxes because of it.


CV reporter Dave Janoski get's out his crayon and connects the dots. The bribe was paid by Anthony Trombetta who owns Insignia Point Courtyard and Intellacom Inc. Intellacom had contracts with the Wyoming Valley West and Pittston Area school districts and Luzerne County Community College. The firm has been paid about $1.6 million by the three institutions for work on computer and security systems since 2003. 2 grand for a security camera that can be bought for a few hundred bucks elsewhere should be looked at. Two Pittston Area officials have also pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from unnamed school district contractors. Trommetta also owned a restaurant that went belly up.

I'm actually rooting for Frank Pizzella in this mess. He want's a trial and so do I so names can be named. All these people that are pleading to just one crime leaves us wondering what else they did.

Did I mention that Allan Bellas' wife, Nancy Bellas, is the Democratic candidate for Prothonotary.

Contracts at the cube

FBI seeking documents from LCCC

LCCC has received criticism in the last year for the way the board of trustees handled the awarding of contracts when Ross Scarantino was chairman of LCCC’s Board of Trustees.

Scarantino, Pittston Area School District’s superintendent, agreed to plead guilty to federal charges May 20 for receiving money for supporting a contractor seeking work with the school district.

No bid contracts are nice when you can get them.

Former Pittston Area School Director Tony Rostock got a mere pitanance of $30,000 to do some landscapping at LCCC.
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Precept Associates received a nice premium to oversee the construction of a building and Intellacom got $130K+ to install spy cameras before they were fired because they didn't fulfill the terms of the contract. The Pittston Area School District also paid Intellacom $300,00o for a survallience system and the Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Tech School hired them when Brian Dunn and Jim Height were on the board. Dunn and Height are also facing charges of accepting bribes. I'm certainly not accusing Intellecom or any other outfit of wrongdoing but I do find it interesting that they are mention in just about every story about local school officials taking bribes.

In more LCCC news former Dean Peter Moses is collecting unemployment compensation while awaiting trial on theft and receiving stolen property charges.

Height hits a low

CV: Jim Height, the former Wilkes-Barre Area School Board president who resigned abruptly last week, has been charged with allegedly accepting $2,000 in cash for supporting a contractor's attempt to obtain business from the Wilkes-Barre Area School District.

Like we didn't see this coming after he quit the race last week. The 2 grand charge is the one that the US Attorney can prove at this time. My sources tell me that there are a lot more revelations to come about Height and others.

The indictment

The plea