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WILKES-BARRE — Within minutes, the future of Wilkes-Barre Area School District shifted sharply Monday night. The School Board voted 7-2 to negotiate a lease of the Times Leader building with Panzitta Enterprises, to house 11th and 12th grade Coughlin students. Then Superintendent Bernard Prevuznak announced his retirement.
Though the board has spent months looking for options to house students while Coughlin is razed and replaced, the Panzitta option didn’t publicly exist until Jan. 12, when John Panzitta presented the proposal at the end of a long public meeting.
Panzitta offered to buy the Times Leader building on North Main Street, renovate it to accommodate about 500 students and give the district a 20-year lease-to-own contract. Total cost to the district was estimated at $13.2 million for 41,200 square feet, or $17.4 million for 53,200 square feet.
The other two options for housing two grades under consideration had been the purchase of modular classrooms — a move approved at the Nov. 9 meeting but never pursued — or to have students attend split schedules at the newly renovated Mackin school building, currently housing ninth and 10th grades from Coughlin.
During a Feb. 1 informational meeting, parents spoke out unanimously against the split schedule idea, which would mean half the students would attend from early in the morning until noon, with the other half coming in until almost 6 p.m. The option became viable after the state approved the plan Jan. 20.
The vote on the Panzitta proposal was not on the agenda Monday, and the board got stinging rebukes from several audience members for planning to introduce it under “new business.”
“It astounds me that something discussed at the last two meetings is not on the agenda,” attorney Kimberly Borland said, alleging “it was never the intent of the board to go to split schedules or modulars.”
Several board members rejected the accusation, with Ned Evans telling Borland, “You’re putting words in our mouths.”
“It’s impossible to put words in your mouths,” Borland snapped back, “because words never come out of your mouth.”
Board member John Quinn, who has championed the idea of using the Times Leader building for months, made the motion to negotiate a lease with Panzitta, adding that if a satisfactory arrangement couldn’t be reached, the district should buy and renovate the building itself. If that failed, the motion called for taking the building by eminent domain.
Civitas Media, the parent company of the Times Leader, put the building up for sale through Lewith & Freeman Real Estate last year. The asking price was about $1.3 million. The company plans to move the staff to another building on Market Street that houses the printing press.
The vote for negotiating a lease was 7-2, with Christine Katsock saying the lease didn’t make economic sense before voting no. Participating via phone, Shawn Walker also voted no, then moved for “a complete moratorium” on the whole plan, which will ultimately consolidate grades nine through 12 from Meyers and Coughlin high schools into a new building on the Coughlin site.
That motion died 7-2, with Katsock and Walker supporting it.
Shortly after that vote, Prevuznak read a statement announcing his retirement after 35 years in the district. He plans to leave when his current contract expires at the end of August.
Prevuznak choked up a little recalling his introduction to the district as a child being walked to school by his father 50 years ago. He praised co-workers, the board and others, and alluded to the struggles regarding the decaying high schools.
“To say that this journey has been easy is not accurate nor truthful,” he said. “The last few years have given me very few moments of pleasure.”
Prevuznak was made deputy superintendent in 2003, and was named interim superintendent in July 2012 to fill in while a replacement was found for retiring Jeff Namey. Three months later, several board members expressed surprise when a motion was made to hire Prevuznak as superintendent. Some said the move short-circuited the search process, but the motion passed 5-4.
After Monday’s meeting, Quinn praised Prevuznak. “I’m sad to see him go.”
Evans noted Prevuznak often wears a rosary around his neck, and praised him for “always treating teachers and students with respect.”
