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Eight candidates seek seat on Hazleton Area Board

Hopefuls want to invest in educational programs and negotiate better contracts.

By Jen Marckini jmarckini@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

Hazleton Area School District voters must fill four School Board seats from a slate of eight candidates. All of the candidates have cross-filed as both Democrats and Republicans.

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Two candidates, Carmella Yenkevich and Steven Hahn, are incumbents. The other six candidates are Rocco G. Fallabel, Bob Mehalick, Rocco Formica, Lawrence Sampson, Peter J. Beltrami and Clarence H. John

This year’s primary will take place on May 19. The municipal election has been scheduled for Nov. 3.

Hazleton Area is the largest school district in the county, serving approximately 10,500 students from K-12 and more than 1,000 employees.

Formica says providing children with the best possible educational experience will be his top goal if he is elected.

Formica, an adjunct faculty member in science at Luzerne County Community College, said the community needs to invest in the education of children.

“It is our responsibility to spend education dollars efficiently and effectively,” said Formica, a Hazleton native who has been employed in the field of education for nearly 40 years.

Formica, who graduated with Bachelor of Science and master of education degrees at Penn State University, said he is qualified to take on the challenges as school director. Formica is a retired high school science teacher.

“For me, there was no better feeling than helping our children learn and go on to be successful in their adult lives,” said Formica, who educated nearly 4,500 students.

Formica said some of his ideas include:

Investing wisely in remediation for students in reading, writing and arithmetic

Providing awareness of the Hazleton Area Career Center for students in elementary and intermediate levels

Continuing to support and expand the Advanced Placement curriculum

In addition to academic excellence, Formica said he has two other goals if he were to hold the position as school director. Those goals are fiscal responsibility and fairness in hiring, he said.

Bob Mehalick, of Sugarloaf, a Hazleton Area high school graduate, said his top goals include stopping wasteful spending and making sure district policy is being followed.

“In the past two years I’ve seen the district going in a direction that I don’t feel benefits our students,” said Mehalick, a former public school educator. “That’s my passion and my drive.”

Mehalick, who serves as the district’s director of special education and student services, said he has relevant experience in balancing department budgets and orchestrated the construction of federal program grants.

Formica said his 25 years of serving as secondary science department chairman served him well in “scrutinizing district spending.”

Formica said negotiating fair employment contracts that ensure the hiring of well-qualified faculty is paramount.

Wages and benefits earned by school employees should reflect today’s economy, he said.

“I am well aware that maintaining the proper balance between providing our children with a first class education and keeping the lid on spending is extremely delicate,” Formica said. “However, this is a tight rope in which I am fully committed to walk.”

Fallabel, of Drums, said one of his top goals is improving the overall achievement level of students by eliminating the achievement gap, improving the dropout and completion rate and addressing overcrowding in classrooms.

Fallabel, owner of Fallabel Custom Construction, a general contracting business, has 32 years of experience in the district as an intermediate grade level teacher and math instructor.

“A school board member must build public understanding, support and participation,” said Fallabel, a graduate of St. Gabriel’s High School. “My efforts as a board member would center on serving all of the children in the community.”

Yenkevich, who has eight years of experience as a school board member, is a graduate of Hazleton High School. She said she decided to run again to assure accomplishments made in the past two years are carried out.

“I was instrumental in revising the hiring policy,” said Yenkevich, a Hazleton native.

Yenkevich is also a member of the Luzerne Intermediate Unit Board of Directors and the Castle Auditorium Board of Directors where she has served as chairwoman of the Have A Seat committee.

Some of her goals if elected include the following:

Resolve the overcrowding issue and increase student safety

Continue to hold administrators accountable to carry out policies implemented by the board

Increase parent involvement through the cooperation of administrators and teachers

Both Hahn and Sampson are from Sugarloaf; Beltrami is from Drums; and John, principal of the Hazleton Area Career Center, is from Hazleton.

Jen Marckini, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7210.