Tech officials assure students despite confusion

PRINGLE -- They can’t say for sure how the school will be run, but the West Side Career and Technology Center joint operating committee had one clear message for students: They will still be attending West Side next school year.

Committee members from Dallas and Lake-Lehman made that promise moments after a vote on a new amendment to the school’s articles of agreement.

Monday’s vote was the third time the committee approved a motion on the articles since March, leaving questions as to which motion is actually binding.

None of the three votes has been ratified by all five sending districts, a situation that led Solicitor Charles Coslett to tell committee members, “You’re in no-man’s-land.”

The motion was the most recent volley in an ongoing battle that began with Wyoming Valley West representatives demanding more committee seats. The current agreement establishing the ground rules for running the school as a cooperative among Valley West, Dallas, Lake-Lehman, Wyoming Area and Northwest Area were approved 10 years ago and expire June 30.

Under those articles, each of the five districts has three committee seats. Several alternate arrangements were proposed since March, most of which would have given Valley West — which sends approximately 60 percent of the 420 students attending West Side — five votes.

Monday’s amendment was the latest in a series made by Valley West representative Jim Fender. It based representation on the percentage of its own student population each district sends to the tech school.

Under Fender’s motion, Valley West gets five votes, Northwest Area and Wyoming Area get three votes each and Dallas and Lehman each get two. The motion passed 8-6, with the representatives from Valley West, Northwest and Wyoming Area voting in favor and Dallas and Lake-Lehman opposing.

Immediately after the vote, some representatives from Dallas and Lake-Lehman suggested they would go back to their districts and look at options, perhaps even a Back Mountain co-op for approximately 50 students the two schools send to West Side.

But they later recanted, with Dallas representative Russ Bigus stating, “To put our kids’ minds at ease, they can still come here.”

Fellow Dallas representative Gary Mathers added, “The people at this school are fine, it’s the joint operating committee that’s screwed up.”

The committee voted last month to extend the existing articles for one year to allow time to resolve the representation issue.

“That was a pragmatic solution allowing time for rational reflection, but that wasn’t acceptable to some. I don’t know what this will lead to,” Coslett said. “The confusion continues.”

Board members noted that with a budget passed, the school’s fate was secure. Just moments before the vote on the newest amendment to the articles, the board passed a new $6 million budget for school year 2008-09.

The board also hired a new principal, promoting computer programming teacher Anthony Guariglia to replace Lee Namey, who retires after 36 years with the school. Guariglia will be paid $75,000 per year.