President abruptly quits board

WILKES-BARRE – Wilkes-Barre Area School Board President James Height resigned abruptly and without giving a reason Tuesday afternoon, leaving the board apparently down two members at meetings and throwing a big question mark into the May 19 primaries.

Superintendent Jeff Namey said he received a terse letter from Height around noon announcing the resignation, and that the letter said only that Height regretted he can no longer serve the people of Wilkes-Barre.

Height was seeking his third, four-year term on the board, and Luzerne County Bureau of Elections Director Leonard Piazza said as of Tuesday afternoon Height has not withdrawn his name from the ballot.

But Piazza said Height’s name will appear on the May ballot even if he does withdraw. “Every machine is programmed, locked and sealed at this point, and ready to go out.”

Piazza also noted that Height’s resignation does not automatically preclude him from still running for the board seat. It is up to Height to withdraw his own name.

All of which means Height, who is cross-filed and appears on the Democratic and Republican tickets, could win a spot on the November ballot. If he withdraws before the general election, each party would have the right to name a substitute nominee to take his place, but the parties would not be required to do so.

Of course, Piazza noted, if Height loses the nomination next week, the question becomes irrelevant.

Height did not return calls seeking comment. He was not at the school board meeting Monday night and board members said they were told he had been delayed at work in Philadelphia. He works as a supervisor with Quest Diagnostics, a medical testing company with corporate headquarters in Madison, N.J., that boasts of a global market on its Web site

Height’s resignation comes three weeks after federal charges were filed against board member Brian Dunn. Dunn is accused of accepting money in exchange for contracts and jobs in the district. He has yet to resign from the school board, and the board has taken no action to remove him, but he has not attended any meetings since the charges or responded to repeated calls.

If Dunn continues to miss meetings, it knocks the nine-member board down to seven. A majority vote of five members is needed for some important board votes such as approving a budget, even if board members are absent.

The board could decide to appoint someone to fill out Height’s term, which ends the first week of December when newly elected board members are seated. If the board does not appoint someone or cannot agree on a replacement, the county court can step in and appoint someone to finish the term.

Height has not been charged with any crime or publicly linked to the wide-ranging school district corruption probe that led to Dunn’s charge. The probe has also resulted in corruption charges against Pittston Area School District Superintendent Ross Scarantino, who immediately went on paid leave and recently submitted his letter of resignation.

The resignation is effective in August, but the Pittston Area board explicitly refused to accept it at a meeting May 6, noting that accepting it would force the district to provide Scarantino with numerous and costly benefits included in his contract.

Namey has testified before a grand jury, and several school teachers have been questioned. Investigators have taken records from Wilkes-Barre Area and Pittston Area school districts, and Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center.

A source has told The Times Leader – and several media outlets have reported – that Height was also questioned by federal investigators. U.S. District Attorney Martin Carlson said his office would not comment on the case.

Height also sits on the Career Center Joint Operating Committee, composed of representatives from the five districts that use and fund the Center, and on the Luzerne Intermediate Unit Board of Directors, which is made up of representatives from the 12 districts that belong to the LIU. Resigning from Wilkes-Barre Area School Board automatically means he cannot serve on either of those boards and that the district will have to appoint a new representative.

After the charges were filed against Dunn, Height repeatedly denied any connection or knowledge of the probe, but he did admit a friendship with the owner of one of the firms known to be included in the investigation. Federal officers took documents from Pittston regarding transactions with Intellacom, a computer supply and service company in Plains Township owned by Anthony Trombetta, and King Paint and Glass Co. of Kingston, where the president is listed as Richard Emanski in state corporation documents.

Height has said he is friends with Emanski and admitted in an April interview that he was part of a group of six or seven who have traveled to Las Vegas with Emanski. Height declined to name the other members of the group but said he paid his own way and had receipts to prove it.

King Paint and Glass has been paid $953,713 for work in Wilkes-Barre Area School District from August 2004 to the present, mostly for carpet installation. Much of that carpet was purchased from Shaw Industries through a state bidding program called the Pennsylvania Education Joint Purchasing Council, which means the district does not have to seek bids for the work.

Several district officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have said the board did not seek bids for the carpet installation done by King Paint and Glass. Height has said he thought the installation was part of a state bid contract but wasn’t sure of the specifics.

The company has also done $243,010 worth of work at Pittston Area, where board member Terry Best has said at least some of those jobs were not bid out to see if another company would do the work for less. The Career Center has paid King Glass $196,321 since July 2004 for work including carpeting.

Intellacom has done no-bid work for the Career Center, Pittston Area and Luzerne County Community College, where Scarantino previously sat on the board of trustees. At least some of that work was done under a different state bidding system called the Pennsylvania Education Purchasing Program for Microcomputers, or PEPPM, but there is no record of some of the purchase orders listed as PEPPM work at Pittston ever going through the PEPPM system.

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Federal Investigation of Schools

No reason given for James Height’s exit, which puts board two members down, adds to questions for May 19 primaries.

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