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WILKES-BARRE — While almost certainly unrelated to his resignation, the departure of Wilkes-Barre Area School District Purchasing Director Jim Post raises the question about an organization he once helped promote as a new source of revenue for the district.
Post was an officer for the Wilkes-Barre Area Education Improvement Organization, Inc., an independent nonprofit created to garner donations used to purchase equipment for classrooms and other school support. He was one of three people who became the public face of the organization when it first started looking for support in 2013.
The other two were then-Business Manager Leonard Przywara, who retired in August of 2016, and Frank Pasquini, a well-known regional figure in charity work who passed away in March of 2017.
It was Pasquini who spearheaded the revival of a dormant educational foundation formed in 2004 but inactive. Responding to repeated calls by then-Board Member Maryanne Toole for a renewed foundation, Pasquini helped get the ball rolling through state approval of the foundation as an official Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) entity with the state.
Being part of the EITC program means that contributions to the foundation were not only tax deductible, but under the right terms provided substantial state tax credits to a contributing business.
The foundation filed required federal 990 forms for three years, showing nearly $30,000 in money raised in two of those years. According to Times Leader archives, money from the organization paid for computers and books.
But the last 990 was filed in 2015, and the organization is on the IRS website list for automatic revocation of tax exempt status for failure to file a 990 in three consecutive years.
Asked about the organization Monday, Superintendent Brian Costello said he had nothing to do with it and that it was a separate entity. He also said he would like to see it revived to increase money available for schools.
Such organizations, often called education foundations, have become more common statewide and locally, with some raising substantial money.
For example, the latest 990 forms for the Dallas Foundation for Excellence in Education supporting Dallas School District and the Pittston Area Educational Improvement organization supporting Pittston Area show annual contributions in the last three years ranging as high as $50,000 to $200,000.