WB Area athletic facilities 2 weeks behind schedule

Oct. 3—PLAINS TWP. — The new Wilkes-Barre Area School District athletic facilities — stadium, field house and additional practice fields — are about two weeks behind schedule, the school board learned at the start of Monday's monthly meeting, but all should still be complete for the spring sports season.

District engineer/director of physical plant Michael Krzywicki said the delays are primarily due to supply problems. The stadium was complete enough last month to host home football games and other sports events, though without a field house the district is using portable toilets and setting up concession stands under the home side bleachers.

With near capacity crowds in a stadium that seats about 3,500, that has created long lines and some minor problems under the stands, Superintendent Brian Costello said, but those problems will be resolved once the project is complete.

The agenda included multiple appointments.

Michael Lehman and Maurice Lamoreux were hired as school resource/police officers, Bridget Galle as elementary long-term substitute teacher, and Brittany Hess as elementary teacher.

Five part-time teacher associates were appointed, to be paid with federal COVID-19 grant money for 20 hour per week for the current school year only: Mary Coulter, Matthew Davison, Ernestine Huntes, Mayra Martinez and Anna Mae Yellend.

Aloysius Polius was appointed as a substitute custodian and Mary Sonny as substitute crossing guard. The board also increase pay for security greeters from $10 per hour to $11 per hour. Superintendent Brian Costello said there are nine greeters in the district in the morning for about 3 hours and nine in the afternoon for about the same amount of time.

In sports, the board appointed Eilish Hoban as swimming varsity head coach, Joshua Anstett and Patrick Nolan as boys varsity soccer assistant coaches at half-pay each, and Morgan Luton and John Hooper as wrestling junior high assistant coaches at half-pay each.

The board also:

—Approved an agreement with Bayada Home Health Care, Inc., to provide basic nursing care for students through June 20, 2023 at $51 per hour, as requested by the district.

—Amended an agreement with Aveanna Healthcare to set home health aide/certified nurse aid hourly rates at $30, $55 and $65.

—Approved an agreement with Luzerne County Community College for the Early College Program for Young Scholars running retroactively from July 1 of this year through June 30, 2025, to be automatically renewed every five years unless either party terminates the deal. The program allows eligible students in grades 10 through 12 with a minimum Grade Point Average of 2.0 to attend college classes and earn college credits.

—Hired BerkOne to manage processing, printing and mailing of the Homestead and Farmstead Act 1 applications at a cost of 42 cents per application plus postage. Act 1 is the state law that uses money from legalized gambling to reduce property taxes for eligible home and farm owners by exempting part of the taxes due each year.

—Approved an agreement with Johnson Controls Fire Protection, LP, for fire alarm testing and inspection at the Mackin Elementary building through Aug. 31, 2023 at a cost of $7,550.

—Approved an agreement with ARM Group LLC to provide construction materials testing services for the construction of the ticket booths and field house at the new stadium in front of the consolidated high school in Plains Township at an estimated cost of $11,000. The contract includes tests of soil, concrete asphalt and steel.

—Approved change orders totaling $31,841 to four companies — Everon Electrical Contractors, Inc., Myco Mechanical, Inc. (doing plumbing), Panzitta Enterprises and Keystone Sports Construction — for work on the stadium and field house. The bulk of the money goes to Keystone Sports, $21,200 for an asphalt adjustment, a track mat and four 15-foot aluminum benches, though one change order with the company actually reduced costs by $7,525 by deleting installation of fencing on the visitor side bleachers.

—Approved an agreement with Stell Enterprises, Inc., to patch potholes at Kistler Elementary at a proposed cost of $10,689.

Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish