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A board divided

Altoona's $88 million project is progressing, but harsh disagreement hasn't gone away

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Photo illustration by Nick Anna Altoona Area School District Board of Directors meet at the senior high school.

In private executive sessions that precede voting meetings, blood pressures rise and personalities clash, and, according to an Altoona Area School Board member, that’s why they always take so long.

Then as they file into the William P. Kimmel Board Room, 30 or more minutes late for the public meeting, some board members look exhausted.

It’s no secret what the turmoil is about: The estimated $88 million high school project, which comprises plans for renovating the A building and building a new B building.

The plans were passed 5-4 this past April, but the division created by that decision lingers and at times ignites animosity.

Confrontational

One of the five members who supports the project said he feels like he can’t open his mouth without a board member from the other side being overly confrontational.

“I don’t know what to do,” Bill Ceglar said. “I can’t explain it. I’m fine with a 5-4 split. I just wish it was more civil. I’m not trying to fight. … We try to teach kids in school no bullying, but as a board, that’s all we do.

“I can’t open my mouth without someone jumping down my throat and saying I’m being mean and nasty. Instead of always being on pins and needles, I wish we could all get along.”

The five who support the project are Ceglar, President Dutch Brennan, Rick Hoover, Vice President Wayne Hippo and Kelly Irwin Adams.

The other four board members who voted against the project say they’ve been called “liars” and “cheats” by a few from the majority.

That’s according to board member Dave Francis and is a feeling shared by fellow board members Ed Kreuz, Sharon Bream and Ron Johnston.

“Some things were said in executive session that I don’t want to get into about us four,” Francis said. “I’m not the kind of guy that forgets easily. I won’t.”

Francis trusts Kreuz, Bream and Johnston. They are the four comprising the minority who voted against the building project, but Francis feels the two sides are divided on most issues regarding the building project.

“Those five do what they want — whether it’s on education or whatever, it’s up to them,” he said. “The four of us have no say. If we have an idea, I’m sure it won’t pass. If I could quit tomorrow, I would, but I have an obligation to work. That’s how upset I am.”

Civility lacking

All the Altoona Area board members interviewed for this story say they wished they could all work together.

There’s just one problem keeping them from achieving civility during board meetings — and that’s the project.

To the five-member majority, the project is the solution to an outdated, 90-year-old high school building as well as the solution to overcrowded elementary school buildings and the “golden ticket” for educating students for jobs in the 21st century.

To the other four board members,

$88 million is too heavy of a price for Altoona taxpayers and a cause for district residents to bring “torches and pitchforks” to school board meetings, as was said on a local radio station when the project teetered on one vote.

Although it passed and construction has begun, the board continues to vote 5-4 on contract payments to architects, construction change orders and things that must be completed to keep it on schedule for completion in 2020.

“I wish they (the four against the project) would provide advice and make decisions moving forward that need to be made. They keep saying no to everything. We already made the decision for the construction,” Irwin Adams said. “We can’t vote no. Construction can’t stop. That’s why I wish we could move past it. I wish they could accept the school was being built and make decisions from now on in best interest of the district.”

However, the minority members are less likely to budge than the steel frame that will be erected in December for the new high school building.

“Four of us truly do not believe this (project) is affordable,” Kreuz said. “The other five keep agreeing to spend money. I don’t really see how we can see eye to eye. When it comes to children and education, we can be unanimous, but on this project, we will never see eye to eye.”

Self-assessment failed

Attempts to reduce the rancor were made in September. Board members attended a private executive session with a Pennsylvania School Boards Association representative who encouraged the board to do a self-assessment.

During the public meeting that followed that session, Brennan announced the board was “working toward creating a board who can communicate with each other and shows a higher level of mutual respect.”

However, it wasn’t an hour into the meeting before he was slamming the gavel to silence a loud argument among board members that started with the topic of the building project.

“Mutual respect. I think Brennan should look up the definition of mutual, because it takes two,” Bream said in a telephone interview.

She said she picks her battles for the taxpayers.

“I’ve been on the board seven years now. I’ve served with other members who I disagreed with, but we never had this,” she said. “I can speak to them (members from the past). It’s always friendly. No one ever called anyone a liar. There was no disruption like we have now.”

Despite the resentment, there have been compromises between the two sides, Brennan said, adding he thinks communication among board members is a work in progress.

“We are not there to endure fights,” he said. “I don’t want to deny there are people including myself who have shot from both sides of the line. Most time it’s in trying to correct bad information. I try to get people in the community as much information as possible. Once they see what we see, then the anger dissipates.”

Morale ‘starts with board’

Johnston has long felt the attitude of the five members who approved the project was “my way or the highway.”

“Morale in district starts with the board and trickles down,” he said. “When you have a rogue board, you have a district that doesn’t move in a positive direction, and that affects the students,” I don’t think there’s been a calm meeting in the seven years since I’ve been on the board. It’s drama and conflict.”

There is no covert effort to leave anyone out of decisions, Hippo said.

“I’m not going to discount anyone’s impressions. But certainly in every discussion, everyone speaks,” Hippo said.

He said he has seen some positive change.

“There are good people on both sides, but they are not able to make a connection because of one issue that’s been made very divisive,” he said. “I was hopeful that once the project got moving, things would calm down, and I think they have. A lot of problems in life are due to a lack of communication. There’s a board member in particular — I won’t say who — but we are talking more. As a result, I think that relationship is getting better and better.”

Four of the nine board members began their first terms last November and inherited the plans for the project from the previous board.

Hoover, one of the newer members, believes the division will linger until June 2020 when the project is finished.

“A lot of people banked on stopping it when they got elected,” Hoover, who supports the project, said. “For the record, I totally respect their opinion on this. But we have a district to run. I see the division on the board going up until the time kids are in the new building.”

Election posturing

As long as the project is underway, the board is going to be split 5-4, he said.

Or maybe not.

Next year is an election year. Terms of five board members — Bream, Hippo, Johnston, Brennan and Ceglar — are all set to expire at the end of 2019.

Bream is the only one who said for certain that she plans on running for re-election. The board minority is hoping to win another seat to give them the majority vote in the future.

Francis and Kreuz said they are both looking for candidates.

“I know some people who are going to run,” Kreuz said. “I want the next board to be fiscally responsible. I will be trying to change the makeup of the board, and I will not be shy about that.”

Brennan is unsure if he will seek re-election. He’s experienced what it takes to make decisions representing the district of about 24,600 households, according to the U.S. Census, but he also said he’s been threatened for his position.

“This job, if done right, eats up a whole lot of time. I’m not a person to walk into a board meeting and say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ I have to do my homework,” he said. “And in some ways social media can be scary. There are people out there threatening to come to our homes. On the radio, it was said to bring your torches and pitchforks to a school board meeting.”

Mirror Staff Writer Russ O’Reilly is at 946-7435.

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