Some Wheatland residents who signed a petition asking to leave Farrell Area School District will not have to go to court to testify that they signed the petition and are interested in the case going forward.

Mercer County Common Pleas Judge Francis J. Fornelli is allowing signers who cannot appear at court hearings on Feb. 24 and 25 because of employment or health reasons to give depositions Monday or Feb. 27 at the Wheatland municipal building, said James Nevant II, solicitor for the Farrell school board, which is fighting the secession movement.

"It's not a matter of convenience for people who don't want to make the trip to Mercer," Nevant said of Fornelli's order.

Signers who cannot make the court hearing for legitimate reasons will have to state that reason at their deposition, which will be recorded by a stenographer, Nevant said.

Nevant and Joann Jofery, attorney for Wheatland's Educational Alternatives Taskforce, which circulated the petitions asking for secession and filed the court action, will have the opportunity to question signers, Nevant said.

WhEAT is asking to sever Wheatland from the Farrell school district and have it join West Middlesex Area School District.

Fornelli will be determining if more than half of the taxable inhabitants of Wheatland signed the petition. If so, the matter will go to the state secretary of education for a decision on the educational merit of the request.