Published Wednesday, February 26, 2003
Herald Staff Writer
Helena Moyer moved to Wheatland so that her children would attend Farrell area schools.
Ward McKinney, who graduated in 2002 from Farrell High School, said that if he finds a job in the Shenango Valley area after college and has a family, he would want his children to attend Farrell schools.
Both said they were happy with Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge Francis J. Fornelli's decision to dismiss a petition seeking to sever Wheatland from Farrell schools and have the borough join West Middlesex Area School District.
Fornelli said his ruling will not take effect for 30 days, which will allow petitioners an opportunity to ask for a hearing to present more testimony.
"I'm wonderfully happy," Ms. Moyer said. "This was just a ridiculous attempt to take kids away from their friends."
Joe Burns, a retired mill worker, didn't see it that way.
"I'd have liked to see the kids go to West Middlesex," said Burns, who testified Monday, and blamed the weather for the poor attendance in court.
By the end of a hearing Tuesday, petitioners' attorney Joann Jofery had presented 71 people, either through direct testimony, deposition or stipulation, that had signed a petition asking for secession and wanted the effort to move forward.
According to state law, a secession move needs to have a majority of the taxable inhabitants of an area sign a petition asking for the change.
Fornelli did not specifically rule on the definition of taxable inhabitant or how many Wheatland residents would need to sign the petition, but 71 is far shy of the number that either Ms. Jofery or the school district said they needed.
Using borough tax rolls, Keystone Research Inc., Greenville, which was hired by the school board, determined that about 339 individuals and sole-proprietorship business owners would have to sign the petition.
Ms. Jofery said she started with the tax rolls but eliminated people who have died, people who own property in town but live elsewhere and a post office employee's determination of who has moved from town to conclude that 232 people would have to sign.
"We are going to explore some other options," Ms. Jofery said. "At this point, we have no more witnesses to put forth."
Fornelli asked Ms. Jofery if she needed more time to present more witnesses. He left the question open-ended and asked it again when Ms. Jofery answered that she probably could not present enough testimony in one week, two weeks or a month.
She said the petition was signed by 269 people, and wasn't sure that she could get that many to testify.
Fornelli said he would be willing to set another hearing and allow for more depositions, which are interviews of witnesses by lawyers out of presence of the judge.
Among the reasons given for WhEAT not being able to get enough people to testify were: the weather; "intimidating" questions that school district solicitor James Nevant II had asked at depositions; The Herald's story Tuesday on Monday's hearing, which Ms. Jofery said convinced people there was no way WhEAT could reach its goal, so they lost interest in testifying; telephone calls made to petition signers by the school district; the potential costs of court action; and the inability of some witnesses to find child care or leave work so they could testify.
Nevant responded to the claim of intimidating questions that one of them, about petitioners agreeing to pay the costs of the action, was made mandatory by Fornelli.
The second question concerned the contents of the petition and if the signer understood them, Nevant said.
Fornelli said this question was proper, but not relevant at this stage of the proceeding, and Nevant did not ask it of witnesses in court.
The telephone calls, which were sanctioned by Fornelli, were made by one employee during school hours and others after school, Nevant said.
Signers were asked who approached them with the petition and where they were approached, what they were told the petition was for, whether they signed it or someone else signed their name and if they wanted to continue with secession, Nevant said.
"There were only one or two people who did not want to talk," he said, noting that 75 people reported they wanted the secession effort to continue.
Concerning the argument that people could not find child care or break away from work, Fornelli noted that he allowed depositions and let Ms. Jofery schedule them, set aside 1è days of court time and offered to come in early, stay late and work through lunch if the need arose.
"This proceeding was set up to accommodate," Fornelli said.
Fornelli said the answer as to why people did not show up probably could be found in human nature. He said that people often sign petitions, especially when a friend asks them to sign, but re-examine their thoughts on an issue later.
People come to the courthouse for important issues all the time, in matters such as marriage, real estate and criminal prosecutions, Fornelli said. Those who do not come don't come, don't have a "sufficient interest" to be there.
Fornelli repeatedly pressed Ms. Jofery if she thought that, given time, she could present enough signers to warrant another hearing.
He said he did not want anyone in Wheatland or Farrell to believe that there were enough people in Wheatland who wanted to change districts, but they just were not interested in saying so in court.
"If that inference would stand, then it will undermine the harmony of the people that has existed in the past," he said.
If the secession movement fails, it must be because not enough people are interested, he said.
"The communities ought not to be left hanging," he said.
Fornelli said the case was important to him because it's important to the people of Wheatland, Farrell and the school district.
Apparently speaking to charges that petition signers were motivated by racism, Fornelli asked people not to attribute a motivation to someone without specifically knowing what the motive is.
School officials echoed Fornelli's wish for harmony within the school community.
"We consider Wheatland a very important part of the school district," said Superintendent Richard R. Rubano Jr., who invited Wheatland residents with concerns to approach him, the school board, administrators or teachers.
"I think we do things in the best interest of the kids, of our children," he said.
"We're interested in getting on with the business of educating people," Nevant said. "The communities have to work together. We viewed it as a family and fought to keep that family together."
While WhEAT members charged that the school district's reputation was keeping people from moving to Wheatland, Ms. Moyer said it prompted her to move in.
WhEAT claimed that West Middlesex provides a better education, but Ms. Moyer said she has no complaints about the education her son, who is in kindergarten, has received.
"I don't think I'd be in college if I didn't go to Farrell," said McKinney, a Clarion University freshman majoring in finance and real estate and minoring in economics.
He said he scored so high on a placement test that he was able to skip a freshman-level English class and take a higher-level course.
"That was because of the Farrell High School English Department, said McKinney, a Wheatland resident until October, when his family moved to Farrell.
WhEAT claimed Farrell students are exposed to social problems such as teenage pregnancy and parenting, drug use and gang activity at Farrell more than they would be at West Middlesex.
Ms. Moyer said no school is immune to those problems, but she said it's up to parents to maintain open relationships with their children to keep them out of trouble.
"It all comes down to parenting," she said. "It's not up to school to be a baby-sitter."
Ms. Moyer added that she knew students in Wheatland are bused to school only through sixth-grade -- another WhEAT complaint -- and she does not want her son to walk to school, but she believes it is up to her to get him safely to school.
"If there's not a bus after sixth grade, I will transport him myself," said Ms. Moyer, who also is the mother of a 3-year-old son.
She also suggested that Wheatland parents set up car pools.
McKinney said he believes many Wheatland parents signed because of hearsay and not first-hand knowledge of the district.
"How many Wheatland parents actually went into the school to see how it is?" he said.
Nevant estimated the school district's defense has cost $10,000 to $11,000. While Fornelli ordered petitioners to pay court and deposition costs, they do not have to pay the district's legal fees, Keystone's fees or other costs related to the defense.