Magisterial District Judge Joseph Carmody swears in Peter Butera as the newest member of the Wyoming Area School Board at the board’s meeting on Tuesday. Butera will be filling the seat vacated by Nick DeAngelo, who resigned in June.
Kevin Carroll | Times Leader
Newcomer to fill seat for remainder of year; seeks four-year seat in November’s election
EXETER — A seat on the Wyoming Area School Board that’s been vacated twice since the start of the calendar year was filled again at the beginning of Tuesday night’s board meeting.
By a unanimous vote from members of the school board, Peter Butera was chosen to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Nick DeAngelo last month.
Butera, 24, was sworn in at the top of Tuesday’s meeting by Magisterial District Judge Joseph Carmody, before taking his new seat for the rest of the meeting. He will fill the seat through December, after which the winner of a race for the two-year seat will take over.
“I’m excited about it … I think someone in the audience said it: It gives me about a four-month head start if I get elected in November,” Butera said after the meeting. “It’s good getting a head start … getting to experience it.”
The vacancy on the board was created in June when DeAngelo submitted his letter of resignation, which was accepted at the board’s June 27 meeting.
DeAngelo, in turn, had been appointed in January of this year to fill a vacancy left by former board member Paul Porfirio, who resigned due to health reasons.
In response to Porfirio’s resignation, the board moved to have a two-year seat added to the election ballot in May’s primary and November’s general elections to fill the remainder of Porfirio’s term, as DeAngelo was intended only to serve in that seat by appointment until December.
DeAngelo was the only candidate listed as running for the two-year seat in May’s primary; it’s not yet clear whether or not he will remove himself from the running for the seat.
Butera was one of a group of candidates running for four-year seats in this year’s race, and he was the leading vote-getter across both the Democratic and Republican parties in the Wyoming Area School Board race.
“He was the leading vote-getter in the primary, it was as simple as that for me,” said board member Michael Supey in response to an audience question about the process to select Butera for the vacant seat.
Butera’s appointment to the vacant seat will not impact his running for a four-year seat in November, according to district solicitor Jarrett Ferentino.
Much of the evening’s other new business was passed without comment and largely unchanged from last week’s work session, with the majority of additions to the agenda coming in the board’s finance report, including:
• The approval of an amendment to the school’s Administrator Compensation Plan for elementary school principal William Wright at a salary of $80,000 as of July 1, 2023; the same item also increased the pay of elementary school principal Brian Strazdus to $82, 786.35 effective July 1;
• Authorization for Food Services Director Betsy O’Malley to complete the necessary paperwork for the district to continue Community Eligibility Provision pending final approval by the superintendent, school solicitor and business manager;
• Approval for a client representation agreement for the district to join potential litigation against what was described by Ferentino as “the major players in social media” for nuisance and other damages;
• Approval of the district’s General Ledger account.
