Wilson School Board Backs $144K Principal, Electricity Deal

The Wilson School Board voted 8-0 Monday night to make Ramon Marquez the principal of Wilson High School at $144,341 a year, and 8-0 to let its chief financial officer sign an electricity contract whose supplier, price and length were not in front of the board. The only split of the night was a 5-3 vote on a $50,437.50 reading, math and behavior screening contract. The outcomes come from the "Motion & Voting" blocks BoardDocs now shows under each action item on the Nov. 2 agenda; no minutes are posted, and the meeting video is on the district's YouTube channel.

Every roll call lists the same eight members voting: Jennifer Denny, Guadalupe Kasper, Amy Kennedy, Stephanie Kocher, Sean McCrae, Bernard McCree, Katharine Royer and Robert Schneider. The district's School Board page lists nine members; the ninth, Brad Hart, is not listed in any of the vote blocks, none of which lists an absence.

The principal vote, and the question the record still does not answer

Item 7.1 carried with eight ayes on a motion by Kasper, seconded by Kennedy: "Motion to approve Mr. Ramon Marquez as Principal at the High School. … Final Resolution: Motion Carried," per the vote block. The item's text is unchanged from our preview: "Act 93 Range I A (Certificated), $144,341, effective November 23, 2026." Act 93 is the state law under which school boards set pay and benefits for administrators. Nothing on the item says where Marquez works now.

Nothing says what becomes of Daniel Weber, either. As of Wednesday, Wilson High School's own principal page still names Weber as High School Principal. His name appears nowhere on the Nov. 2 agenda, and the vote blocks add no detail. The one retirement the board approved Monday, in item 4.1, is Victoria Taylor, a high school English teacher leaving at the end of the 2026-27 school year after 31.5 years; the four resignations in item 4.2 are support and seasonal staff. Whether Weber is leaving or moving to another role is not in any document the district has posted.

Governor Mifflin's board had a $123,000 Cumru Elementary principal, under its own Act 93 plan, on its agenda the same night; that vote is not yet on record.

An electricity contract with no price on the record

Item 11.3 passed 8-0 on a motion by McCrae, seconded by McCree. The vote block records the motion in full: "Motion to authorize the Chief Financial Offiicer [sic] to sign an electricity supplier contract for the District beyond June 2026 upon secured pricing as provided by Provident Energy, as part of a joint purchasing group of Berks County School Districts. Final pricing will be secured Nov. 3rd and contracts must be signed by Nov. 4th/5th. … Final Resolution: Motion Carried."

That is the entire public record of the deal. It does not name the supplier, the price, the contract term beyond "beyond June 2026," or which districts make up the "joint purchasing group." Provident Energy is named as the source of the pricing, not as the supplier. As our preview reported, the board was asked to approve the contract before the price existed. Our searches of other districts' posted agendas found no document naming the group's members as of Nov. 3. The one comparable record is from Kutztown Area, where the board in September authorized its treasurer to sign a contract "provided by Provident Energy with the lowest bidder" for Greenwich Elementary starting July 1, 2027; those minutes named no supplier and no price either. The signed contract, once it exists, is a public record; our guide explains how to ask for it under the Right-to-Know Law.

The split vote: $50,438 for student screeners

Item 12.1, an agreement with Renaissance for "continuum of learning universal screener tools" from Dec. 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027 at $50,437.50, paid from the Ready to Learn Block Grant, carried 5-3, per the vote block. Denny, Kocher, McCrae, Royer and Schneider voted aye; Kasper, Kennedy and McCree voted nay. A universal screener is a short test given to every student a few times a year to flag who needs extra help. The record gives no reason for the three no votes; the video is the only place to look until minutes post. The attached quote, described in our preview, prices the Star suite at $10.10 per student, 4,250 licenses by our count, plus fees and training.

$3.9 million in bills, with one abstention

The bills, General Fund payments of $3,935,442.46 in item 11.1, passed 7-0 with Kasper abstaining, per the vote block on item 11.2. She abstained on the bills on Oct. 19 as well, according to the minutes the board approved Monday. The lists include $1,710,651.43 to the Berks County School District Health Trust and ten payments to charter and cyber charter schools totaling $419,007.94 by our sum, led by $183,271.94 to Commonwealth Charter Academy; the breakdown is in our preview.

$119,052 for the network core, approved in one vote

The four technology items passed together, 8-0, as item 9.5, on a motion by Kocher, seconded by Royer. The largest is item 9.1, five Aruba switches, line cards, cabling and a 16-hour support block to replace the core of the district's computer network, paid from the Capital Reserve fund. "Total cost pre-erate is $119,051.96. All equipment is eligible for 60% reimbursement through Erate," the item says. E-rate is the federal program that reimburses schools for part of the cost of internet service and network equipment. The item calls the equipment eligible, not approved; at the full 60%, the district's share would be about $47,621 by our arithmetic. The same vote bought wireless access points ($3,803.45), interactive displays ($21,925.60) and security cameras ($6,324.11) for the renovated G wing at the high school.

Construction: the contractor's holdback drops to 5%

The six operations items passed together, 8-0, as item 10.7, on a motion by Kocher, seconded by Schneider. That includes item 10.6, cutting retainage from 10% to 5% for CM3 Inc. on the high school G-wing project. Retainage is the slice of each payment an owner holds back until a construction job is finished, as insurance that the contractor completes the work and fixes defects. CM3's payment application No. 8, described in our preview, names the job "Wilson HVAC and Music wing," puts the original contract at $13,404,786.00, shows it 93% complete and figures retainage at 5%, or $624,485.21, with $1,321,868.41 due. The same vote cut Myco Mechanical's retainage to 5% on the Southern Middle School project and approved four smaller items, from $5,985 of asphalt work at Gurski Stadium to a $26,862 boiler-room exhaust system by CM3.

Personnel, policies and the consent items

• The superintendent's personnel report, items 4.1 through 4.7, passed 8-0. Besides Taylor's retirement and the four resignations, it hires Abigail Lilley as an autistic-support special education teacher at Green Valley Elementary at $60,325, effective Dec. 14, per item 4.5.
• Items 8.1 and 8.2 passed 8-0: a renewal with AnthroMed Education for contracted school psychologists, pending solicitor review, and a renewed special education agreement with the Antietam School District whose title and description disagree about which district serves the other. No amount is listed for either.
• Item 13.2 adopted revised Policies 810 (Transportation) and 807 (Opening Exercises/Flag Displays) 8-0. Policy 807 now directs that a POW/MIA flag "shall be displayed on or near each school building during school hours."
• The consent items, including the Oct. 19 minutes and a donation of 17 POW/MIA flags from Vietnam Veterans of America, Berks Chapter 131, passed with eight ayes each, per the block on item 2.1.

What is still not on the record

The vote blocks record motions, movers, seconders and roll calls, nothing else. No minutes are posted; the Oct. 19 minutes took about ten days to post and were approved Monday. Anything said at the meeting, including any explanation of the Marquez hire, the Weber question or the three no votes, is only in the video for now. The board's next regular meeting is Monday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m., per the district's calendar.