It didn’t take long for Weatherly Area school board members to vociferously defend its anticipated approval of $4 million in spending on repairs against one of its own.

In its caucus meeting held Wednesday evening, the rift between board member Gerry Grega and the other board members took center stage.

Board President Girard Fewins called for comment on the motion to approve the spending. Grega, who attends meetings via speakerphone, said it was illegal to vote on the spending because the Property and Transportation Committee meeting, which was held a few days before, was not properly advertised.

Fewins immediately deferred to district solicitor Christopher Slusser, who confirmed that the meeting was properly advertised. Grega disagreed, stating that the public should have been told that the construction project would be discussed during that meeting.

At that, board member Matthew vonFrisch rose from his chair, walked across the room and sat in Grega’s seat, then pulled the speakerphone close to him.

“I want to make sure you can hear me, Mr. Grega.”

VonFrisch then asked Grega how many property and transportation meetings he had attended. When Grega didn’t answer, vonFrisch said, “That’s OK. I can answer that for you. Zero. You haven’t attended any meetings.”

Grega has opposed the repair and upgrade project on the grounds that financing is unnecessary and that all of the repairs could be paid for from the general fund on an ongoing basis, a claim he made again at the meeting.

Fewins rejected that claim, though, stating that doing so is what has led to the need for so many repairs and upgrades.

Even normally reserved members of the board, Shay Wagner and Amy Potsko, were moved to respond to Grega and a handful of members of the public who said that the board had not properly informed the public about the building project.

Wagner accused Grega of misleading the public.

“We discussed the construction project for three hours at that meeting. You are misleading the public.”

Fewins concurred, “You are posting false information on your website and misleading people.”

When it came time for public comment, Weatherly resident Crystal Walters asked if the board would provide a breakdown of the project and its costs.

Fewins answered by saying it was all on the district’s website, then later read the entire list of planned repairs and upgrades.

From her seat, one resident accused the board of being “sneaky” about the project.

That’s when Potsko spoke up to defend the board.

“We’ve been discussing this for a year. We’ve had several public meetings and nobody from the public shows up for them.”

Grega’s final comments on the project before the vote was that there would be millions in additional taxes required to do the project this way (using financing).

Board member Brian O’Donnell rejected that accusation, saying, “Whether we take it from the general fund or finance it, we’re going to have to get the money through taxes. This whole project is only going to cost 0.8 mills for four years.”

After the discussion ended, the board voted 7-1 to award LOBAR of Dillsburg general contractor for the project, JBM Mechanical of Nazareth for the plumbing work, Master Mechanical of McAdoo for the HVAC work, and Everon of Scranton for the project’s electrical work.

Board Vice President Chad Obert was absent from the meeting.