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Richard Cook, North Allegheny Patch
“The Pine-Richland School board voted unanimously Monday night to appoint Dr. Brian R. Miller to a four-year contract as superintendent of schools.
Miller, who currently is assistant superintendent of K-12 education at neighboring North Allegheny School District, begins at Pine-Richland July 1. He will be paid a salary of $153,500.”
Click here to link to the complete article.
Richard Cook, North Allegheny Patch
“Scott E. Russell, the father of four North Allegheny students and an IT Director for General Nutrition Centers, is running for a seat on the North Allegheny School Board.”
Click here to link to the complete article.
Jessica Sinichak. Pine-Richland Patch
“On Friday evening, School Board president Peter Lyons sent an email notice to parents, which also can be found on the district’s website, informing them that the officials have narrowed their search for a new superintendent to one candidate.
The board plans to vote at Monday’s school board meeting on whether to appoint Dr. Brian R. Miller as superintendent of schools.”
Click here to link to the complete article.
Richard Cook, North Allegheny Patch
“Tara Z. Fisher, a member of the group Save NA Schools which has been fighting the proposed closing of any of the district’s elementary schools, is running for a seat on the North Allegheny School Board. ”
Click here to link to the complete article.
Richard Cook, North Allegheny Patch
“The group Save NA Schools , which has been fighting for months against the proposed closing of any North Allegheny Elementary School, said the most recent recommendations by Superintendent Dr. Raymond Gualtieri won’t do enough to alleviate large class sizes if Peebles Elementary is closed.”
Click here to link to the complete article.
The administration has recommended that the board take a vote on May 22nd regarding the closure of Peebles Elementary.
Based on the information presented at the March 20th board meeting, if class sizes are capped at 29 students for intermediate grades and 24 students for primary grades, the district will NOT have enough spare classrooms if Peebles is closed. This means the district will be wed to higher class sizes both now and in the future.
To read more, please click here.
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SaveNASchools has ordered yard signs that will be available this week for distribution. If you preordered a yard sign, you will be contacted this week with further details. If you did not pre-order a yard sign, you can email savenaschools@gmail.com to purchase one from the remaining stock.
We are thrilled that Tara Fisher and Scott Russell will be running as new candidates for a position on the North Allegheny School Board. See the article below from today’s North Allegheny Patch.
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Three incumbents are running for reelection.
By Richard Cook
The following information was provided by the Allegheny County Elections Division.
Primary Election day is Tuesday, May 21. The General Election is Tuesday, Nov 5.
Four candidates are challenging three incumbents for four seats on the North Allegheny School Board. All of the candidates are cross-filed, which means they are running for the nomination of both the Republican and Democratic parties.
Incumbents Ralph J. Pagone, Thomas C. Schwartzmier, and Daniel E. Hubert are running for reelection.
Both incumbents Linda Bishop, whose term expires in December, and Karen Boujoukos, who was recently elected to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Beth Ludwig, are not running.
Also running are Ash Marwah, Tara Fisher, Gary Wenig, and Scott Russell.
If the administration needs to add 10-14 sections to keep elementary class sizes below the district’s guidelines, and only 14 spare classrooms are available after the district expands McKnight and closes Peebles, the remaining buildings would be left with no spare classrooms if class size is held within the district’s guidelines.
The administration should withdraw its recommendation to close Peebles Elementary based on the following facts:
If the board votes to close a building, the district will be wed to higher class sizes both now and in the future.
Click on the link to watch an animated video about the recommendation to close Peebles.
Dr. Raymond Gualtieri is now recommending the school close at the end of the 2013-2014 school year.
[To read complete text, click here]
Board member Thomas Schwartzmier said he was very happy with the delay in the Peebles closing.
“I’m glad that we reconsidered that, it’s something that I would have brought up at the vote had we not talked about it in advance,” he said. “I think this will give everyone more time to react appropriately as we move forward.”
Board member Christopher Jacobs wondered about the sudden recommendation to add classrooms at McKnight Elementary.
“I felt the administration did their homework and was very confident in their recommendation,” he said. “Why wasn’t that (adding classrooms to McKnight) part of the initial recommendation? Are we less confident now than we were before?”
“I don’t know that we’re less confident but we heard over and over again from parents that parents were not confident with that,” Gualtieri responded. “The administration was confident that the 12 or so spare classrooms was enough, but we heard that over and over again from 330 people as we went through the various elementary schools and we tried to address that concern.”
Alison Fujito, a parent, told the board she couldn’t buy that argument.
“There’s just too much contradiction here for me to have a whole lot of confidence in your current recommendations,” she said. “I’m kinda shocked that these concerns that we’ve raised, 300 of us have raised, you keep calling them parental concerns, why aren’t they your concerns?”
Board member Ralph Pagone reiterated his opposition to closing Peebles at all.
“The last thing any district should do is close a school,” he said. “I still feel there are stones we haven’t unturned yet and I would ask that we continue to do that. “The thing that’s glaringly missing from this power point presentation to me is the $10-14-million dollars in cost that Bradford Woods elementary is going to need. I’d like to see that addressed. The building is going to continue to deteriorate.”
Board President Maureen Grosheider said, she too, wanted to make sure all options were explored when it comes to operating the district efficiently.
“I want to make sure we’ve done our job and our homework to make sure that we are as lean as we can be in as many appropriate places that we can be,” she said. “I would like to see money in the classroom, that’s where I think it belongs.”
save NA schools 