Kiski Area School District will be operating under a new administrative structure beginning July 1.
It has some similarities to the one former Superintendent Misty Slavic proposed, but the school board rejected, in February. That proposal gave more responsibilities to certain administrators but also included salary increases ranging from 7.2% to 18.2% for six administrators, totaling about $62,000.
Who will get salary increases and how much? That information was missing from the reorganization plan presented by newly appointed Superintendent Jason Lohr and approved by the board April 17. That can’t yet be determined because it hasn’t been decided who will fill some of the administrative roles, Lohr said.
“There really isn’t a lot of changes except for reimagining some of these positions,” Lohr told the board.
Lohr’s plan and Slavic’s plan both allowed for assistants to the superintendent. Slavic had three in place, one for secondary education, one for elementary education and one for finance and operations.
There will be only two of those positions under Lohr’s plan adopted by the board. One will handle all K-12 education, as well as safety, while the other will oversee finance and operations.
Curriculum responsibilities will be divided, with a director of K-6 curriculum/federal programs and a director for grades 7-12 curriculum. Both will work under the assistant to the superintendent for education.
When a board member asked why he decided to stay with a model that divides oversight of the curriculum between secondary and elementary, Lohr drew on his experience in trying to handle both.
“I never felt like I had the time to get the curriculum to where I thought it should be,” he said.
Also under the educational wing of the administration will be a director of student services and a director of technology.
Board member Kathleen Snyder asked why technology was placed under the educational wing instead of operations.
“It really could be both,” Lohr said, but added that, with the influence of technology in education, he felt it should be under the educational umbrella.
The operations wing also will house the director of building and grounds, the transportation coordinator and the director of food service.
One big change from Slavic’s plan to Lohr’s is that Lohr’s former position of assistant superintendent no longer exists. That removes a layer of management as the assistants to the superintendent in Slavic’s plan reported to the assistant superintendent, not the superintendent. Abolishing the assistant superintendent’s position also saves an administrative salary.
Lohr said the administration actually will be down two positions, his former one and the one held by John Tedorski, who was the director of safety and security as well as a technology specialist, before he abruptly retired last year. Lohr’s plan does not replace Tedorski.
Slavic did not replace Tedorski when he retired, instead dividing his responsibilities among other administrators and using the savings from his former salary to pay for the $62,000 in wage hikes proposed for administrators in her plan.
“I’m on board with your plan,” Snyder told Lohr before voting to approve it. “I just really want to see results in how our children are educated.”
