Faces of the Valley: New director seeks to expand impact at Northern Westmoreland CTC

John Augustine knew he would have to let Jason Hicks move on to bigger things.

Augustine has been a career and technology center director for 24 years, the past 18 at Greater Johnstown, where for several years Hicks was his right-hand man.

“I could tell he had more capabilities than what his position with me allowed, and I wanted to see his career grow,” Augustine said. “I knew he was ready for the next step.”

When a director’s post became available at Northern Westmoreland Career & Technology Center in New Kensington, Augustine encouraged Hicks to look into it. Hicks was chosen from about a dozen applicants for the job.

After working alongside retiring Director Kurt Kiefer during the last quarter of 2023, Hicks took over as Northern Westmoreland’s head on Jan. 1.

“In my opinion, he was the most forward-thinking, visionary leader that we interviewed,” said Burrell Superintendent Shannon Wagner, the superintendent of record for Northern Westmoreland, who led the hiring committee. “He provided a very well-thought-out plan for where he thought we could go.

“He is very visionary, he is thorough, he’s careful, he’s precise,” she said. “He has a vision in his mind and can articulate it well, and I think he’ll do great things as a result.”

Hicks, 42, lives in Ebensburg with his wife, Karoline, and their son, Wesley, 11, and daughter Savannah, 7. He’s from that area in Cambria County.

Having family in the Alle-Kiski Valley, he’s no stranger to the area. While saying the hourlong commute to New Kensington isn’t overwhelming, he is planning to relocate.

During a recent interview at Northern Westmoreland, which sits beside but is separate from Valley High School, Hicks had yet to put his diplomas on his office walls. He earned his undergraduate degree in technology education at California University in 2004, a master’s of educational leadership at St. Francis University in 2009 and a doctorate of administration and leadership studies at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2015.

Hicks was a technology education teacher at Northern Cambria High School for 12 years before becoming an administrator. He was a dean of students at Northern Cambria, then a principal at Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center, and a middle and high school principal in the Windber Area School District before joining Greater Johnstown as Augustine’s assistant.

“I had the desire and passion to help students in the world of current technical education,” he said. “I had a desire to help the greater whole. From administration, you can do that.”

An alumnus of a career and technology center himself — as a sophomore, he was a machining student at Admiral Peary Area Professional Technical School — becoming a director was always Hicks’ life goal.

“I listen. I’m a listener,” he said. “That’s the role of a good teacher, listening before acting and letting individuals feel they are important and know that I care.”

Hicks oversees a staff of 40 employees at Northern Westmoreland. The school has 519 students from the Kiski, Burrell, New Kensington-Arnold and Franklin Regional school districts.

“We have great teachers here. They care about their students,” he said. “We have good students. They come here for a reason.”

The school’s enrollment is up, by 34% over the past three years, in part because of changing views of the value of a career and technology, or vo-tech, education.

“Students and parents are realizing that CTC is playing a vital role for a viable career path,” Hicks said. “CTCs lead to high-skill and high-wage occupations. Students and parents realize that.”

Northern Westmoreland offers a dozen programs, with welding, auto mechanics and cosmetology its most popular. It also offers adult education courses, which Hicks would like to grow by learning more about the community’s needs.

To teach students skills that lead to careers, Hicks said his teachers need the right equipment. For Hicks, that means applying for grants, where he already has had success.

In February, for example, he got about $85,500 from the state that was used to buy a nursing simulator manikin and six hospital beds for health occupations, and a new lift and wheel balancer for auto mechanics.

Hicks wants to work with his school’s four member districts in hopes of exposing students to career and technology education at younger ages, so they understand the careers and futures it can provide.

While eighth graders are able to tour the school, where students now start as high school freshmen, Hicks would like to have elementary students visit.

He noted how it’s students with CTC educations and skills that allow other professionals to do their jobs.

“All careers have what we do in them to an extent,” he said. “They can do their jobs because of our students.”

Augustine said not a day goes by that he does not miss Hicks’ expertise at Greater Johnstown.

“He’s going to do great things at Northern Westmoreland,” Augustine said. “The business and community engagement in the school will only get better.”

Coleen Steim has been the business manager at Northern Westmoreland for 20 years. Hicks is the fourth director she has worked with, not counting interims.

With her experience and knowledge, she has quickly become Hicks’ right-hand woman.

“We’re glad he’s here,” Steim said. “He wants to do what’s best for our students, which is really why we’re all here.”