What should the future of Hempfield Area School District be? New superintendent aims to focus on plan

In his first week as Hempfield Area School District’s superintendent, Mark Holtzman has been busy.

The former superintendent for Beaver Area School District began his five-year contract at Hempfield on July 1. In a letter posted online on the district website, he detailed his plans to conduct a series of interviews, surveys and visits to district schools over the next several months.

The idea is to identify the district’s values and come up with a five-year plan, according to the letter.

Creating the plan is something Holtzman has done at other districts, he said in an interview Friday. It’s separate from the district’s formal comprehensive planning process.

Before he came to Beaver Area in 2022, he was superintendent of McKeesport Area School District from 2017 to 2022, after rising through other administrative roles there.

He’s replacing Tammy Wolicki, who announced her retirement in January following an extended leave of absence. Kimberlie Rieffannacht, assistant superintendent for elementary education, served as interim superintendent through June 30.

“I survey all the staff members in the district, and I interview what I’ll say is the leadership: representatives of the teachers union, representatives of the support unions, school board members, the principals, central administrators, anyone who is in a leadership role within the district, kind of the school community,” he said.

“We’ll have a short set of questions to work through, what are some of the strengths and weaknesses, positives and things that could improve, some opportunities to open up a dialogue.”

The survey also will gather information from teachers and support staff. The data collected through the whole process also will focus on specific departments within the district, including technology, special education, business affairs and curriculum and instruction, he said.

Once collected, Holtzman plans to share the data with department heads to inform the creation of the 5-year plan.

“It helps me hold others accountable, it helps the board hold me accountable and it helps me and our administration hold the board accountable to some of our spending, so that, when we have decisions that have to be made in the budget, we’ll have some plans in place,” he said.

One area he especially hopes to lay out a plan for is buildings and grounds preventative maintenance. This includes upkeep and repairs the district expects to have to address in the coming years. This will help balance those repairs alongside the district’s high school renovation project.

“The tricky part is prioritizing,” he said. “Obviously, we have a construction project that is going to highlight our high school and some of our bigger areas, but we also have several other schools that need to continue to be supported as well.”

The survey and planning process will take the next few months to complete, he said. Holtzman plans to present the plan to the school board during a public meeting about November. While the survey results will be kept anonymous, he expects the plan developed from the survey will be shared with the public for transparency.

Heading out of his first week, Holtzman is optimistic about his new role at the district. School safety and security are on his mind as priorities, along with fiscal responsibility.

“I’m excited for the potential, the untapped potential that Hempfield has, and excited for the opportunity to work with what I can tell is a great group of people that have been very supportive of me,” he said.

“The construction project has been a little bit of a challenge, but I’m excited about the potential of it as well. It’s been really a great first week. I think there’s a lot to come here and a lot to learn.”

This story has been updated.