Dr. Tia Wanzo is the First Black Superintendent at McKeesport Area School District

It only took 138 decades, but McKeesport Area Faculty District last but not least has a Black Superintendent.

Dr. Tia Wanzo was sworn in yesterday at a well attended special conference of the board.

Dr. Wanzo experienced been Assistant Superintendent less than outgoing Superintendent Dr. Mark Holtzman who still left the district for a corresponding position at Beaver Spot School District at the finish of June.

The McKeesport district, recognized in 1884 and found just southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has experienced a sizable Black populace for decades. According to the Countrywide Centre of Schooling Stats, the district is 71 p.c white and 23 % Black. It serves the Town of McKeesport, and boroughs of Versailles, Dravosburg and White Oak as perfectly as a smaller part of South Versailles Township.

“It’s an honor to sit on the board at this time as heritage was manufactured,” Board Member LaToya Wright Brown wrote on a Facebook post.

“Dr. Wanzo is the initially African American to be appointed in the function of superintendent at MASD. I look ahead to working in collaboration with our central administration teams, MASD staff and communities to give our pupils what they have earned.”

Dr. Wanzo will be paid out $165,000 for every 12 months – $25,000 more than Dr. Holtzman experienced been compensated in his initial deal from March 29, 2017.

The board voted unanimously to use Dr. Wanzo as Superintendent although University Director Matt Holtzman – the former Superintendent’s brother – was absent.

In the course of the prior administration, Dr. Wanzo was generally place in challenging positions.

In 2019 when the ACLU of Pennsylvania filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in opposition to the district on behalf of 11 district students, she experienced the challenging task of defending her manager, Dr. Holtzman, when however advocating for the college students.

Dr. Holtzman, who was named in the suit, refused to enable the students create a Black Student Union. He claimed his objection was not thanks to the organization’s written content but the participation of a single of the student’s moms – Fawn Montgomery Walker who was functioning for McKeesport Mayor at the time and who is direct organizer of Get Motion Mon Valley, a local community motion team.

Dr. Wanzo was quoted in the Pittsburgh Tribune Assessment on the matter as follows:

“The annoying portion is the college students clearly did not fully grasp that they are in the center of this. And also, it’s disheartening that they really feel that we are telling them they can’t do that, you are not allowed to have this club, mainly because that was by no means at any time said by any of us.”

The district eventually attained a settlement agreement with the American Civil Liberties Union and the pupils.

The students ended up permitted to develop the club as extensive as no “non-school people or entities” are named as advisors or individuals of the club.

Dr. Wanzo was also put in a difficult place much more a short while ago when the previous college board voted to prolong Dr. Holtzman’s contract two yrs right before it expired – a potential violation of condition regulation.

Dr. Holtzman resigned and was rehired at the similar board meeting. When this proved contentious, the past board did the identical issue a month later for Dr. Wanzo and then claimed any criticism of what they did for Holtzman was either unfair for not including Wanzo or racially inspired for the reason that Dr. Wanzo is a person of color.

The matter concluded with Dr. Holtzman leaving the district.

Contrary to her predecessor, Dr. Wanzo used her complete career at MASD. She was a fifth grade instructor at Francis McClure Middle College, a next grade trainer at White Oak Elementary University, a fourth grade trainer at Cornell Intermediate University, Assistant Principal at Founders’ Hall Center College, and ninth quality principal at the higher faculty.

She graduated from the district and still lives in its borders. As a university student, she attended Centennial Elementary, Cornell Middle College, and graduated from McKeesport High Faculty in 1997. 

She has a BA in Elementary Schooling from Clarion College, a degree in Instructional Management from Carlow University, and a Doctorate in Educational Management from Duquesne University.

Ideally she will be in a position to lead the district to a brighter upcoming.

To several college students she might seem a beacon of representation as effectively as evidence that a college student from McKeesport can rise to the major.

Watch DR. WANZO Staying SWORN IN:

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