Mahanoy hires assistant principal; super discusses enrollment, teacher shortage
MAHANOY CITY – Mahanoy Area has a new assistant high school principal, and enrollment is at a nine-year high, the district superintendent said Thursday.
The school board approved the hiring of Tabitha Walsh, Frackville, as high school assistant principal at a salary of $70,000.
Superintendent Joie Green said Walsh will start once she is released from her current employer, which is expected March 23.
The assistant principal position opened when Stan Sabol, high school principal, resigned and his assistant principal, Matthew Giannelli, was appointed principal.
In other business, Green said enrollment in the district is up. In-house, the district has 1,123 students — 609 in the elementary school and 522 in the high school. Seventeen students attend the Schuylkill Technology Center, 36 are out-of-district, and 93 are in cyber-charter.
She also spoke about the ongoing teacher shortage in the state, and said the Pennsylvania Department of Education is considering measures to help alleviate the shortage.
The district has been seeking an art teacher for three years now, Green said, and the district is considering a request from Jansen McDonald, a business teacher, to repurpose the art room as a business suite.
The suite would include A/V equipment to create podcasts, Green said, which would be provided by McDonald while the district seeks grants to purchase their own.