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USC hires assistant principal

By Carla Valentine Meyers 3 min read

Upper St. Clair School Board voted Aug. 12 to hire several new employees for the district, including a new assistant principal for the high school.

Daniel Beck, who is currently an English teacher at Greensburg Salem High School, will be the new assistant principal at Upper St. Clair High School. According to the Greensburg Salem website, Beck is a graduate of both Duquesne University and the University of Pittsburgh.

Superintendent Patrick O’Toole said Beck’s salary will be $72,000. His start date with the district will depend upon the release date from his current position.

Beck replaces Jace Palmer, who moves to a guidance counselor position at Fort Couch Middle School.

The school board also filled several teaching positions. According to Sharon Suritsky, assistant superintendent, there had been more than 20 retirements and resignations in the district since January. In response to advertisements for the open teaching slots, the district received between 600 and 700 applications for each position, says Suritsky. She also added that some of the districts administrators spent just about their whole summer on the interview process.

In terms of total staffing, the school board also voted Aug. 12 to add another fifth-grade teacher to the district at Boyce Middle School, an additional half-time kindergarten teacher at Streams Elementary School, and an extra school police officer to serve the elementary and middle schools.

O’Toole said the fifth-grade teacher was needed due to an increase of 55 students being enrolled at that grade level. The kindergarten instructor is necessary due to 22 additional students. He also said the extra police officer was part of the district’s planned response to recent incidents of school violence in other parts of the country.

O’Toole added that a new half-time curriculum leader for instructional technology will be appointed in place of a half-time fine arts curriculum leader position which will be converted to a fine arts department chair.

In other business Aug. 12, the school board:

* Awarded a bid for two new school buses to Myers Equiptment for $89,967. The buses are expected to be delivered in November.

* Awarded a bid for replacement of the pool roof at the high school to G&W Roofing for $96,000. Installation is expected in fall 2013.

* Honored three recently retired bus drivers: Alice Roberts who started driving a bus in 1992, after serving the district as a nutrition center worker since 1990; Albert Mastascusa, who was a driver for the district since 2000; and James McClory, who drove school buses for the district since 2009.

Louis Mafrice, vice president of the school board, calculated that these drivers made a total of 45,748 runs for the district over their years of service.

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