Outgoing superintendent proclaims: ‘I did the best I could’
Johnson plans to resign effective June 30
When Alan Johnson looks back at his time overseeing the Woodland Hills Schools, he wishes he had better understood the economic and racial divides in the communities the district serves, and had seen the need for focus on discipline practices and teaching styles.
“I think we’re doing that now, but I wish we would have done that more intensely early on,” Mr. Johnson said in an interview Feb. 15.
Then maybe the district could have better weathered a series of recent high-profile controversies, he said.
Mr. Johnson on Feb. 14 announced his plans to resign effective June 30, pending school board approval of a severance agreement.
“It’s been a very difficult 18 months or so in Woodland Hills,” he said. “I’ve worked very hard to get our district back on track and moving into the future the way it needs to go. But it’s certainly taken a toll on me.”’
Mr. Johnson said he had been discussing his departure with the board “for some time,” but did not say for how long.
School board President Jamie Glasser said last week that officials were working out the details of a severance agreement.
Mr. Johnson, a Johnstown native, said he wants to stay involved in education locally. In the end, he said he hopes he has “left the district in a better place” than when he started.
“I’m not God’s answer to superintendents, but I think I’ve done as well as anyone could,” he said. “I certainly know I’ve done the best that I could. That’s all I want people to remember.”
Mr. Johnson has been with
the district since 2011.
Woodland Hills was formed in 1981 by a mandated merger of Edgewood, General Braddock, Swissvale, Churchill and Turtle Creek school districts. It has about 4,000 students.
The past year has been tumultuous for the district, which has seen itself the subject of national headlines and a lawsuit filed by five former students.
The Allegheny County District Attorney’s office continues to investigate whether school resource Officer Steve Shaulis, a member of the Churchill Police Department, used excessive force after photos surfaced of a student who said his tooth was punched out during an altercation with the officer.
Former high school principal Kevin Murray, who was investigated in late 2016 after he was recorded threatening to strike a student, resigned as principal and head football coach last summer while waiting for his recertification from the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
A handful of other students came forward and joined a federal lawsuit filed in August alleging similar mistreatment at the hands of school leaders.
State Auditor General Euge DePasquale announced in September that he planned to conduct a performance audit of the school district after receiving multiple requests from local lawmakers.
No results of the audit have been an- nounced.