Vote set for next week on new superintendent
Woodland Hills board to learn administrators’ choice of next leader of troubled school district
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Two weeks after hosting a public forum to introduce a pair of superintendent candidates, the Woodland Hills school board on Wednesday will hear the administration’s pick.
Board members will vote on the recommendation at their legislative meeting next Wednesday, according to an online agenda.
Finalists are James P. Harris Jr., head of the Daniel Boone Area School District just outside of Reading, and Kelley Castlin-Gacutan, former superintendent of Birmingham City Schools in Alabama.
Last month, the candidates described their backgrounds and management philosophies during separate hour-long question-andanswer sessions with community members at the district’s headquarters. Both have also met with Woodland Hills employees.
The new superintendent will replace Alan Johnson, who stepped down in June after seven years in the district. Shortly after announcing his plans to resign, Mr. Johnson cited fatigue from what he called a “very difficult” stretch for Woodland Hills.
Bart Rocco, who recently retired as superintendent of the Elizabeth Forward School District, has been serving as interim superintendent.
The district has weathered numerous challenges involving school climate and student safety in recent years, including several
high-profile altercations between employees and students, and numerous shooting deaths of students outside of school.
Two students have been killed this summer, including Antwon Rose II, the 17year-old shot by an East Pittsburgh police officer on June 19, which sparked weeks of protests and a federal wrongful death lawsuit filed last week by his family.
“People in the community are really hurting, and I can understand that on multiple levels,” Ms. Castlin-Gacutan said at the July 23 forum.
She told community members that her strategy would begin with touring neighborhoods in the 4,000student district and asking families about their feelings and needs.
Woodland Hills was formed in 1981 by a courtmandated merger of Churchill, Edgewood, General Braddock, Swissvale and Turtle Creek school districts.
Mr. Harris, who worked in marketing before becoming an educator, preached the need for transparency to earn trust. He said last month that he would apply his business acumen to the district and foster the type of order that exists in a healthy company.
“It wasn’t broken overnight, and it won’t be fixed overnight,” he said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the online agenda did not indicate which candidate the administration favors.