2 Beaver County school districts looking to share top leader

BEAVER COUNTY, Pa. — It’s a trend we’ve seen across Western Pennsylvania; enrollment at area school districts is shrinking along with the tax base in many communities.

Since the 1970s, New Brighton School Districts student enrollment has fallen by 58%, and Rochester is no different with a 70% drop.

“We are very close to each other; we do joke it’s 2.2 miles. People get tired of hearing us say that, but we are very similar in terms of demographics and image of each other,” said Dr. Joe Guarino, the New Brighton superintendent.

It’s those similarities that have these districts exploring sharing a superintendent as the Rochester Superintendent, Dr. Jane Bovalino, plans to retire in June 2026, opening an opportunity for change.

“There is an immediate financial savings that you are having one person doing a job that historically two people have done salaries, benefits all of those aspects. But the secondary benefit is the knowledge of the area and the knowledge of the two schools,” Guarino said.

The proposal presented to community members on Monday night would provide $350,000 in savings to each district over the next five years, with a potential to share even more administration positions down the line.

That money will be reinvested back into the students in that district.

Those in the two communities Channel 11 talked to were on board with the idea.

“It hasn’t been done that much around here, but if they need to cut costs, that would be an ideal thing to do,” said Paul Smith, who lives in New Brighton.

In fact, only two other districts in the state use this shared leader model, but it is more common across the country.

While the districts made it clear this is not a merger, Channel 11 did ask if that was a possibility down the line.

“Is it possible? Yeah, it is possible. We aren’t going to hide behind that as a possibility. Right now, our total student enrollment between the two districts is smaller than New Brighton’s enrollment was 25 years ago. So what we need to take some time to look at is does a full merger between the two of us actually increase the strength of what we are able to offer our communities as a school and we need time to look into that information,” Guarino said.

The second town hall informational meeting, where the community can ask questions, will be on April 24 at 6 p.m. at Rochester Auditorium.

The goal is for the school boards to vote in August on this idea to give it a full year to implement the change or allow Rochester to find a new superintendent.

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