March 24, 2025 |
By Vickie Babyak | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Special education teacher Sara Traeger from McKeesport poses for a portrait while sitting at her classroom desk. (Vickie Babyak photo for Tube City Almanac)
During Women’s History Month, writer Vickie Babyak is putting a spotlight on several area women:
Sara Traeger of McKeesport began her teaching career in 2006. She started off as an instructional assistant with the Norwin School District, and the following school year she was hired full-time as a special education teacher for McKeesport Area School District. She has been with the district ever since.
Traeger said: “My mom was a school counselor who worked with the special education students, and she definitely had an influence on my career choice.”
Traeger said she always knew in her heart that she wanted to be a teacher. After graduating from McKeesport high school in 2001, she attended Duquesne University, and working with special needs students was infused into her undergraduate studies, she said.
Read More
March 16, 2025 |
By Adam Reinherz | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Bus driver Stephanie Pollock speaks to the McKeesport Area School Board. She and other drivers are asking for more help with discipline on school buses ‘so that we can put our eyes back on the road.’ (Adam Reinherz photo for Tube City Almanac)
Two drivers implored McKeesport Area School Board to protect area children and increase the number of people working as monitors on bus rides.
Sidney Walker and Stephanie Pollock spoke at Thursday’s meeting and recounted alleged incidents involving strife, violence and misbehavior, while cautioning listeners to act before potential tragedy strikes.
Walker and Pollock, who both drive for Krise Transportation, emphasized that neither is a representative of the company and were merely speaking as private citizens concerned with the wellbeing of local children.
“You have no clue what we as bus drivers have to go through,” Walker said. “I implore you to come ride with us one morning, going to Francis McClure. I have been called out by name. I have been spat on. I have been accused of all kinds of foul things, not only from the children but from the parents.”
Read More
March 16, 2025 |
By Vickie Babyak | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Jah-Chant Robinson. (Vickie Babyak photo for Tube City Almanac)
Jah-Chant Robinson is a 2013 graduate of McKeesport Area High School and resides in Port Vue. She began her career as an English teacher, and worked her way up to principal at Homeville Elementary School in the West Mifflin School District.
Robinson credits her drive to success from having a strong support system that included her parents and mentors. She said they instilled in her a sense of purpose and understanding that she could pave the way for others, and an unshakable faith in the importance of education as a tool for change.
“Growing up in McKeesport, I was acutely aware of the challenges that came with navigating systems that weren’t always designed with people like me in mind,” Robinson said.
Representation matters, and seeing so few women of color in leadership roles motivated her to push through the obstacles. Robinson said she has endured struggles like many other women of color experience, from being underestimated to having to work twice as hard in proving herself.
Read More
March 12, 2025 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
A McKeesport police officer has filed a federal lawsuit against the city and the mayor, alleging discrimination in promotions and retaliation for criticizing city officials on social media.
Julian Thomas, a McKeesport police officer since 2009, is Black. His lawsuit claims that he has been passed over for promotion and faced retaliation because he has spoken out against unfair personnel policies.
Thomas this week announced his candidacy for McKeesport Area School Board.
McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko on Tuesday night called the lawsuit baseless. “Typically in these situations, the city makes no comment,” Cherepko said. “Enough is enough. The entire case is fallacy.”
Read More
March 07, 2025 |
By Adam Reinherz | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
(Peter J. Vancheri updates MASD school directors. Photo by Adam Reinherz for Tube City Almanac)
An independent audit of McKeesport Area School District revealed healthy finances, according to accountant Peter J. Vancheri. The partner at Hosack, Specht, Muetzel & Wood delivered a positive outlook on the school’s budget during Thursday’s open agenda meeting and said a more substantive report will follow.
MASD possesses a “healthy fund balance” of approximately $24.5 million, of which $17.9 million is assigned and $6.5 million is unassigned,” Vancheri said on March 6.
What this means, he told school directors, is “you have money set aside for future shortfalls.”
Read More
March 06, 2025 |
By Tom Leturgey | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
(File photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel photo via Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International)
Saying the city welcomes food trucks, but wants to set some guidance on their operation, McKeesport Council this week approved an ordinance setting options for daily, weekly, monthly and yearly permits.
The ordinance also prohibits food trucks from setting up operations adjacent to existing restaurants.
Permits will range from $10 per day to $1,200 for a year. “These fees are in line with nearby communities,” Mayor Michael Cherepko said.
The fees are designed to regulate trucks that stop in one place and serve food prepared ready-to-eat, and are distinct from the existing “peddler’s licenses.”
Read More
March 03, 2025 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Announcements, McKeesport and Region News
MAHS students Monae Chance, clarinet, and Emma Cantu, bass clarinet, prepare for Music in Our Schools Month. (Submitted photo courtesy McKeesport Area School District)
McKeesport Area School District will celebrate the 40th anniversary of “Music in Our Schools” month with a free concert at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the high school auditorium, 1960 Eden Park Blvd.
A district spokeswoman said the concert will feature several instrumental and vocal groups from the middle and high school, as well as combined band and orchestras from both age levels.
“Music in Our Schools Month” was created in 1985 by the non-profit National Association for Music Education, formerly the Music Educators National Conference. The group, representing 58,000 music teachers from all 50 states, was founded in 1907.
Read More
March 02, 2025 |
By Stacy Alderman | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Hope Ministries has begun operations in the Seventh Avenue space that housed The Intersection for decades. (Submitted photo)
For nearly a half-century, The Intersection in McKeesport provided meals and emergency assistance to residents who needed it most. Founded by the Sisters of Mercy and run by volunteers, the charity quietly closed its doors in recent months.
Another organization, Hope Ministries, has already stepped up to make sure people don’t have to go without.
According to board member Jerry Kuhn, Hope Ministries was started in 2022 under a different name. The group wwas just getting its footing when it were displaced due to a gas explosion in August of that same year that heavily damaged the former YWCA on Ninth Avenue.
The vacancy of the building on Seventh Avenue — the one-time home of the Free Hungarian Reformed Church — gave Hope Ministries the opportunity they’d been waiting for—their own kitchen with room to grow.
Read More
February 28, 2025 |
By Vickie Babyak | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
JoAnne Rodgers, the first Black nurse hired by the McKeesport Area School District in 1971 (above) and Arlene Harvey, the first African American to retire from the Carnegie Free Library of McKeesport.
The local women were celebrated during a Black History Month event at McKeesport Regional History & Heritage Center. (Both photos: Vickie Babyak for Tube City Almanac)
Two local women who “dared to be first” were celebrated Saturday during a Black History Month Celebration at McKeesport Regional History & Heritage Center.
Arlene Harvey and JoAnne Rodgers were guests of honor and received awards during the celebration, organized by McKeesport HBCU Vision, an organization for local alumni of historically Black colleges and universities.
Harvey was the first African American to retire from the Carnegie Free Library of McKeesport, while in 1971 Rodgers was the first Black nurse to be hired by the McKeesport Area School District.
“I’m honored, it’s been a long time coming, and it was a surprise,” Rodgers said. “I’m thankful that a lot of people came to the ceremony.”
Read More
February 27, 2025 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News, State & Region
(Penn State University photo)
Local leaders are expressing concern and support for Penn State University’s campus in McKeesport following an announcement that 12 of the regional or “Commonwealth” branches could be shuttered.
On Tuesday, University President Neeli Bendapudi said that declining enrollment, increasing costs and demographic trends — including the declining population in the western part of Pennsylvania — are forcing the state-related institution to consider the future of its smaller campuses.
In addition to its main campus in Centre County, Penn State has 19 regional or Commonwealth campuses around the state. Campuses in Western Pennsylvania include McKeesport (Greater Allegheny), as well as New Kensington, Beaver County and Fayette County.
“We cannot continue with business as usual,” Bendapudi said. “The challenges we face — declining enrollments, demographic shifts and financial pressures — are not unique to Penn State, but they require us to make difficult choices. Across higher education, institutions are grappling with similar headwinds, and we have reached a moment where doing nothing is no longer an option.”
Read More
TM
