Wanzo: Students Should Always Be ‘Why’

Outgoing superintendent says, ‘My whole life has been McKeesport’

By Adam Reinherz
The Tube City Almanac
August 26, 2024
Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

There are things Dr. Tia Wanzo will speak about, and things she won’t. It’s a knotty position for someone who’s always considered herself “an open book.”

Currently on leave as superintendent of McKeesport Area School District, Wanzo won’t talk about her separation agreement, the board or personnel issues.

She won’t talk about the events of recent weeks — how prior to Thursday evening, rumors circulated about her continuance with MASD.  

Some clarification was offered Thursday night, when after the meeting’s adjournment Solicitor Gary Matta told the public that “Dr. Tia Wanzo has requested a leave of absence from the district effective Aug. 14, 2024 until Nov. 13, 2024 at which time Dr. Wanzo will resign as superintendent of the McKeesport Area School District.”

Wanzo was not present at Thursday’s meeting. Friday morning she told a reporter from Tube City Almanac that she doesn’t think she’ll “ever be able” to talk about what happened.

Instead, what Wanzo will discuss are matters predating the present, what she’s learned and how she’s choosing to live — even if she isn’t certain where that leads.

Wanzo, 45, has spent nearly her entire life in McKeesport. “I have literally been a part of McKeesport Area School District since 1984,” she said.

Two jobs are listed on her resume. “It’s McKeesport Area School District and the City of McKeesport, where I worked when I was 14 years old. My whole life has been McKeesport,” she said. “It’s just been who I am.”

Wanzo graduated from McKeesport Area High School before receiving a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Clarion University. She holds a doctorate in educational leadership from Duquesne University.

In 2001, she began working at MASD as a fifth-grade teacher at Francis McClure Elementary School. Subsequent roles included second-grade teacher, assistant principal, head principal and assistant superintendent. Finally, in July 2022, Wanzo became superintendent.

Being the first Black superintendent in MASD’s history — the district dates to 1884 — increased Wanzo’s visibility, but not her goal. Two years ago she told students, “Yeah, I’m the first, but I better not be the last. One of you need to be taking this thing eventually.”

That perspective hasn’t changed. “Ironically, in the position that I am, I've never wanted it to be about me,” she said. “Every decision, every initiative, every hiring, every next, has to be with the students at the center. If they are not the why then something's wrong. They have to be the reason why everything is done.”

After becoming superintendent, Wanzo instituted a practice at board meetings: start with student recognition. Placing students first has enabled the board and public to observe scores of academic, athletic and social achievements. Perhaps more importantly, it’s allowed young adults to see the importance of their own doings.

Wanzo expects that practice to stick not because she spearheaded it but because “if it's something that is worth it, it's going to continue,” she said.

Implementing policy and change takes time. Leaving the district after two years at its helm dampens those prospects, though Wanzo said she plans on remaining in education. “I'm too young to retire,” she said with a laugh.

Where she works, whether she leads and in what capacity, are questions she can’t answer. But who she is, who she will be and how she thinks about others are easier to fathom, she explained.

“I was raised in a way of always wanting to do more, always wanting to do my best, never being just content,” she said. At the same time, “I've always been very reflective.”

Trying to discern the recent period doesn’t prompt negativity, she explained. “I've just been surrounded by so much support from family, my family, my church family, friends within the district that I've had relationships with for 20 plus years, and former students,” she said. “All of these little entities have really helped me walk through this.”

Recent weeks have demonstrated communal outcries on Wanzo’s behalf, but in a sense that championing was always there. “I've always felt that I was almost like McKeesport's baby, like I've been raised by this city,” so to see that level of support is “in some ways surprising because I never do anything for that purpose,” she said. “That has been overwhelming, but it’s bittersweet. It’s what makes me feel proud in this moment but also makes it hard to let it go.”

Wanzo spoke for more than an hour on Friday morning. Some questions she answered, some she didn’t. She knows that she hasn’t responded to recent requests for quotes. She isn’t worried that people think she’s evasive or lacking transparency.

“I think that anybody that knows me knows that I'm like an open book. I’ve always made myself extremely accessible,” she said. Still, one question generated difficulty.

When asked what she’d like students to know if they were looking at her now, Wanzo paused, wiped tears and said, “That’s a hard one.”  

“I would say that I'm still their biggest cheerleader, that although they may not see me as much, that I'm still there for them, that I've learned so much from them, that some of my best decisions were because of conversations that I had with them, that they still need to advocate for themselves, and just continue to make their families, and make us, proud,” she said. “That's all that I expected from them, but I think that’s also what's made this the hardest — it's not being there, that they’re so much of the why and the heartbeat of everything that I do, that I have been.”

After a life in McKeesport Wanzo doesn’t know her next stop. Wherever it is, she has faith in McKeesport’s students.

“I know they're resilient. They're tough because they're from McKeesport Area School District,  but I never want to feel that I've let them down,” she said.

Mining the past has yielded present understanding. It’s also helped Wanzo appreciate that moving forward doesn’t negate a load carried.

“It's that old saying, ‘Once a tiger always a tiger’ is what this moment really is. Whether that tiger is leading McKeesport Area School District or doing something different, I'm always gonna be that girl,” she said. “What we know about tigers is they are tough, and that's just who I am, in this moment, I'm just proud to be a tiger.”

Adam Reinherz is a Pittsburgh-based journalist. He can be reached at adam.reinherz@gmail.com.

Originally published August 26, 2024.

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