Parents Question MASD Solicitor, Board on Split

Public fallout continues after end of relationship with charitable foundation

By Adam Reinherz
The Tube City Almanac
June 24, 2025
Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

District Solicitor Gary Matta Jr., center, addresses questions from residents as School Board President Mark Holtzman Sr. and School Director Diane Elias look on. (Adam Reinherz photo for Tube City Almanac)

Parents and community leaders this month continued to press McKeesport Area School District officials on the end of a partnership with Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation.

At the June school board meeting, several residents asked pointed questions of board members as well as District Solicitor Gary Matta Jr., sometimes shouting them from the audience.

The conversation — lasting more than an hour — dominated the meeting.

Some residents asked whether Matta — whose firm Dodaro, Dalfonso, Matta & Cambest has worked with the McKeesport Area School District, on and off, for three decades — properly advised previous school directors in their dealings with the Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation.

In May, the school district and the charitable arm of Findlay-based Dick’s Sporting Goods ended a three-year partnership that according to the foundation had provided more than $13 million in support for educational programs and professional development.

The breakup was acrimonious, with the foundation accusing the school board of not upholding its side of the agreement, and the school district alleging the foundation had taken actions without consent of elected officials.

District: Support from foundation was $3M-$4M, not $13M

Matta this month questioned how Dick’s calculated the $13 million figure, saying the district has estimated the amount of financial support at closer to $3 million or $4 million.

He acknowledged the situation was challenging and said, “I'm not trying to put the blame off anywhere. When I do know of things that are a problem, I ask more questions.”

But, Matta said, much of the discussion since then has amounted to “politics.”

“This is the Mon Valley, we eat our young,” he said.

School officials said the dispute erupted after the administration raised issues about some actions that it said were taken by the Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation without the consent of the elected school board.

Resident: Why did board, administration wait so long?

White Oak resident Teresa Trich asked why Matta and several current school directors who were present when the original agreement was made waited so long to object.

She questioned whether Matta should have raised a “red flag” earlier about the partnership with the foundation.

“I only can opine on things that are presented to me,” Matta said. “I only can advise people when they direct something to me. If I’m your attorney and you don’t tell me that you have a problem, how can I advise you?”

Matta acknowledged that along with then-Superintendent Mark Holtzman Jr., he drew up the original memorandum of understanding between the district and the Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation.

“I made sure that the contract was legal,” Matta said. “The contract — the MOU — that is in place, this district has not violated one portion of that, not one, OK?”

School directors said they, too, were kept in the dark about some of the changes being made by Dick’s.

MASD says name change, construction violated process

In a report to the community released May 28, current district Superintendent Don MacFann detailed a list of concerns the school board and administration had raised with the foundation.

Many of them pertained to a community resource center built at Twin Rivers Elementary School and the decision to change the name of the school to “United at Twin Rivers.”

As described in a May 2022 press release from the Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation, the new community center was designed to “offer communal space and free services including laundry, a food pantry, free Wi-Fi and showers for students and families.”

Groundbreaking for the center occured May 19, 2022, at Twin Rivers Elementary School. Attendees were informed the institution would be renamed “United at Twin Rivers.” 

School Director Diane Elias said the board knew that the Dick’s Foundation had begun referring to the school as “United at Twin Rivers,” but didn’t realize the name was being changed.

She said she and others had been led to believe the new name was more of a slogan or “mantra.” Changing the name of the school was never brought to the board for a vote, Elias said.

Superintendent: Significant alterations required district’s consent

Similarly, the resource center itself — paid for by the Dick’s foundation — was never presented to the board for acceptance.

“I never received any drawings to look at,” Matta said. “When they talked about doing work there — I thought they were taking (existing) space, remodeling it for their own uses. I didn't know that they were putting washers and dryers in. I did not.”

Elias said the board was told the community center would have a separate entrance from the school building for security reasons.

But according to MacFann, district personnel observed individuals entering the Twin Rivers facility “without identification, and in some cases, under the influence of alcohol or marijuana.” In addition, the United Community Resource Center was found closed on Mondays and Fridays, despite its posted hours, he said.

MacFann said “significant alterations” to school property, including construction, new signage and changing the names of buildings, must be approved by the school board and accepted by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. 

“These unauthorized actions not only bypassed proper procedures but also undermined the authority and responsibility of the elected school board,” MacFann said in his report. 

Elias: ‘Nothing brought to board for approval’

Elias said the previous administration, under then-Superintendent Tia Wanzo, lacked a director of facilities to coordinate construction and building improvements.

“Nothing was brought to the board for approval,” Elias said. “We did not say we didn’t know about the construction. (But) we were never brought, to the board ever, to vote on anything. That’s what we’re saying.”

School board members knew that construction was taking place, she said. “I’m not dumb,” Elias said. “None of us are dumb. We knew it was being built.” But none of the changes were approved by the board, she said.

“The previous administration handled everything differently,” Elias said.

Representatives of Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation have declined to do interviews about the end of the partnership with the district.

In a press release, the foundation blamed School Board President Mark Holtzman Sr., alleging that “the current school board and district leadership did not uphold the written partnership agreement we had in place,” and that Holtzman “made it clear that there was ‘no page to get on.’”

Holtzman said McKeesport Area School District “didn’t force Dick’s out.”

“Dick’s walked out on McKeesport school district,” he said.

‘People ... are taking shots’

Following the meeting, Matta said much of the discussion had turned unnecessarily nasty and political, and that many of the allegations leveled against the board have been inaccurate.

“I think some of the same people that are taking shots at Mr. Holtzman are trying to take shots at me as well,” Matta said. 

“Mr. Holtzman didn’t do anything wrong,” Matta said. “I didn’t do anything wrong. Dick’s decided to pull funding out of here. They keep saying that they've donated $13 million to the school district. They did not. I'm not sure how they calculate that number. They donated about $3.5 [million] give or take a little bit. All of these other issues are political in nature.”

Tax returns for charitable foundations are available from the Internal Revenue Service. According to tax returns reviewed by Tube City Almanac, in 2022, the foundation provided about $1 million in direct financial support to McKeesport Area School District, and another $800,000 in 2023.

A tax return for 2024 was not yet available publicly, but in March 2025, an auditor reported that the Dick’s Sporting Goods Foundation contributed about $1 million to the district during the previous year.

“Dick’s made a decision,” Matta said. “It's not fair to say that the board did something wrong.”

School Director Joshua Lefcowitz, who joined the board only a few weeks before the partnership ended, tried explaining the situation.

“If you want to have a mutual relationship, we have to be on common terms,” he said. “There has to be a conversation in order to move forward. They will not have a conversation. Multiple people behind this desk have offered to have the conversation. You can't make up with your ex-girlfriend if she won't come to have coffee with you.”

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

Originally published June 24, 2025.

In other news:
"Ahead of Heat Wave, C…" || "School Board OK’s 202…"