MASD Adds Technical Training in Education, Safety

Protective services is one of two new programs adopted within district’s Technology Center

By Adam Reinherz
The Tube City Almanac
August 18, 2025
Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

(Adam Reinherz photo for Tube City Almanac)

McKeesport Area School District is furthering an educational initiative in hopes of creating new possible career pathways for students — that could someday lead to jobs back on the campus on Eden Park Boulevard.

During the Aug. 14 regular school board meeting, school directors voted to approve the creation of programs geared toward aspiring educators and first responders. Each program will be offered within the district’s Technology Center.

Designed to provide MASD students in 10-12 grades “quality career and technical education programs,” the center offers young learners pathways toward "immediate occupation.”

Current programs include Collision and Repair; Building Construction; Child Care; Diversified Occupations; Engineering; Culinary Arts; Commercial Arts and Cosmetology.

Creating an aspiring educators program may help the “teacher shortage that’s out there,” school director Jason Pavlecic said.

Throughout the Commonwealth, the teacher attrition rate in 2023-2024 was 6.7 percent. Although lower than a 7.7 percent rate one year prior, the 2023-2024 attrition sum (8,326 teachers) was still greater than that of 6 of 10 years since 2014-2015, according to the Penn State Center for Evaluation & Education Policy Analysis.

Teachers keep leaving the profession, according to researchers, because of “salaries and working conditions.”

MASD has adopted several different strategies, including sign-on bonuses, to stem teacher attrition.

Giving students a school-to-work opportunity may be another way of curbing the tide, Pavlecic said.

The second program adopted Thursday seeks to increase the number of EMS, police and public safety individuals.

Offering training in careers as first-responders can support not only students but district constituents, according to school director Matthew Holtzman.

“I like the idea of people from our city and from our area patrolling our streets. They're just more relatable to the individuals here because they understand the culture here. They instantly have rapport when they get out of a police car or fire truck,” Holtzman said.

Apart from serving on the school board, Holtzman is a 24-year veteran of the McKeesport Fire Department.

“Most of the time when I get off a fire engine, people know me. I went to school here,” he said. “I'm from this area. I spent most of my time growing up in the Seventh Ward, so I have an instant rapport as soon as people see me.”

It’s “safer” for communities when residents know who’s protecting them, he continued. Giving local students the opportunity to “get into that business and stay right here and be employed is an incredible opportunity.”

While school directors praised the district’s two new programs for offering students future employment possibilities, Holtzman said the addition of protective services could immediately improve school safety — a topic he has addressed in recent months.  

In May, Holtzman told attendees of a school board meeting that he and Pavlecic — members of MASD’s safe schools committee — met with administrators and community members to discuss the enhancement of district “security features.”

Whereas that meeting identified specific tasks to be taken within the district, Holtzman reiterated on Thursday the district’s need to adopt best practices when incorporating active shooter drills, updating security and determining appropriate emergency responses.

“That stuff can get pretty complicated,” he said.

Having people in the building who are “already trained” can be a boon, as students who study protective services could deliver “extra sets of hands on campus” in the event of an emergency, Holtzman added.

During the 2024-2025 school year, across the country, seven firearm-related incidents resulting in injuries or deaths occurred on K-12 school properties, according to Education Week.

Preparing against a “large-scale incident” or smaller event behooves the district, Holtzman said.

Another related security measure mentioned during Thursday’s school board meeting included a reimplementation of student IDs.

The move, Pavlecic noted, will “help us identify students, so we know who’s supposed to be in our buildings and on our campus.”

Collectively, the district is “trying to just make everything safer overall,” Holtzman said.

With the Aug. 14 meeting representing the final formal gathering before Wednesday’s official first day of school, School Board President Mark Holtzman Sr. signaled his optimism for the year ahead.

“I spoke to some teachers who said to me they are looking forward to what’s coming down the road,” the school board president said. “Hopefully it will be good for our kids, good for our teachers and good for us.”

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

Originally published August 18, 2025.

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