March 22, 2024 |
By Adam Reinherz | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
(File photo, “School Supplies,” by Nick Amoscato, via Flickr. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic)
McKeesport Area School District is responding to a teacher shortage by investing in its staff.
School board members have approved an agreement with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit to participate in the BridgeUP program. Designed in partnership with Point Park University and BloomBoard, the two-year program enables education professionals who currently hold associate’s degrees to earn a bachelor’s degree in special education.
“We have to think outside of the box of ways to recruit and retain teachers,” Superintendent Tia Wanzo said. Participating in BridgeUP will cost the district $16,500 for each person who completes the program.
Across the commonwealth, districts are facing increased teacher shortages. According to Penn State University’s Center for Evaluation & Policy Analysis, during 2022-23, 7.7 percent of teachers — or 9,587 — left their positions across the state.
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March 21, 2024 |
By Adam Reinherz | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
McKeesport Area School District Choir Director Beth Eger leads student vocalists in a performance before the school board. The group performed songs from the high school’s upcoming production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” (Photos by Adam Reinherz for Tube City Almanac)
McKeesport Area School Board has approved a transfer of $2 million from the district’s fund balance to a capital reserve account.
The decision follows an independent audit report presented one week earlier indicating the district had nearly $9.5 million in unassigned funds. A fund balance, in accounting terms, is a surplus of revenue over expenses.
Board member Dave Seropian called the unassigned fund balance a “favorable number.”
Transferring $2 million from the pool to capital reserves will enable the district to address multiple projects, including repairs to parking lots and roadways at the high school, sound and lighting at the high school auditorium, and stadium lighting, he said.
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March 21, 2024 |
By Tom Leturgey | Posted in: Duquesne News
Shoppers explore the Giant Eagle Mobile Market during its first visit to Duquesne on Sunday. The market will return every Sunday afternoon for 90 minutes, bringing fresh and packaged foods. (Tom Leturgey photo for Tube City Almanac)
Grocery shopping in Duquesne has gotted a little more convenient. Giant Eagle’s Mobile Market made its first stop in the city on Sunday.
On a sunny, 47-degree afternoon, the Mobile Market swung into the Duquesne Plaza Shopping Center just off Route 837. Giant Eagle’s Gwen Johnson and driver Ryan Mancini jumped out of the truck that pulled the trailer, pulled out retractable ramps at designated “Entrance” and “Exit” points and within minutes were ready for residents who stopped in for essentials.
The mobile market is scheduled to return every Sunday afternoon for 90 minutes.
Johnson, who runs the day-to-day operations for the Mobile Market, had just wrapped up its Sunday stop in Rankin Borough. The grocery store on wheels now has 11 stops on its weekly schedule, including outside of the Glen Hazel High Rise and Second Avenue in Hazelwood. Some spots, like Rankin, have about twenty shoppers a week, while others welcome 60 or more.
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March 18, 2024 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Maria Cooper Janis and Byron Janis. (Photo courtesy the Janis family, via Facebook)
Byron Janis, a child prodigy from McKeesport who rose from poverty to become one of the most celebrated concert pianists of his generation, died Thursday in New York City. He was 95.
His death was announced over the weekend by his wife of 58 years, Maria, who called it “a loss to me and the world.”
“Byron understood that music has many powers, including that of bridging barriers that seem insurmountable, and in today’s fractured world, let us remember and practice this to honor his legacy,” she wrote.
Born March 28, 1928, in McKeesport, Janis was the son of Russian immigrant Hattie Horelick and Polish immigrant Samuel Yankilevitch, who owned a chain of Army and Navy surplus stores.
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March 17, 2024 |
By Submitted Report | Posted in: Crime and Police News, White Oak News
Allegheny County police and the medical examiner’s office are working to identify what appear to be human remains found behind a building in White Oak.
Foul play is not suspected, police said.
In a prepared release, Allegheny County police said that emergency personnel received a call through 9-1-1 at 5:30 p.m. Saturday that remains had been found behind a building in the 700 block of O’Neil Boulevard.
County homicide detectives are investigating and the medical examiner’s office is working to identify the remains.
Anyone with information concerning this incident is asked to call the County Police Tip Line at 1-833-ALL-TIPS. Callers can remain anonymous.
March 17, 2024 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: East McKeesport News, North Versailles Twp. News, Wilmerding News
(Source: Pennsylvania Department of Drug & Alcohol Programs)
North Versailles Twp. police and the East Allegheny School Board are warning parents about the dangers children face from vaping.
At this month’s school board meeting, Acting Superintendent Joseph DiLucente told the board that he and Norm Locke, North Versailles assistant police chief, sent letters to parents earlier this month warning of the dangers children face from vaping.
The school district letter, signed by DiLucente, junior high school principal Mark Draskovich and senior high school principal Brian Ferek, notes, “We have noticed an unfortunate upward trend in drug use among our student population and youth in the Mon Valley as a whole.”
“I ask that you address the dangers of drug use, particularly unknown substances in vape devices, with your children. In speaking with Norm Locke, Assistant Chief of NVPD, and reviewing recent confiscations of vaping devices at the high school, this is our chief area of concern,” the letter continues.
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March 17, 2024 |
By T.J. Martin | Posted in: East McKeesport News, North Versailles Twp. News, Wilmerding News
(File photo courtesy Fire Department of North Versailles via Facebook)
While not as much as originally proposed, some volunteer firefighters in the five fire departments serving the communities in the East Allegheny School District will receive a real estate tax credit of up to $300.
The East Allegheny School Board voted 5-1 at their monthly meeting earlier this week to approve the program, with Board President John Savinda opposed, Merle “Bud” Pusey and Shannon Basa-Sabol abstaining and Macey Kinard absent.
The proposal will give an annual $300 real estate tax credit to qualifying homeowners who are volunteer firefighters in the five fire departments — Crestas, the Fire Department of North Versailles, Wilmerding, West Wilmerding and United, which serves East McKeesport and Wall — within the district. The proposal places an annual cap of $7,000 on the program.
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March 14, 2024 |
By Tom Leturgey | Posted in: Duquesne News
Duquesne will seek grants to fund demolition of dangerous abandoned buildings and other improvement projects.
At this month’s council meeting, Councilwoman Denise Brownfield discussed the possibility of using Gaming Economic Development Tourism funds to demolish dangerous properties in the city. Duquesne recently was awarded $75,000 for a demolition project that’s estimated to cost $285,000.
Officials are to prioritize which properties among the 17 listed should be razed first. In Brownfield’s report, it was recommended that the city seek bids to demolish 32, 33 and 125 on South Seventh Street, as well as 733 Klere St., 138 and 151 Auriles St., and add 11 to 31 South 7th Street as alternatives.
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March 11, 2024 |
By Danielle M. Smith - Public News Service | Posted in: State & Region
The McKeesport post office will hold a hiring fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. this Wednesday. A postal union official says that the U.S. Postal Service is constantly hiring, but does a poor job retaining new employees because of working conditions. (Tube City Almanac photo)
Postal workers from Pennsylvania will head to the nation’s capital in early May for a national rally to raise awareness about the challenges faced by the U.S. Postal Service.
The workers say staff shortages, consolidations and office closures all are affecting mail delivery. The U.S. Postal Service’s goal is 95 percent on-time delivery across its vast network of 167 million addresses nationwide.
Kimberly Miller, president of the American Postal Workers Union Keystone Area Local 1566, said the worker shortage means some post offices close their facilities early and see delays in processing the mail. Miller pointed out rural customers often are hardest hit.
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March 11, 2024 |
By Jason Togyer | Posted in: McKeesport and Region News
Charlene Salvi Gergely, wife of the late Richard J. Gergely, speaks Saturday during a rededication of Gergely Riverfront Park in McKeesport as her children, Ericka, Jason and Chris Gergely, look on. Also shown are Mayor Mike Cherepko (left) and nephew, state Rep. Matt Gergely (rear). (Tube City Almanac photo)
Despite a steady, cold rain, there were many smiles — and a few tears — on Saturday when friends and family of the late Richard J. Gergely gathered to rededicate the city’s Riverfront Park in his memory.
The ceremony was held 40 years to the date of the death of Gergely, a teacher, city council member, youth football coach and father of three who died of cancer March 9, 1984 at the age of 43.
An obituary at the time of his death called him “probably the most popular person in the city.”
Speakers included Gergely’s widow, Charlene Salvi Gergely, and his now-grown children, Jason, Christopher and Ericka Gergely, as well as his nephews, state Rep. Matt Gergely and former state Rep. Mark Gergely, and state Sen. Jim Brewster.
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