New Trinity superintendent meets with community

Newly hired Trinity Superintendent Paul Kasunich agrees with a consultant’s recommended changes to improve the district.
Kasunich, who will start as superintendent on April 5, spoke after consultant James Manley gave a report called “A Journey Towards High Performance,” which detailed what Trinity does well and how the district can improve.
Kasunich and Manley spoke during a special meeting that several hundred people attended Thursday.
Manley’s report describes the ideal school district in five areas: leadership and governance; curriculum, instruction and achievement; learning climates and culture; accountability for teachers and students; and systems thinking, which includes special education.
“We’re pretty much on the same page,” Kasunich said of Manley’s recommendations.
Kasunich said the district needs to have a clear academic focus. It also needs to have “The Four R’s,” – rigor, relevancy, relationships and reflection, he said.
Trinity needs to have data-driven decision-making, which means making sure that teachers have data so they can change instruction as necessary, he said.
The district needs to use best instructional practices and to make sure that there’s a real-world connection for students, he said.
He said the district needs to have kindergarten through 12th-grade system thinking, which means that teachers at different grade levels need to know what other grade levels are responsible for teaching.
“You can’t have isolation in the buildings,” he said, adding that it needs to be cohesive and coherent.
Kasunich said he wants Trinity to be innovative.
“I don’t want us to be in the middle,” he said. “I want us to be in the front.”
Kasunich, who has a background in business and education, also shared his core beliefs with the audience.
He said the organization can’t stand still, it has to be constantly improving. That’s why he will encourage people to act – and act quickly.
Kasunich said he will also encourage dialogue and feedback.
“I will encourage it because I don’t know all the answers,” he said.
He said he will let actions speak for him, just as he will for everyone else. Every district employee is a role model for children, he said.
He wants to create a performance-based culture and said he will give people the benefit of the doubt. Kasunich said he’d rather have Trinity try new ideas and find out they don’t work exactly as planned than to not try anything new at all.
“The only way you get better is to try to broaden your horizons,” he said. “We are going to do that at Trinity.”
Read Manley’s report at www.observer-reporter.com/OR/sourcedoc/.

Join the Observer-Reporter’s conversation about education at our blog at http://www.observer-reporter.com/or/behinddesk/

New Trinity superintendent's contract detailed

By Dawn Goodman
Staff writer
dgoodman@observer-reporter.com
Pay raises for incoming Trinity Superintendent Paul Kasunich will not be automatic and instead will be based on performance evaluations, according to his new contract.
The school board hired Kasunich, currently the Blackhawk Area School District superintendent, on Feb. 18. He is expected to start in early April and has a five-year contract.
The contract calls for his salary to be $135,000 from his first day until June 30, 2011.
His annual compensation will be determined following that date each succeeding year of employment. However, his salary cannot be decreased.
His fringe benefits include a $200,000 term life insurance policy, along with $200,000 accidental death or dismemberment coverage. The district will pay the premiums.
He will receive medical, dental and vision benefits and will be responsible for 10 percent of the premium costs.
He also has health insurance protection, which means if he exhausts all paid leave provisions of the contract, the district will pay all of his insurances at 100 percent of the cost for six months.
He will receive 22 vacation days, exclusive of holidays. The vacation days must be used in the year they are earned.
He will be entitled to 12 sick days per year and they will accumulate without limit. Upon termination of his employment, he will get the sick days at a rate of $100 per day. However, if he leaves prior to the duration of the contract, he will not be eligible for the sick leave reimbursement.
School board President Tom Bodnovich said the board had no problem getting Kasunich to agree to the terms of the contract.
Read Kasunich’s contract at
www.observer-reporter.com/OR/sourcedoc/.
Join the Observer-Reporter’s conversation about education at our blog at http://www.observer-reporter.com/or/behinddesk/.

Trinity names new superintendent

Trinity Area School Board hired a superintendent Thursday, finding a new leader with a background in education and business.

The board gave Paul Kasunich, the current Blackhawk School District superintendent, a five-year contract. He will make $135,000 for the first 15 months of his contract, which will run from July 1 to June 30 after the first year.

He will start 60 days from today, according to the contract. Kasunich will replace Thomas Turnbaugh, who left last summer to take a job in a district in eastern Pennsylvania. Trinity has had two acting superintendents since then.

Kasunich was not at Trinity's board meeting and could not be reached for comment Thursday because he was attending a Blackhawk meeting.

Jack Keisling, who led Trinity's superintendent search committee, said he's participated in a superintendent search committee three times during his tenure on the school board.

"I'm most pleased with this hire," he said.

Keisling said he likes that Kasunich has a background in business and education.

Kasunich was an executive for General Electric and AT&T before switching careers in the 1990s to pursue a job in education. He has held several administrative positions within Blackhawk since 2003 and was a teacher in Shaler Area School District for six years.

"He's got a great vision and is strongly interested in each child and their improvement," Keisling said. "He comes from a district that's doing well."

Board President Tom Bodnovich said as the committee went through the process, he hoped members would find someone who fit in with Trinity's culture.

He said Kasunich does just that.

Board member Scott Day said he wasn't searching for a candidate with a business background, but he likes the balance the new superintendent brings to the table.

"He's good with budgets. He's good with finances," Day said. "And the test scores (at Blackhawk) are improving. They are moving in the right direction."

However, in his years as superintendent at Blackhawk, Kasunich also presided over a district in turmoil triggered by a controversial building project that resulted in a majority of the school board being ousted in last year's election.

Trinity's search wasn't without controversy as some members of the public wanted more input into the hiring of the superintendent. The board did have questionnaires available at schools for community members to write what they wanted in a superintendent.

However, the public did not get to meet Kasunich before he was hired. At Thursday's meeting, some residents said that should change in the future. Others said that the community should give the new superintendent a chance.

Trinity will hire superintendent without public input

The public will not have a chance to meet the superintendent Trinity Area School Board plans to hire before a vote is taken on his employment.
The agenda from Thursday’s meeting included a motion to hire the superintendent, upon the release from his current employer. The motion was up for discussion, but not approval at that meeting, meaning the vote will take place at the Feb. 18 meeting. The superintendent candidate was not identified on the agenda and the board did not name him during Thursday’s meeting.
The new hire will replace Superintendent Thomas Turnbaugh, who left over the summer. The district has had two acting superintendents while it searches for a replacement.
Two fathers asked the board Thursday whether the community would have a chance to question any finalist, as was suggested by board members previously.
“I was told we would be involved in the process,” said South Strabane resident Mike Williamson.
North Franklin resident Ed Brownlee said the board has once again disregarded public opinion by making the decision in the cover of darkness.
“You promised that there would be community input,” he said.
Board members did not comment on the matter during the meeting. However, after the meeting, consultant James Manley said board members discussed whether to have the public meet with the finalists.
However, they determined that they wanted to protect the confidentiality of the finalists, said Manley, who is helping with the search.
Some districts have an open hiring process. Trinity chose not to because it wants a superintendent who already has central office experience, Manley said. That means the most qualified applicants likely are working in other districts as assistant superintendents or superintendents, he said.
They didn’t want to keep educators from applying because their current employer might find out about it, Manley said.
More than 20 people applied for the job, he said.
Trinity is down to one finalist and is negotiating the details of the contract, he said.