MOUNT CARMEL - A new junior high principal and 13 new teachers will be on staff when the new school year begins Monday at Mount Carmel Area School District.
Also, Pete Cheddar, who resigned as MCA's special education coordinator in 2010 to become an assistant principal in the West Perry School District, is back; he was hired in July as the junior high school principal at MCA. Athletic director Greg Sacavage, who was junior high principal for the past two years on an interim basis, resigned from that position in June, but remains as AD. Sacavage had taken the principal post amid a number of administrative changes two years ago.
Joining the educators' ranks in the elementary building are Patricia Geist, Molly McCabe and Matthew Mankiewicz.
New teachers in the junior-senior high school are Kristen Klock, high school math teacher; Gary Wychock, junior high math instructor, Ashley Kilmer, junior-senior high school English teacher, and Melinda Hoopes, junior-senior high school music teacher.
Elizabeth Park, Brionne Dyszel, Kelly Bressi, David Samford, Corey Mentzer and Paul Haden have been hired as special education teachers. Teachers begin their academic year Thursday.
Samford will also teach a language development class formerly operated through the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit. The move will save the district approximately $50,000.
Most of the new teachers replaced either retired instructors or those who left the district for other positions.