SHENANDOAH — The Shenandoah Valley school board held a special meeting Wednesday and voted to hire Brian K. Waite as the new district superintendent.
Waite was in attendance when the school board voted 8-0 to fill the vacancy left by the death of Stanley G. Rakowsky, Ph.D., on Nov. 6 after serving as superintendent for 22 years.
Waite was hired at a starting annual salary of $115,000.
“The motion passes. Welcome,” board member/secretary Karen Kayes said, followed by a round of applause from the board and administration. “We’re really happy you picked us.”
“I’d like to thank the focus group for helping us, along with the board members, and Mike (O’Pake, solicitor) and Tony Demalis (acting superintendent/business manager), who spent a lot of time,” board President Daniel Salvadore said.
After the meeting, Demalis said 15 applications were received, and six were selected for interviews, but one withdrew before the interview was held. The focus group mentioned by Salvadore had teachers providing input in the selection of a new superintendent.
“We had a focus group meeting with the teachers,” Demalis said. “The board asked for the input from the teachers on what qualities would be good in the next superintendent and what would they like to see. There were a couple of elementary teachers and a couple of high school teachers and they offered some potential questions to ask. That helped in the search.”
Waite, 51, of Mountain Top, spoke about his background before the meeting began. Born in New York, he lived only briefly in that state before his family moved to Pennsylvania.
“I call Harrisburg home, but I have lived in Mountain Top for almost 19 years,” Waite said.
Waite attended the meeting with his wife, Debbie, a native of Wilkes-Barre. The couple have two daughters, Megan and Abby.
Waite is currently the acting superintendent at Crestwood School District, Mountain Top. Before taking on his current position in January, he was the assistant to the superintendent for 8 1/2 years.
“Before that I was the middle school principal at Crestwood, and prior to that I was in administration,” Waite said. “I taught third and fifth grades in Maryland and in Southern Lehigh School District in the Allentown area.”
There is no date when Waite will take over as superintendent since when he becomes available will depend on the Crestwood school board.
“I don’t know if the Crestwood board will hold me for 60 days or not,” he said. “I had a conversation with them last night, but they haven’t given me an indication whether they will hold me or not.”
The first priority will be to learn all about Shenandoah Valley and the community.
“What I am really looking forward to do is come in and get to know the faculty and staff, the community and to do some analyzing of what our strengths are and look at areas for improvement. Try to enhance our strengths and minimize our shortcomings,” Waite said.
In other business, the school board voted to approve board member Richard Zimmerman to serve on the Schuylkill Intermediate Unit 29 board for a new three-year term from July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2019.