Plum appoints deputy superintendent as interim superintendent

The Plum Borough School Board voted June 13 to appoint Rick Walsh as interim superintendent.

Board President Michael Devine said the district would begin negotiating a contract with Walsh to make him the next superintendent.

Walsh has been with the district since 2018 as assistant superintendent and later deputy superintendent, and succeeds Brendan Hyland in the top administrative post. North Allegheny School Board approved Hyland as its next superintendent for a reported five-year contract at $240,000 per year.

Devine thanked Hyland for his time with Plum during the meeting and in a news release from the district.

“I think it’s a great move for him and his family,” Devine said after the meeting.

“No disrespect to him. I don’t think it’s a bad thing for Plum or him. He’s moving on to a role that brings him back to where he started. But, as I said, it’s a new chapter for Plum, and we couldn’t be more energized or excited for Dr. Walsh to step into his alma mater and take the reins in the future.”

Walsh, a 1987 Plum High School graduate, served as a principal for the Pine-Richland and Trinity Area school districts, an assistant principal in the McGuffey School District and a teacher in Mt. Lebanon.

At the school board meeting, some residents complained about a lack of transparency regarding the hiring process and whether board members knew Hyland was going to leave the district. Multiple people referenced a post that circulated on Facebook last month stating that a resident received a letter that Hyland was exiting.

“Hyland left and he didn’t even have the courage to show up,” resident Tom Feeney said. “I’m glad he’s gone. I think he’s a horrible superintendent. The reason I came here tonight was, two words get thrown around a lot, one of them recently this weekend and one of them all the time: transparency, optics.”

Nobody on the school board claimed to have prior knowledge of Hyland leaving for another job, with several admitting that it came as a complete shock. Devine said Hyland told him about it on June 9, but Devine went into that meeting expecting him to announce his retirement.

The hiring of Walsh was referred to as “the plan” throughout the meeting, at first by those opposed to not posting the superintendent opening and later by everyone as a way to address it.

School board members Angela Anderson, Amy Wetmore, Michelle Stepnick and Devine said Walsh was given a raise three years ago partly to be prepared to step in full time if Hyland were to retire. All four, along with current members Michael Caliguiri and Adam Hill, were on the board at the time.

“In 2020, the board promoted Dr. Walsh to deputy superintendent so that if the superintendent were to get ill, would leave, anything that would happen, there’d be a continuity of leadership in a moment, just like we’re having right now. That is the long-term strategic planning that we did to adjust an organizational chart,” said Anderson, the lead board liaison for personnel. “Whatever anybody else is attaching to it, I don’t want my name anywhere near it.”

When hired in 2018, Hyland signed a five-year contract at a starting salary of $155,000. He was given a new five-year agreement in 2020 that set his salary in the first year at $195,000. In 2022-23, his salary was just over $209,000, according to the district.

Devine cited Hyland’s three decades of experience as a reason why board members, at the time, felt he might retire before his contract was up.

Stepnick, who opposed the contract and the pay raise in 2020, said the plan was to be prepared if Hyland were to retire. Anderson and Wetmore echoed that point.

After the meeting, Devine clarified that the intention was to provide a way for the school district to operate efficiently before the district hired its next superintendent and didn’t guarantee the job to the deputy superintendent.

He said the board agrees that Walsh is an “overly qualified candidate,” and Devine hopes he and his colleagues can come to an agreement on a contract for Walsh in the coming weeks.

School board members Megan Chuderewicz and Ron Sakolsky said they weren’t aware of “the plan,” and Devine apologized to them and to Devin Adams, for not communicating it to the newer members. Adams, Chuderewicz and Sakolsky were elected to the school board in 2022.

Sakolsky made a motion, seconded by Chuderewicz, to open the search for a new superintendent over the two weeks following the meeting, although neither expressed opposition to Walsh. Both supported his appointment as interim superintendent.

On Sakolsky’s motion to open the search, his was the only yes vote, while Chuderewicz, Caliguiri and Stepnick abstained. Chuderewicz and Stepnick said they wanted more time to discuss opening the position. Adams, Anderson, Wetmore, Devine and Adam Hill voted no.

Concerns over the hiring process also were raised during the vote on the school district’s new athletic director, a position filled at the meeting. The process includes a final interview that took place just before the June 13 meeting, an issue that Stepnick, Chuderewicz and Sakolsky voiced issue with. None of the school board members spoke out against the new athletic director, but some raised concerns over the process, particularly the timing of the final interview.

Devine said board members would consider tweaking the process but wasn’t sure whether they would change it entirely. He mentioned that tweaks to the timeline specifically are worth discussing when the board reconvened in August.

The next step for the hiring process of Walsh as superintendent will be forming a three-person committee to negotiate his contract. Walsh currently makes $168,921.