https://naviga.triblive.com/local/westmoreland/peiffer-to-depart-as-greensburg-salem-superintendent-search-on-for-successor/
Peiffer to depart as Greensburg Salem superintendent; search on for successor
Greensburg Salem School Board is launching a search for a new superintendent to replace Gary Peiffer, who is leaving to accept a similar role at Chartiers-Houston School District in Washington County.
The board this week accepted Peiffer’s resignation, effective June 30, and agreed to use the Pennsylvania School Boards Association Superintendent Search Services, at a cost of $15,000, to identify candidates to replace him.
Ken Bissell, Greensburg Salem’s coordinator of secondary education, will take on additional responsibilities as acting superintendent, receiving an additional monthly stipend of $2,700.
Peiffer was hired as Greensburg Salem’s superintendent in July 2018 at an annual salary of $144,000. His current salary is $146,000, under the terms of a five-year contract that was set to expire in June 2023.
He said he is making the move to Chartiers-Houston for personal reasons and was hired by that district Monday.
Greensburg Salem school board President Ronald Mellinger Jr. praised Peiffer for seeing the district through more than a year of challenges related to the covid-19 pandemic. “You will be missed,” Mellinger told him.
“These are difficult times, but I think we all had the best interests of the kids in mind, and the interests of the community,” Peiffer said.
He said Greensburg Salem’s administrative team made an effort to “stay on the cutting edge of what we need to do instructionally to meet the needs of kids.”
Bissell has been with the district for 17 years, beginning as a social studies instructor. He became assistant principal at the middle school in 2009 and served as coordinator of secondary education since 2012.
He holds a doctorate in education from the University of Pittsburgh and a master’s degree in geography and planning from Appalachian State University in North Carolina.
Bissell said he intends to continue working with fellow district administrators to focus on standards-based learning for students while getting back to a more normal instructional model for students.
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