AD Kiss gets new 5-year contract
Several weeks after his name came up for a similar position in another area school district, McKeesport Area School District has renewed its contract with athletic director Charley Kiss.
Five-year contracts for Kiss and other Act 93 administrators were approved by the district's board of directors at its regular voting meeting Wednesday night.
District business manager David Seropian said Kiss will earn $65,400 in the coming year, saying that was an $8,200 raise over his 2009-10 salary of $57,200.
That was somewhat higher than what was reported earlier to be Kiss' previous salary but both figures come in under the $69,000 annual salary offered and briefly accepted by Kiss at Trinity Area School District in Washington County.
"It was something he called me on," school board athletic committee chairman Jim Brown said after Wednesday's meeting.
"He wanted to stay at McKeesport. That's why we gave him the extension for five years."
Brown and fellow school director Mark Holtzman both hailed Kiss' decision to stay during Wednesday's meeting.
Kiss, 30, has been athletic director at his alma mater since 2004.
He graduated from McKeesport Area High School in 1998 after being starting quarterback on the Tigers football team in his senior season.
"I did think about leaving, but when you look at the situation, you know, I just didn't want to leave here," Kiss said last month, after accepting then turning down the Trinity offer. "I think this is where I belong."
Trinity turned around and hired as athletic director Pittsburgh resident Bobby Jones, a star basketball player at Western Kentucky University in the 1980s.
Also Wednesday, the McKeesport Area board hired Jason Schmidt, Lonta Jeter and Justin Short to share seventh- and eighth-grade football coaching duties, each at a $769.07 salary.
Mike LeDonne, who left his job as Clairton's defensive coordinator, was taken on as a volunteer assistant football coach. He, Schmidt, Jeter and Short all were taken on pending receipt of needed clearances.
Also hired pending needed clearances is John Taylor to replace Paul Miller in charge of the high school majorettes.
Taylor will receive $1,944.
The board also approved Malisa Robinson as volunteer seventh- and eighth-grade girls basketball coach and Kevin Faychak as volunteer middle school swimming coach.
Beyond the personnel matters, the board approved purchase of a Telex Legacy 6 system from Paladin Professional Sound for $4,771.96 for use by the football coaches.
Asked by school director Patricia Maksin if the system would be available to other MAHS personnel, school director Joseph Chiaverini said it was a purchase in the making prior to the hiring of new football coaches.
"It can be used by other extracurricular programs," Chiaverini said.
The board also purchased two new scorers' tables for Neenie Campbell Gym at a cost of $5,172.16 from Varsity Image.
The board also approved a field trip for the high school cross-country team, which will take part in the Footlocker Northeast Regional Cross Country Championships in Sunken Meadow State Park on Long Island, N.Y., Nov. 26-28.
