Burgettstown superintendent to take job as Deer Lakes principal

A second Washington County school administrator is filling a vacancy in the Deer Lakes School District.

At a special meeting Thursday, the school board hired David S. Palmer as principal of Deer Lakes High School.

Palmer, 42, is coming to Deer Lakes from the Burgettstown Area School District, where he had most recently served as superintendent.

Palmer arrives at Deer Lakes following Janell Logue-Belden, who is starting this week as the district's new superintendent. Logue-Belden was superintendent of Avella Area School District in Washington County.

Logue-Belden and Palmer knew each other as fellow superintendents in that county, and Palmer said it was her passing mention of Deer Lakes' being in need of an administrator that clued him into the job.

Palmer, who had been a principal at Burgettstown and Career Connections Charter High School, said he wanted to go back to being in a position where he worked more closely with teachers and students.

“There is a very special relationship between a principal and his or her staff and students,” Palmer said, “and over time, I realized that my move to central administration was causing me to drift away from what I really wanted to be doing.”

Palmer replaces former Principal Joseph Orr, who left in December to take a job in another district.

Palmer is to start at Deer Lakes on Jan. 19 at an annual salary of $93,000.

Special ed director hired

The board approved hiring Lindsay M. McGaughey as the district's special education director.

McGaughey replaces former director Barbara Tomlinson, who retired in June but has been serving as a consultant for the district until a new full-time director was hired.

McGaughey's salary was set at $80,000. She is expected to start in March.

McGaughey is coming to Deer Lakes from Midwestern Intermediate Unit 4 in Grove City, where she had worked in various roles since 2005. She most recently supervised an early intervention program serving children in Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties.

Brian C. Rittmeyer is a staff writer for Trib Total Media.