Hempfield hires assistant superintendent for elementary education
The chance to work in a large school district for a respected colleague lured Matthew Conner to his new position as assistant superintendent for elementary education at Hempfield Area School District.
Conner, 40, of Murrysville officially takes the post July 1, replacing Tammy Wolicki as she is promoted to replace retiring Superintendent Barbara Marin.
Conner and Wolicki this week conducted a whirlwind tour of all five district elementary schools, introducing Conner to teachers and staff room by room. He would pop into the classroom with an introduction from Wolicki, shake hands with the teacher and any aides, then chat for a few moments with the students or teachers about their work.
Conner has been an administrator with the Burrell School District for 11 years, including six as assistant superintendent for grades K-12. He taught in Butler schools for five years before that.
Differences in district size will be the biggest adjustment, Conner said. Burrell had about 1,800 students in all grades, while Hempfield Area has about 2,500 just in kindergarten through fifth grade.
With a bigger district, it can be easier to try new things on a small scale. But it can be tougher to roll out those new ideas to the whole district, he said.
“It's easier to navigate change at a smaller district, but at a larger district you have new opportunities. ... It's easier to — I don't want to say ‘experiment,' exactly,” Conner said.
He said he applied for the job because he heard Wolicki would be promoted, and he'd worked with her on regional collaborative efforts when she was an administrator at the Greensburg Salem School District.
“Dr. Wolicki's amazing, and I have big shoes to fill,” he said. “Hopefully, I can add to what she's done.”
Wolicki said she supported hiring Conner because of his strengths in curriculum development, where she saw him as an innovator.
“I saw Matt as someone who thinks outside the box; someone who will say, ‘Let's try this,' or ‘Let's reconsider that,' ” Wolicki said of her first impressions from about six years ago, when she and Conner were part of a consortium of six districts bringing together teachers and administrators to share and develop innovative ideas. “(In Hempfield,) we're at a point where we'd like to look at additional opportunities and possibilities for students.”
Conner went from teaching to the front office when his first child was born so his wife could stay at home. They now have an 11-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son.
At Burrell, he oversaw the district's transition from two K-5 schools to one building housing grades K-3 and another for grades 4 and 5. Under Conner's tenure, the district added “what-I-need time” to its schedule each day for either enrichment or remediation, depending on how well each student is doing in a subject.
He also took pride in expanding the district's science and technology offerings by adding a “SMALLab” program to the lower school and a flight simulator program for the upper elementary school.
Wolicki said Conner's experience expanding elementary-level STEM learning was another selling point during his interview. He was one of 10 applicants for the job and one of five interviewed by district staff. He will be paid $146,683 per year.
Matthew Santoni is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-6660, msantoni@tribweb.com or via Twitter @msantoni.
