Chartiers-Houston School District off to a fresh start
The coming school year will be a transitional one at Chartiers-Houston School District.
“For this upcoming school year, working with the board, we’ve brought some new things into the program that we’re pretty excited about,” said Superintendent Dr. Gary Peiffer. “One is the addition of two school police officers.”
The district hired two police officers, Brian Siege and Tom Shaheen, to patrol campus during school hours Monday through Friday. Peiffer said the district is working to bring a third officer aboard for a second shift, to work during after-school activities.
“When I came on two years ago, we had some initial discussions about school safety: what’s in place, what’s our emergency plan,” said Peiffer, adding the district works closely with the Houston police department. “In a small area, it is very difficult to rely on the township police to have people there all the time. They can stop in and patrol for so many hours a day, which was very good, but you always wonder, what about those hours that we don’t have somebody in the building?”
The school board supported hiring district police officers, and Chartiers-Houston spent the summer interviewing candidates.
“For us, having a school police officer and having them build a relationship with students, the kids learn to respect the officers as people who care about them. We looked for people that can build relationships with kids, not for people that will be the big heavy,” said Peiffer. “Mr. Siege, he’s involved with the band. His children went to our school. Shaheen worked at Mt. Lebanon; he’s very familiar with the position. I want people to look at the school police officers as a resource, as people who will help provide safety for all the students.”
Along with new police officers, the district is also offering new cuisine.
The Nutrition Group was awarded a contract for this school year and is working to expand Chartiers-Houston’s menu, improve food presentation and cut down the amount of time students spend in line for meals. The district is also looking into offering breakfast at the junior-senior high school.
The district also is offering new student programs this year, including an after-school esports team.
“Esports has become very popular in the last 10 years or more,” Peiffer said. “Kids who maybe aren’t necessarily involved in sports or other extracurricular activities, we want to reach out to those kids.”
The district is also reaching out to students who dream of taking the stage but aren’t musically inclined.
“We’re going to offer a fall play this year,” Peiffer said, noting he isn’t sure the last time, if ever, Chartiers-Houston put on a fall production. “We did one at Carlynton. There was whole poll of kids who wanted to be involved in the arts. A fall play gets them onto the stage. You can work on other skills, public speaking and teamwork. From my view, I want to get as many kids involved with school and different activities as we can.”
The play and spring musical will be headed by new secondary half-time teacher Nicole Tafe, who replaced retired choral director Nancy McGill.
While new programs offer more opportunity to junior and senior high schoolers, Allison Park Elementary School is also experiencing positive changes. Principal Anastasia Andronas is introducing the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports program on her campus.
“They’re working to be certified as a PBIS school. The idea of the program is to really recognize and encourage good behavior with students and to have uniform expectations across all grade levels,” said Peiffer.