*Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio. Published April 7, 2025 8:46 P.M.
(New Brighton, Pa) The Superintendents of the New Brighton and Rochester School Districts held the first of two town hall meetings Monday evening in regards to sharing a superintendent between the two districts.
Dr. Joseph Gaurino of New Brighton and Dr. Jane Bovalino of Rochester presented a detailed overview of what they hope to accomplish with school board and community support at the New Brighton Auditorium.
The pair started the presentation by showing the decline in enrollment between the schools over the course of time. The most focus was given to data of the last 25 years.
The current combined enrollment between both districts in 2025 is just under 2000 students, which is even less than the enrollment at New Brighton alone in the year 2000.
The superintendents would like to see both districts share a superintendent by the 2026-2027 school year. Dr. Bovalino is retiring in July 2026 and Dr. Gaurino is willing to take on the job.
They believe that taking this step into a shared superintendent would potentially open up both districts for more educational opportunities for students. Some examples included AP classes and Woodshop that are offered at New Brighton and not Rochester. They say that teachers would also be able to communicate with each other to further improve education in both schools.
The Rochester School District operates on a budget around 19 million a year while New Brighton is 29 million. The projected savings in a shared superintendent are $350,000 over the first 5 years.
They went on to note that they do recognize challenges are still expected. Dr. Gaurino said that it would take time to learn as much about Rochester as he does New Brighton and scheduling would take work. The pair noted that things like special events would take extra planning to ensure that the superintendent can give their full attention to both schools.
A key factor that they both brought up often during the presentation was that both districts are only 2.2 miles and 8 minutes away from each other.
Data from schools in New York and Minnesota were highlighted as well. 93% of boards in both states that have shared superintendents say they would do it again. Furthermore, a pair of schools in Pennsylvania were highlighted as well for not continuing to share a superintendent.
Eastern Lancaster and Columbia Schools opted to not continue with shared administration after trying it for a period of time. Gaurino says that they hope to learn from the errors and issues they had to prevent them in this case.
Both a transition board and community transition board would be put in place should they continue with the share. The transition board consists of 3 current board members from each district and the community transition board will be filled at a later time.
Both school boards will have to agree to the proposed plan and they hope to reach a decision by August.
The Superintendent’s made a point of noting that they are not proposing a merger. In the long term, if the plan is successful they would hope to see more integration between the schools including more shared administrative and organizational personnel.
Following the presentation, the public was invited to participate in a Q & A.
The first man to asked a question that Guarino referred to as “ripping off the band aid”. The man asked why the district’s don’t just merge with each other.
The superintendent’s relayed that due to the data shown from declining enrollment, they are not sure that a merger would help in any way.
They did however note that sharing a superintendent is a good first step in exploring what the district’s can do together and if a merger makes sense in the future, it could possibly be discussed.
Another notable question asked was why hasn’t the district performed a study similar to what Monaca and Center did prior to the Central Valley merger to find out what costs and savings would look like.
Gaurino said that would likely be a costly investment to make and would only take place if the schools were at a point of seriously considering a merger. He also noted additional costs that a merger would require and said the grant funding that Central Valley used is currently not available.
However, Bovalino added that she will reach out to the Superintendent of Central Valley for more information on the matter.
Also during the Q & A, a few parents started a discussion on adding security to the schools if they are sharing students for classes. They requested that metal detectors be considered as they are not used by either district.
Bovalino commented she is thankful “we have good kids”. Gaurino noted that neither district has had any major issues with weapons and hopes that those standards of conduct among students will stay intact at whatever building they are in within the district.
The pair encouraged anyone with questions to reach out to them at any time. All data presented at the meeting is expected to be available publicly online.
A second town hall meeting is scheduled for April 28th at the Rochester Auditorium at 6pm.
