Letter from the Superintendent
Dr. Eileen Amato –
“At Greensburg Salem, we know that
looking at each student as an individual
is important as we help them become
all that they can be.”
Superintendent
Photo by Jeremy Lenzi
A
s a new school year approaches, we at Greensburg Salem
look forward to the opportunities to serve our community’s
children. For the 2017-18 school year, we will continue our
focus on the whole child and our recent efforts to align our work
to the educational and career opportunities our students have
after they leave our walls and care. We’ve worked very hard the
past year to partner with organizations and initiatives such as the
Math Science Collaborative, the Westmoreland County Workforce
Development Forum and the Consortium for Public Education.
Through those initiatives, we have formed strong relationships
with some of the region’s leaders in education, government
and the workplace. We will continue our rich conversations and
our subsequent work to offer our students strong educational
opportunities that stretch their learning and skills and make
them the sought after young leaders that our Greensburg Salem
graduates currently are.
Beginning with our littlest learners in elementary school, who we
will continue to equip with strong literacy and math skills, we are
also happy to have students work with our new science curriculum
this year. This program gives teachers the resources to combine
traditional science content with rich “hands-on and minds-on”
problem solving experiences. Students learn early on that content
is only useful if it can be applied to something meaningful. In our
elementary schools, we are also shifting from computer class to
STEAM Lab class. Even in kindergarten, students will be able to use
technology in combination with science, math, robotics and art
to begin to create and explore. We are so excited to see what this
experience provides for our little ones.
Along with academics, this year we will also continue our
work on developing the whole child and especially the notions
of character, leadership and service that we have been stressing.
Employers tell us that skills and academics get young people
through the door but it is their soft skills and ability to work
with others that ultimately gets them a position and helps them
advance. By focusing on those soft skills, we hope our students
have every advantage and become good hires and great
employees. This year, two of our middle school students took on
that leadership role and approached us about initiating a Junior
National Honor Society for our Middle School students. Based on
their initiative, we are happy to share that we will be adopting a
38 | Greensburg Salem
chapter at the Greensburg Salem Middle School and we hope it
sparks even more growth towards those desired outcomes.
Because our district has such a high level of poverty, we know
that some of our families and students need extra support. We are
happy to partner with the county this year and bring a fulltime
liaison to the district to work in the Student Assistance Program.
This additional service will assist in linking students and their
families to needed services that make them even more able to
learn and participate fully in our academic and extra-curricular
learning opportunities. Giving students and families the help they
need is a task we take very seriously. We all have those times in our
lives when circumstances throws us challenges and obstacles. At
Greensburg Salem, we know that looking at each student as an
individual is important as we help them become all that they can
be.
Finally, I would be remiss in not saying that planning for the
upcoming year was very challenging financially. As we worked to
find a balance between putting together a budget that supports
our students but is also respectful to our aging community
members, our task was not an easy one. Like other districts,
we’ve pared down programs, absorbed retired teacher positions,
increased class sizes and put off needed upgrades to facilities. Yet,
we also recognize that possibly, at no other time in history, has
public education been more needed. In this extremely complex
society, an educated public will support each one of us so much
more than an uneducated one. We should all want educated and
kind people in our hospitals, banks, factories and stores. All of
us need to support and take responsibility for the educational
institutions in our community.
And so, in looking to meet the needs of all the stakeholders
within Greensburg Salem, we worked extremely hard this year to
plan and budget for a year that dedicates our resources to this goal.
We are excited to hear the school bells ring again, are proud of the
work we have put into preparing for this year and we are eager to
see what our young people accomplish!
The Greensburg Salem School District pages are edited and compiled
by the Community Relations Department. For more information
please contact Melissa Bowman, at 724.832.2907 or
[email protected].