Homecoming for superintendent
ROGERSVILLE – West Greene School District will welcome home a 1978 graduate to take over as superintendent next school year.
Brian Jackson, who has served as California Area School District’s superintendent since 2012, was hired by West Greene School Board last month to fill its impending vacancy for that position.
“I’m starting to wind down in my career, and I just thought it would be good to wind down in my home district,” he said.
Jackson will be paid $112,500 in the first year of the five-year contract, and can attain yearly pay raises of $2,500 with successful performance review. The school board voted April 28 to hire Jackson by a 7-2 margin, with Kelly Loughman and Mike Pikula casting the dissenting votes.
West Greene has been searching for someone to take over for Superintendent Thelma Szarell, who announced in October her plan to retire at the end of the school year after spending 41 years working in the district, 12 of them as superintendent.
“I’m sure that Brian will move things along in the same direction,” Szarell said.
“My hope is that things stay as well as they are now and improve and get better,” she said.
Jackson, 55, of Holbrook, lives four miles from the school campus and has three children, in grades 4, 6 and 8, attending school there.
He’s been in education for 34 years and served as West Greene’s high school principal for about nine years from 1993 to 2003.
“There were a lot of people that I worked with there, and I think that with my kids attending the school there, it’s an opportunity to be more of a part of what’s going on through their school years,” he said.
In 2003, Jackson took the position as high school principal in the California Area School District. He worked in that position until 2012, when he became that district’s superintendent.
“California’s a great place to work with outstanding staff and great people to work with,” he said. “Traveling 50 minutes to work every day wasn’t that bad, but when the opportunity came to work closer to home we thought it might be best to do that.”
Jackson said working as superintendent in California made balancing work and family time difficult, since he had to choose between attending his children’s extra-curricular activities at West Greene or being present for school events in California.
Jackson’s wife, Crystal, runs a daycare in Rogersville called Crystal’s Children Center. His two oldest children attend Waynesburg University, he said.
“We started to talk about the difference of location and I decided to interview for the position just to see how things would work out,” he said. “In the end, I decided to make the change.”
Jackson said that ever since the board approved his hiring last month, he’s been getting positive feedback from community members and district staff who are happy to see his return.
He said when he starts, he’d like to do an overall “assessment and evaluation” of the district to see what changes might need to be made.
“I’m familiar with a lot of things that go on in the school because of my kids,” he said. “I think there are some necessary things that need to be addressed.”
Specifically, Jackson mentioned he wants to review the district’s finances.
“Financing for any district is an issue right now, with all of the state’s budget problems,” he said. “I think it has to be reviewed.”
Another primary concern he wants to address is improving state test scores to “continue to prepare kids for graduation and life after high school.”
Jackson said he’s been helping the California district in finding his replacement.
“There are some people on staff that are certified,” he said. “They’re in a discussion phase and they are reviewing all of their options.”
California Area School Board President Amy Todd could not be reached for comment to discuss the vacancy or the upcoming search to replace Jackson.