Aquinas Academy of Pittsburgh starts the 2023-24 school year with its largest student body ever, an enrollment of 494 in kindergarten through 12th grade.
The independent Catholic school in Hampton also runs a prekindergarten program for 3- and 4-year-old children.
Aquinas welcomes five new teachers:
• Jenny Fetchko will teach art and sixth-grade theology. She has a bachelor’s degree in studio art from St. Mary’s College and a master of technology in education from the University of Michigan.
• Clare Meland McNamee, a 2013 Aquinas graduate, joins the faculty to teach one section of eighth-grade religion class. She has a bachelor’s and master’s in theology from the University of Notre Dame.
• Colton Croskey will be the instructor for beginning band, fourth through eighth grades, and the high school band class. He is a graduate of Grove City College with a bachelor of music education.
• Clare Young is a graduate of Franciscan University’s Honors Great Books Program, where she received her bachelor’s degree in history and classics. She will teach middle- and high-school Latin and eighth-grade theology.
• Miranda Reininger will teach physical education and coach lacrosse. She has a bachelor of science in physical education from Slippery Rock University and a master’s from Piedmont College in Georgia, where she was assistant coach of the women’s lacrosse team.
Gina Martyak also joins the staff at Aquinas, as the new director of college counseling. She has a bachelor of science in business administration with an accounting major and legal studies minor from Robert Morris University, master of business administration from Duquesne University and a master of arts in Counseling: Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Geneva College.
As construction on the new Lower and Middle School Building has been completed, students will benefit from having a full year in the new classrooms. Landscaping is being enhanced around the new building and new parking lot.
A new Lower School library in the Early Years Building is nearing completion, with all new furnishing, painting and lighting.
Summer preparations for the school year included adding systems to better secure buildings and to prepare for a quicker response with immediate access to local police and emergency crews.
