Hosack Elementary School set to get new principal

Hosack Elementary School is getting a new principal.

The North Allegheny School Board appointed Carla Hudson to the position in an unanimous vote on June 8.

“I’m super-excited to meet all of the families at Hosack. I’m so very lucky to be at North Allegheny and to continue here at Hosack,” she said.

Hudson had been acting as interim principal since January after Dr. Amanda Mathieson resigned to take a position at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, where she is now program supervisor.

Hudson will become principal effective July 1. She was approved to receive a salary of $111,300.

“Throughout this process we received very positive feedback from the Hosack staff that you were the ideal candidate for this position,” NA Superintendent Dr. Melissa Friez, said in congratulating Hudson, “and we couldn’t agree more.”

Hudson began at NASD as a McKnight Elementary assistant principal six years ago, and later became principal for North Allegheny Cyber Academy in August 2020, according to the school district. Hudson said she received a lot of support from administration and families at McKnight and NACA.

School board director Elizabeth Warner has a daughter who attended NACA in the fourth grade. She said her daughter’s success there was largely due to all of the work Hudson put into it as principal at that time.

Hudson began her career in education as a kindergarten teacher in the Canon McMillan School District, where she developed and taught the district’s first autistic classroom. She later served as coordinator of elementary education for the Carlynton School District and principal of Carnegie Elementary School in the Carlynton School District.

Hudson has a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Duquesne University and Master of Science in Special Education from Slippery Rock University. She received her K-12 Principal Certification and her Supervisor of Special Education Certificate from Duquesne University and her Superintendent Letter of Eligibility from California University of Pennsylvania.

The Farrell, Pa., native graduated from Kennedy Catholic High School in 2002 and now lives in South Strabane Township, in Washington County, with her husband Paul and two children. Addiline, nicknamed “Addi,” is 7 and going into second grade, and Cassius, or Cash, is 3. The family resides in the Trinity School District.