Michael Weniger picked to fill vacant North Allegheny School Board seat

The North Allegheny School Board picked Michael Weniger, of Marshall on Oct. 19 to fill a vacant seat on the board through December 2023.

Weniger will fill the remainder of Kevin Mahler’s term. Mahler resigned at the Sept. 21 school board meeting after serving for almost 10 years.

Weniger was one of five candidates interviewed for the position at the board’s Oct. 19 meeting held at the A.W. Beattie Career Center in Allison Park. Other candidates included Sylvana Bonner, Jaime Martinez, Andrew Spangenberg, and Joe Wall.

Both Bonner and Wall ran in the school board race last November.

“I’m a strong believer in the district and proud of the district,” said Weniger, vice president of Sentinel Construction LLC in Wexford. He’s married and a father of two young children who attend Bradford Woods Elementary School.

“I’m excited and honored for the position,” he said. I look forward to working with all of the board members and on the challenges our school district faces in the coming year.”

He is a 2001 NA graduate and received master’s and bachelor’s degrees in civil and environmental engineering from University of Pittsburgh and Bucknell University, respectively. He also has a Master’s of Business Administration from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.

Eighteen candidates submitted an application to fill Mahler’s position.

They were narrowed down to the six and were invited to the school board meeting, where they were publicly interviewed before the school board voted to pick one of them. One candidate could not attend, so only five were interviewed.

The five were all sequestered to a separate room while each one was brought in for an interview. Each candidate provided a two-minute opening statement, and each was asked the same three questions: the most important issue facing the school district; the candidate’s budget and financial management background; and examples of community involvement.

The school board conducted two rounds of votes. The first vote produced Bonner and Weniger as the two-highest vote-getters. Weniger was then selected as school director on the votes of board members Libby Blackburn, Marcie Crow, Richard McClure, Dr. Vidya Szymkowiak, and Shannon Yeakel.

Board members Leslie Britton Dozer, Paige Hardy and Elizabeth Warner voted for Bonner.