New transportation director appointed for North Allegheny

The North Allegheny School Board has hired a new director of transportation following a bumpy start to the school year that left the district unable to provide bus transportation to some students.

The board on Oct. 25 voted to hire Scott Mergen at an annual salary of $115,000.

Neither the board nor the administration gave background information at that meeting about Mergen, such his age, experience, current position or education. Vice President Marcie Crow on Nov. 2 confirmed that he had been an employee of the Plum School District, where the district website lists him as transportation director.

Crow said at the Oct. 25 meeting that Mergen was “very impressive.”

“I feel so confidently after meeting him that he has such great plans of moving our transportation department forward and fixing some of the issues that we currently have,” Crow said.

NA’s director of transportation is responsible for overall strategic direction, planning, coordination, administration and evaluation of the transportation functions, according to a job description posted in September.

Dr. Brendan Hyland, whom the NA school board hired as school superintendent in June, came from the Plum School District, where he served as superintendent. In August, the NA school board approved the hiring of Heather Hibner, principal at Plum Senior High School, to become principal of North Allegheny Intermediate High School.

Mergen would be the third Plum administrator since June to join NA’s top administrative staff.

Mergen had been with Plum since 2003 when he started as a bus mechanic, according to his profile on the Plum School District website. He was hired as director of transportation there in 2011. He began attending evening courses part time at Penn State in 2006. He completed his program in 2013.

Mergen would be responsible for developing and ensuring effective development of plans, systems, policies, and processes, and ensuring the safety and timely transportation needs for all students in the district, according to the job description.

“He has a strong desire to make sure that our students are well taken care of and that our mechanics and employees in our garage are well taken care of,” Crow said.

The district also approved the appointment of Laura Hayes, a former North Allegheny employee in the transportation department, as a temporary consultant to that department.

The district began advertising for the transportation position in September after Mark Trichtinger resigned as director of operations for the transportation department on Oct. 2.

Several families who reside in the district but attend parochial or private schools were left without transportation at the beginning of the school year. NA officials said a third-party contractor which buses those students unexpectedly canceled its contract, leaving the school district scrambling to find a replacement just as school was about to start.

The district reached out to 11 other contractors to find a replacement, Trichtinger had told the Journal in September. He said the busing problem was a result of the ongoing shortage of bus drivers.

The transportation department works with approximately 15 contractors to assist in transport. The district covers 48 square miles, with a team of approximately 100 employees, he said.

In addition to 8,500 North Allegheny students, more than 1,000 students to more than 30 public, private, and parochial schools are transported each day.

Out of the 15 private schools to which NA buses students, one still has routes out of service — Eden Christian Academy on Siebert Road, according to an Oct. 30 update on the district website.