New Kensington-Arnold hires co-principals to oversee Hunt Elementary

Two principals are replacing one at a New Kensington-Arnold elementary school.

Tyler Roberto will join Todd Kutchak as co-principals of Roy A. Hunt Elementary around Nov. 1, Superintendent Chris Sefcheck said.

They are replacing Thomas Rocchi, who retired this year after 60 years in education.

Kutchak, 50, an assistant principal for 13 years with the district, has been acting principal at Hunt since July 1. Roberto, 38, is coming to New Kensington-Arnold from the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit.

Their annual salaries will be $95,000 each, Sefcheck said.

Hunt has more than 600 students in third through sixth grades. Kutchak and Roberto are expected to oversee two grades each, but how they will be divided had not been decided. They will work together on matters involving the building as a whole.

Having co-principals is not uncommon, said Mark DiRocco, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators.

“It’s not something that’s done in a lot of districts, but it’s not unheard of,” he said. “It’s a decision that’s often made by the superintendent or the leadership team. They confer with the board and decide what administrative structure is going to work best for that particular building.”

DiRocco said Hunt has a unique range of students, from third graders considered primary students to sixth graders classified as middle school.

“Maybe one (principal) has more of a primary school background, and the other has more of a middle school background,” DiRocco said. “They may have different skill sets that may be very valuable.”

That appeared to be the case for leadership of Hunt.

“Our pool of candidates was very strong, to the point that we went a different direction and hired two candidates that had distinctly different skill sets that were completely complementary of each other,” Sefcheck said. “With the direction our district is moving, this model will effectively capitalize on each of their strengths.”

Kutchak, of North Huntingdon, is in his 14th year at New Kensington-Arnold. He has been an assistant principal at the middle school and elementary levels, and applied for the principal’s post at Hunt.

Kutchak said he’s looking forward to working with Roberto.

“You have two pretty much for the price of one,” he said. “We’re going to work together, play off our strengths and make a difference here.”

Roberto, of Ross, will be new to the district. An Ellwood City native, she was a full-time substitute teacher at Ellwood City School District for two years before moving to Cleveland in 2008, where she taught eighth grade English language arts for two years and then third grade for one year before moving to administration.

Roberto was a K-8 principal for five years in Cleveland and briefly director of school achievement for seven schools before returning to Pittsburgh in 2016. She was a K-8 principal at a charter school in McKeesport and then a K-5 principal at a charter school in downtown Pittsburgh before moving to educational consulting at the intermediate unit.

“I quickly realized how much I missed the principal role, especially being with the students and teachers each day, and knew that this was the role I needed to return to as soon as possible,” she said.

“When I made the decision to return to the principal role, I wanted it to be with a district that could utilize my skill set and experience and a district whose mission and vision aligned with mine,” she said. “The New Kensington-Arnold School District felt right to me.”

New Kensington-Arnold currently has two principals at its junior-senior high school, a principal and an assistant. The district has two other elementary schools, Martin and H.D. Berkey, both overseen by one principal.

Sefcheck, who became the district’s superintendent on July 1, said the administration is completing an analysis of its staffing to determine its next steps.

More information will be available in December, after the Nov. 2 election, when a new school board will be in place, he said.