By Meredith Zendarski '25

On May 24 alumnae and WTAE meteorologist Jill Szwed returned to St. Joe's to speak to the senior class at their awards day assembly.

She encouraged students to value the lessons that they received during high school.  

Szwed said, "The lessons you've learned here will never be taken away."

Earning top marks in their class, Maria Kuhns was named valedictorian and Charlie Ross was named salutatorian at the awards ceremony.  Both will speak at graduation.

Kuhns said, "My goal was always to challenge myself to get good grades.  The designation as valedictorian was just an extra for me."

SJHS curriculum allows students to boost their grade point average with College in High School classes.  The competition is rigorous for being named top of the class.

Ross said, "It is a honor for me to be named salutatorian, and I couldn't have done it without the support of my parents, teachers, and friends." 

In addition, fourteen seniors were recognized and given gold honor cords for their hard work and dedication in earning a 4.0 or better grade point average in their high school career.  

High honors were earned by: Amelia Wygonik, Kalyda O'Connor, Maggie Bernat, Ashley Vrscak, Jennifer Phan, Julie Spinelli, Anna Kreinbrook, Montana Geibel, Bailey Linza, Addison Barr, Jamie Noonan, Vanessa Forster, Dan Staniszewski, and Emma Swierczewski.

Montana Geibel received an award for her work in history and Dan Staniszewski received a service award from the Tarentum Lyons Club.  

By Kalyda O'Connor '24

Learning from DeHart

Matt DeHart joined the SJHS community as an assistant basketball coach and as a substitute teacher, but soon DeHart will open a brand new school in Arnold.  His family name is a big in the community.

“It is kind of a running joke at this point because both of my parents and grandfather have a building with their name on it, and now I bought a building to put my name on,” DeHart said.

In 2022 DeHart was inspired by Ron Clark, the founder of the Ron Clark Academy. DeHart fell in love with Clark’s vision of what schools should be and what Clark was able to do for children in Atlanta, Georgia.

DeHart was visiting his wife’s family when he saw the school building for sale, and he immediately knew. 

“If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it big,”  DeHart said. “I thought about how we would be able to change the community.”

DeHart comes from three generations of educators: his grandfather, mom, and dad were all teachers. He watched his parents influence everyone around them and was inspired by their full dedication to others.

“Education has been my whole life and all I've ever known. I’ve literally lived on a school schedule my entire life,” DeHart said. 

It started in South Carolina where the “Teach from DeHart Foundation” was created. DeHart took students on local field trips and then took them on a flight across the country. The demographic of the area was very similar to that of New Kensington, and many of the children had never been out of the area prior. DeHart would take a group of students to various events and then to dinner. He taught them how to dine, order, and tip properly when they were out to eat. 

“I did not want kids to look at me like, ‘what do I order?’ You either go hungry or you order,” DeHart explained. 

That's where the idea started and it slowly transitioned into a curriculum. They taught children how to speak, act and use hand gestures properly. Their scores were then 25%-30% higher than the rest of the district. That is what the curriculum is to be based on for the new school set to open in Fall of 2025. 

DeHart said, “It's a really long, crazy process.”

The foundation is 100% donor funded and a nonprofit organization. It started to create a following on social media and many people got behind it.

They have a beautiful building, but before they can open the doors, it needs to be gutted. The school will have classes open to children in grades fifth through eighth. It will also look to help the adults in the community by offering GED classes and having various job training classes. They also want to add a gymnasium very similar to that of St. Joe’s to be able to allow the children of Arnold to have an easily accessible place of recreation, as opposed to walking all the way down to the YMCA. 

“Our overall goal is to have the entire family educated,” DeHart said. 

Although DeHart is Christian, he did not feel the calling to open a Christian school. Everything he does is based on scripture and he feels God has called him to Arnold. DeHart will be the head of school and a teacher at the school. They intend to join with colleges in the area to connect with education majors to teach rising teachers how to execute in the classroom. 

To get the New Kensington board to approve the idea, and to be able to start the construction of the academy, DeHart had his students from South Carolina talk to them about their experiences. He wanted to show how much of an impact the school could have on the community, similarly to the impact it had in South Carolina. The kids jumped at the opportunity. DeHart said the children were amazing at the meeting.

“I talk all the time, so people know what I’m about, but I really think it's beneficial for them to see how these kids were impacted and how they were from a demographic similar to New Ken,” DeHart said. “I was just like look what they have done, and look what they can do. It was to give them the hope of what students can accomplish with what we provide.”