Seneca Valley School District
The Seneca Valley School District is a public school district in the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is centered on Jackson Township and nearby Cranberry Township, a quickly growing municipality. It encompasses approximately 95 square miles (250 km2) and also includes the boroughs of Harmony, Evans City, Callery, Zelienople and Seven Fields, as well as the townships of Forward and Lancaster.
Seneca Valley School District | |
---|---|
Location | |
, United States | |
Information | |
Type | public |
Motto | Proud of the Past, Committed to the Future |
Established | 1967 |
Locale | southwestern Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States |
Superintendent | Tracy Vitale, Ed. D. |
Faculty | 900 |
Grades | K-12 |
Number of students | 7,575 |
School color(s) | Columbia blue and black |
Athletics | baseball, basketball, boys and girls, cheerleading, cross country, coed, diving, boys and girls, football, golf, boys and girls, lacrosse, boys and girls, soccer, boys and girls, softball, girls, tennis, boys and girls, swimming, boys and girls, track and field, coed, volleyball, boys and girls Ice hockey, Wrestling, Raider Challenge Team |
Mascot | Raiders |
Website | http://www.svsd.net/ |
Elementary schools
Connoquenessing Valley Elementary School
Connoquenessing Valley Elementary School (C.V.E.) serves Zelienople, Harmony, and environs, including parts of Jackson Township, Cranberry Township, and all of Lancaster Township. The school is located at 300 Pittsburgh Street in Zelienople.
CVE, one of four elementary schools in the Seneca Valley School District, has 740 students in grades K-4. Student support services include: Language Support, Learning Support, Autistic Support, Speech/Occupational/Physical Therapy and Title One Reading Support.
The school courtyard has been updated to include gardens that harvest student grown vegetables.
Academic Achievement
2009 PSSAs students on grade level
Reading - 86%[1]
Math - 90%
Evans City Elementary School
Evans City Elementary School serves Evans City, Callery and environs, including Forward Township and parts of Cranberry Township and Jackson Township. The school is located at 345 Rear West Main Street (Pennsylvania Route 68) in Evans City and is colocated with Evans City Middle School.
Academic Achievement
2009 PSSAs students on grade level
Reading - 82%[2]
Math - 83.9%
Haine Elementary School
Haine Elementary School serves primarily western Cranberry Township. The school is located at 1516 Haine School Road in Cranberry Township and is colocated with Haine Middle School.
Haine Elementary School recently received two Keystone Awards from the Pennsylvania Department of Education for Meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in three consecutive years for its students' results on the statewide PSSA testing.
Academic Achievement
2009 PSSAs students on grade level
Reading - 83%[3]
Math - 91%
Rowan Elementary School
Rowan Elementary School serves primarily eastern Cranberry Township and Seven Fields. The school is located at 8051 Rowan Road in Cranberry Township.
Academic Achievement
2009 PSSAs students on grade level
Reading - 89%[4]
Math - 94%
Middle schools
Grades 5-6
These middle schools were created with the intention of adjusting elementary students to high school. The schools use a "team-teaching" approach wherein students will have a classroom to which they are assigned, and the entire class will move to a different room for different classes such as science, math, or social studies. While the students stay with their same class, they experience changing teachers and changing classes for the first time.
Evans City Middle School
Evans City Middle School serves students who attended Evans City Elementary School and Connoquenessing Valley Elementary School. The school is located on 345A Rear West Main Street (Pennsylvania Route 68) in Evans City and shares a building with Evans City Elementary School.
The school's facilities include the "Little Creek Nature Trail", built by staff, students, and volunteers.
Academic Achievement
2009 PSSAs students on grade level
Reading - 73%[5]
Math - 82%
Haine Middle School
Haine Middle School serves students who attended Haine Elementary School or Rowan Elementary School and is located on 1516A Haine School Road and shares a building with Haine Elementary School. The school hosts its own PRIDE team, which organizes cleanups of the school's campus by its students.
Academic Achievement
2009 PSSAs students on grade level
Reading - 78%[6]
Math - 85%
Grades 7-8
Ryan Gloyer Middle School
Ryan Gloyer Middle School, previously known as Seneca Valley Middle School, serves all students within the district and is located on the main campus in Harmony. The address of the school is 122 Seneca School Road.
The middle school is set up to adjust students further into high school life. While students freely change classes as in an American high school, five of their eight daily classes are all with teachers who teach on a team. These five teachers teach the same set of students on a "team" so that students will have classes with the same group of students and not have to deal with stresses on the same day, missing many classes for field trips, and so on. These teams also act as a microcosm of the high school atmosphere, instilling their own 'team spirit' on students and hosting team parties.
Academic Achievement
2009 PSSAs students on grade level
Reading - 89%[7]
Math - 88%
The school offers a choir program, a student band, an option to learn foreign languages, classes in performing arts, and classes in various mediums of design. Eighth grade students are required to take six weeks of three different home economics courses and six weeks of three different industrial shop classes.
Extracurriculars
The school recognizes many sports which compete amongst each other or against different schools. These sports include boys' and girls' basketball, cheerleading, cross country, boys' and girls' soccer, softball, ice hockey, roller hockey, swimming, table tennis, and wrestling. Competitive and non-competitive clubs include academic games, art club, chess and checkers club, computer club, environmental club, helping hands club, library club, newspaper, sportsman's club, video club, weightlifting club, word games club, yearbook committee, and rocketry club.
High schools
The middle school, intermediate high school, and senior high school are located together on one main, inner-city campus in Harmony.
The high schools are part of an 'open campus' system wherein students may on occasion have a class in a building they are not assigned to by grade and must walk to their class in the other building. The high schools also share most extracurricular activities and ensembles such as the Seneca Valley JROTC.
Seneca Valley Intermediate High School
Seneca Valley Intermediate High School (IHS) serves all students within the district and is located on the main campus in Harmony.
The IHS includes facilities such as a 1,100-seat auditorium, gymnasium, swimming pool, weight room, music rooms, art rooms, and many biology and chemistry labs. A courtyard has been updated and facilitated within the school and is available to students.
Newspaper
The IHS publishes its own newspaper, the Seneca Arrowhead. A wide variety of classes are offered to students within the IHS, mostly from students in 9th or 10th grade, though 11th and 12th grade students take classes within the building as well. The SHS also has its own newspaper, the Seneca Scout.
Seneca Valley Senior High School
Seneca Valley Senior High School serves all students within the district and is located on the main campus in Harmony. The class of 2018 had over 560 students.
Academic Achievement
2009 PSSAs students on grade level
11th Grade Reading - 81%. In Pennsylvania, 65% of 11th graders on grade level.[8]
11th Grade Math - 70%. In Pennsylvania, 56% of 11th graders are on grade level
11th Grade Science - 51%. State: 40% of 11th graders were on grade level.
As of April 30, 2007, the new addition to the Senior High School has been opened for student use.
The senior high school's facilities include a small auditorium, gymnasium, music rooms, art rooms, industrial technology facilities, home economics facilities, special education facilities, and many science laboratories. The Senior High School hosts a student-run preschool, publishes a literary magazine called the Raider Review, and a monthly newspaper, the Seneca Scout, which also distributes a magazine at the end of the school year.
Mascot
The Seneca Valley mascot is the Raider and wears Native American clothing. While girl mascots wear fringed dresses with blue beads, boy mascots wear fringed pants and brown-beaded shirts.[9] In 2000, the school board passed a resolution not to remove the mascot. According to a district spokesperson, the mascot draws upon "the rich American Indian history of the area".[9]
Budget
In 2016, the average teacher salary in the district was $71,490.[10] The district ranked second in Butler County for average teacher salary in 2007.[11]
Seneca Valley administrative costs per pupil in 2008 were $591. The lowest administrative cost per pupil in Pennsylvania was $398 per pupil.[12]
Football
The Seneca Valley Raiders football team has been in existence since the district's first year in 1967. Head coaches, Terry Henry 1984-1995, Rick Shepas 1996-1997, Mike Buchert 1998-2000, Bob Ceh 2001-2002, Ron Butschle came to the program after winning an A State Championship at Sto-Rox High School in 2003. Don Holl 2009 - 2014 Butshle has compiled a 15-32 record with a 5-15 section record over the last five seasons. Butshle resigned in 2008 giving the new head coaching job to Don Holl, the recent head coach of Erie Cathedral Prep High School where he amassed a 35-14 record in his tenure there. Since taking over the program in 2009, Don Holl has led the raiders to a 35-18 record with 4 playoff victories in three seasons from 2011 to 2013.
Notable Players Tony Conti (1998) Quarterback, University of Richmond; Donny Barclay (2008), Offensive lineman for West Virginia University, and Green Bay Packers; CJ Brown (2009), Quarterback, University of Maryland; Kevan Smith (2006), Quarterback turned baseball Catcher, University of Pittsburgh, and Chicago White Sox organization; Brandon Fusco, Offensive Lineman, Slippery Rock University and Minnesota Vikings (2011)
Notable Alumni
- Jason Conti (1993) retired outfielder, Arizona Diamondbacks
- Zach Jackson (2001), pitcher, Cleveland Indians
- Peet Poillon (2005), midfielder, Denver Outlaws, Major League Lacrosse
- Kevan Smith (2006), catcher, Chicago White Sox, quarterback, University of Pittsburgh
- Brandon Fusco (2006), football player, selected in 2011 NFL Draft by Minnesota Vikings
- Don Barclay (2007), offensive lineman for Green Bay Packers
- Cory Mazzoni (2008), pitcher in New York Mets organization
- Mike Weber (2005), defenseman, Washington Capitals
- C. J. Brown (2009), quarterback, University of Maryland
- Jacob Peterson (2015), Ice Hockey
References
- Connoquenessing Valley Elementary School Report Card 2009
- Evans City Elementary School Report Card 2009
- Haine Elementary School Report Card 2009
- Rowan Elementary School Report Card 2009
- Evans City Middle School Report Card 2009
- Haine Middle School Report Card 2009
- Seneca Valley Middle School Report Card 2009
- Seneca Valley Senior High School Report Card 2009
- Kopyta, Debbie (October 3, 2001). "School mascots and team names inspire the loyalty of students year after year". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
- http://www.openpagov.org/k12_payroll.asp
- Fenton, Jacob, Average classroom teacher salary in Butler County, 2006-07. The Morning Call. Retrieved March 2009.
- Fenton, Jacob. Pennsylvania School District Data: Will School Consolidation Save Money?, The Morning Call, Feb 2009.