High School/Sports

7/28/2019 High School/Sports

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Education and Athletics in McKeesport

Carol Schoenecker

Mike Katrancha

Derron Copeland



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At 6 feet 4 inches tall and 260 pounds, Mark Holtzman is a powerful figure. A

commanding and broad-shouldered man who spent his college years playing Division I

football for Syracuse, he’s not the kind of person one would expect to see sitting behind a

desk in a principal’s office.

His impressive physique, however, is matched by his impressive

accomplishments in that McKeesport High School office. Having graduated from

McKeesport himself, Holtzman is in tune with the challenges that his students face.

Holtzman has combines his own experiences with the needs of the students to revitalize

McKeesport High School as the heart and soul of a struggling city.

Holtzman thrived at multiple sports during his younger years in McKeesport, but

it was the city’s most popular and revered sport—football—that took him to Syracuse for

his undergraduate education. He returned to his hometown to help coach the football

team that had meant so much to him in

his youth until West Mifflin hired him to

serve as their dean of students. The fact

that West Mifflin shares a similar

socioeconomic climate as McKeesport

was just one of the reasons as to why the

McKeesport Area school board made the

decision to hire Holtzman as their new

high school principal in 2010.

Although he takes a no-nonsense, zero-tolerance approach to discipline, Holtzman

maintains a deep respect for his students.. Knowing full-well the hardships high school



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kids face outside of the classroom he remarks, “I’m not going to judge you for what you

do in your daily life…just don’t bring any nonsense into my school.” When asked if the

school has difficulty with drugs and violence, he makes it clear that the school isn’t

perfect but it’s improving.

His attitude seems to earn the students’ respect Walking down the hall, he said

hello to students by name, high-fived one young man, then took a minute to order a few

pizza’s from a track and field players fundraiser. His first year as principal, the school

had 40 physical altercations. This year, there have been only seven.

♦

♦

♦

The different condition of America’s struggling urban public schools are plastered

all over the news. Standardized testing scores are low, while school dropout rates are

high. Proposed solutions have ranged from reducing the power of teachers unions, to

opening more charter schools, offering school vouchers, and even closing schools that

continually fail to meet their yearly testing obligations.

Rooted deep within these remedies is the assumption that these schools are failing

because of poor management and sub-par teachers. However, education-based policies

seldom address the external factors that affect the schools, the students and the

communities that rely on them.

The last 30 years have brought a widening gap between America’s rich and poor.

This gap has carried over to the educational attainments of children growing up in rich

and poor families. Journalists Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane cited studies

showing that the gap between the average mathematics and reading test scores of children

from high and low income families grew by a third between 1978 and 2008. During the



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same period, the rate of wealthy children who completed college increased by 21 percent,

while the graduation rate of children from low-income families rose by only 4 percent.

Americans have historically relied on the public school system to level the

playing field of those born into different circumstances, but the playing field is now

increasingly uneven. External factors continue to put poor urban communities at a

disadvantage. Poor children are concentrated into the same schools in poor residential

areas. Lower property taxes bring in less income to these school districts. Violence,

drugs, high unemployment, and emotional distress all take a toll on the families living

within these communities and create barriers that schools and teachers wrestle with.

When a struggling school repeatedly fails to meet the average yearly standards for

national testing requirements, these same schools now face a decrease in national

funding, as well as low local funding. As a result, many public schools have been forced

to close down.

The town of Duquesne, across the river from McKeesport, closed its school

district in the 2012-2013 school year. Students were given a choice to attend either West

Mifflin or East Allegheny Schools. Oliver High School in Pittsburgh’s North Side closed

down the same year. McKeesport High School, while plagued with the same

socioeconomic barriers other mill town schools face, has managed to keep improving.

♦ ♦ ♦

McKeesport Area High School is located in

one of the most scenic sections of the city. Within

walking distance of Renzey Park and the Heritage

Center, the high school serves approximately



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1,500 students from Dravosburg, McKeesport, South Versailles, Versailles, and White

Oak. Founded in 1884, the current school was rebuilt to house grades 9-12 in September

of 1961.

In 2003, the district approved the decision to build an addition on the main

building for vocational and technical classes that had, until then, been held in a separate

location. This allwed students the option to take classes in culinary arts, cosmetology,

building construction, auto body, and auto mechanics as part of a comprehensive high

school that offers its academic and vocational curriculum under the same roof.

McKeesport High School also added an in-school restaurant for their culinary arts

classes, expanded their classrooms, and upgraded their physical fitness area and football

stadium. Despite the plethora of class options and extracurricular activities, the

Pittsburgh Business Times ranked McKeesport High School 113th

out of 123 high schools

in Western Pennsylvania, based on academic achievement.

At the high school’s front doors high school, one might expect police, metal

detectors, and white, empty hallways reminiscent of a prison. Instead, visitors are

instantly engulfed by a labyrinth of hallways, each with its own displays of colorful

artwork plastered both inside and outside of the classrooms. Metal detectors and school

guards are stationed at each of the school wings as a safety precaution, but the

atmosphere is welcoming. In the cafeteria, students dressed in collared shirts and khaki

pants wandered up to the lunch line where a giant poster of the March Madness bracket

hung with lists of the favorite teams. Holtzman created the new dress code policy at the

beginning of the 2012-2013 year as another method to encourage what he called “an

uninterrupted learning experience.”



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Walking through the halls, Holtzman and his hand-picked administrative team

eagerly showed off their school’s resources. Despite federal and local cuts to

education— especially to schools branded

as low performing by state and

national standards—McKeesport has

managed to maintain and continue to offer

students a broad array of class options,

extracurricular activities, and athletic

programs. In addition to the standard

academic class options, students have the option to learn technical skills in vocational

classes. These include cooking classes, automotive repair, and nursing classes where

McKeesport students engage in hands on experience with the local hospital. As for the

arts—commonly the first classes to be cut when school funds decrease—teachers and

staff have managed to maintain a music and theatre program. This year’s musical was

Oliver , to be performed in the school’s auditorium. The stage doubles as the performance

space for the McKeesport Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to serving McKeesport residents, the high school plays a temporary

roll in the lives of troubled students from other districts. Auberle, a child and family

resource center located across the street, houses boys and girls with addiction and

substance abuse problems, or mental health, anger, or homelessness issues, many of

whom mandated to enroll in its rehabilitation or service programs. During their stay,

some of the older resdients attend classes at the high school. Holtzman takes the time to



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personally meet with each incoming student, laying out the rules and expectations of the

school and making it clear that any disregard for those rules will not be tolerated.

One of the largest obstacles the high school faces is competitionm. As the

reputation for urban public schools has plummeted, students whose parents can afford to,

have choosen to send their children to private school. In McKeesport’s case, the private

school of choice is Serra Catholic. This competition between public and private

education isolates the poorer students and takes talented students and athletes out of an

environment where they could give back to the school community. Perhaps the most

pressing and difficult problems that McKeesport faculty face, however, are the external

factors they cannot control, such as poverty. More than half of the student population is

on a free or reduced lunch program.

Athletics give students a boost



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Broken homes, hunger, homelessness, and violence—all affect academic

performance. “I’ve buried a few students,” Holtzman said grimly. These factors make

athletic programs all the more important to the

school and community. Students utilize athletics as

an opportunity to better themselves—as a ticket out of

the city. These young athletes are given the ability to

use football, softball, basketball, etc., as a catalyst for

better opportunity.

♦ ♦

Shadrae King spoke quietly into the camera about playing football in

McKeesport. Now, a fifth-year media arts major at Robert Morris University, Shadrae

had just finished his last year of eligibility for the Colonials. Having received a full

athletic scholarship to RMU, King holds the university record for most receptions, and he

was preparing to graduate in the spring of 2013.

Shadrae stayed in McKeesport and commuted to school. He was quick to state

that half of his high school class never made it to graduation. Many dropped out or got

involved in drugs and the violence that goes with

them. “I was the golden boy,”he said, smiling. “I

knew if I wanted to get a scholarship to college I

needed to stay clean.” Shadrae wasn’t the only

one who thought this way. “My friends didn’t do

drugs either. I know it happened, but we chose not to



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be around it.”

♦ ♦ ♦

Craig Cannon grew up in McKeesport during the 1960’s and 1970’s before taking

a job as the choral director at Fox Chapel Area High School in the 1980’s. Gazing out of

the window, a cup of coffee clutched in his hand, he tried to explain the culture of his

hometown: “There’s a sense of pride in coming from a place that’s generational.” As he

turned around he said, “Nepotism is an honored tradition in McKeesport…and that’s not

a bad thing.”

One generation paves the way for the next: generations of people invested enough

in the neighborhood to come back after college and help make their hometown. These

people provide stability to McKeesport’s students as unwavering authority figures in their

lives. Mark Holtzman’s father, for example, was the city’s former police chief. One of

the most important lasting figures at McKeesport High School, however, is football coach

George Smith.

Smith graduated from McKeesport High School in 1967. He was recruited to

play football for North Carolina State University, where he was named MVP his senior

year. After graduating in 1971, Smith went on to get

his master’s degree in education from Austin Peay

University before moving back to McKeesport to

coach at his alma mater. August 2013 will be Smith’s

29th

year coaching the Tigers. During his tenure,

Smith has amassed a record of 197-107-5 and was

inducted into the Pennsylvania Coaches Hall of



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Fame in 2006. Additionally, 78 of his young athletes went on to receive Division I

football scholarships with many more going on to play for lower division schools and

three achieving status in the National Football League.

Craig Cannon remarked, “The community flocked to football games in droves. It

was the thing to do growing up.” This attitude hasn’t changed. Holtzman said, “There’s

a high level of expectation when the community shows up to a game. We easily rally

between 3,000 and 4,000 people on a big game night.” This same level of expectation is

why Holtzman has made the decision to play against bigger and better teams.

McKeesport High School, with 1,500 students, technically qualifies as a AAA school.

With George Smith at the helm, however, Holtzman wants to “bump it up” by going after

bigger competition at the AAAA level. “We can compete against anybody,” Holtzman

stated as he left his office to assist with student dismissal.

♦ ♦ ♦

McKeesport High School’s state report card lists the institution as a Title I school,

currently in its sixth year of corrective action. In simple terms, this means that

McKeesport has continually failed to meet its annual yearly progress quotas on math,

reading, and science as mandated by the state of Pennsylvania and the standards set by

No Child Left Behind. This also means that McKeesport High School loses federal

funding each year it fails to meet these standards. Just because test scores are low

compared to the national average, however, doesn’t mean that the students aren’t making

progress.

The graph below shows that overall, student test scores have been steadily

increasing. While they are not at the 81 percent proficiency target, progress is slow, but



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steady. In addition, the achievement gap—the measure between the performance of

groups of students commonly defined by socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and

gender—is closing. The state report card, for example, shows that 11th grade results for

reading in 2012 came in at 68 percent proficiency for white students and 52 percent

proficiency for both black and economically disadvantaged students. While far from

perfect, McKeesport is pulling ahead of many other Title I schools—including those in

neighboring mill towns.

The number of disciplinary actions and physical altercations that have taken place

within the confines of the school has drastically decreased in the three years Holtzman

has been principal. He compared the 461 students undergoing disciplinary action in 2010

to the 279 students disciplined so far this year, a decrease of 27 percent. Fist fights on

school property have gone down 40 in Holtzman’s first year to eight this year . The

result is a serious reduction in suspensions and expulsions, which helps them stay up to

date with their class work and keeps them off the streets.



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Both Holtzman and Athletic Director Charley Kiss don’t like terms such as

“basic” or “below basic” to

describe student performance.

These labels fail to

take

into

account

the

hardships that these youth face in their daily lives. “Some of these kids have no

intention or desire to go on to higher education, and that’s just fine,” Holtzman

commented. This is part of the reason as to why McKeesport works to offer so many

classes in trade and technical training despite the difficulty in financially sustaining such

a wide range of subject areas. Classes like this show a mentality left over from the steel

era when youth were encouraged to enter the mills upon graduation from high school.

“It all depends on how you want to define success,” Kiss said. “I think a kid who

goes home and is responsible for raising and taking care of his three younger brothers,

and can still manage to get himself to school and pull C’s is just as much of a success as a

student who’s parents are doctors and who is pulling A’s.” Success is a matter of

perspective.

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High School/Sports