The Norwin School Board will consider hiring a person very familiar with the school district — the district’s assistant superintendent — as the new top administrator when the board meets Monday morning.

Assistant Superintendent Natalie McCracken, of North Huntingdon, was named Friday in the special meeting agenda as the person who will be nominated for the superintendent’s job when the nine-member board is scheduled to convene at 9 a.m. at the district’s administrative building. If McCracken is hired, the district’s solicitor, Russell Lucas, will be authorized to begin negotiating a five-year contract with her that will begin July 1.

Board President Matthew Thomas declined to comment on the hiring of a new superintendent, deferring all statements until after the board meeting.

The new superintendent will replace Jeff Taylor, who announced in January that he would retire as of June 30. Taylor was hired last month by the Carlynton School Board to serve as the assistant superintendent for a district serving the Crafton-Carnegie area in Allegheny County.

McCracken, who could not be reached for comment Friday, was one of three finalists for the position to lead the district of about 5,200 students serving North Huntingdon, Irwin and North Irwin, along with a small section of White Oak and South Versailles.

McCracken is being considered for the superintendent’s job just three months after accepting a new five-year contract to serve as assistant superintendent. That new contract set her salary at just over $172,000 for the 2024-25 school year, plus about $7,500 for opting out of the district’s health insurance coverage.

At the time she received a new contract, McCracken declined to comment on whether she would apply for the superintendent’s position.

In the most recent published evaluation of her job performance, McCracken “satisfactorily met” the outlined objective performance standards for the 2022-2023 school year.

McCracken assumed the role of assistant superintendent in 2019 for kindergarten through 12th grade education when the board restructured the administration upon the retirements of former superintendent William Kerr and Tim Kotch Sr., who was the assistant superintendent of secondary education. Kotch is now a school board member. McCracken had been the assistant superintendent for elementary education from 2012 to 2019.

McCracken initially was hired to teach sixth grade mathematics and pre-algebra at Hillcrest Intermediate School for two years. She then became principal at Sunset Valley Elementary for six years.

She earned her superintendent’s certification in 2011 through the former California University of Pennsylvania, according to the district’s website. She earned her doctoral degree in school leadership through the University of Pittsburgh.

Some question hiring process

Some school directors questioned the hiring process the board used.

The board hired Templton Advantage LLC of Newport, Pa., to conduct the superintendent search at a cost of $20,000. Templeton held a community meeting to receive input from the public and meet with faculty and staff to get their input regarding what they wanted in a superintendent.

Director Nina Totin, who was elected to the board in November, said that she was disappointed in the hiring process.

“I feel like my voice was not necessarily heard,” Totin said. “I kind of felt like the decision was (already) made.”

Director Alex Detschelt said he was “disappointed with the process that led to the final three candidates who were presented to the board.”

Detschelt and Totin were among the directors who opposed hiring Templeton in February. Detschelt said at the time that he was aware of at least five candidates who were familiar with Norwin who wanted to apply for the superintendent’s job.

To go through the search process and end up with the candidate within the district, was “a waste of taxpayers’ money,” Detschelt said.

Director Bill Bojalad declined to comment.

Directors Christine Baverso, Shawna Ilagan, Raymond Kocak, Kotch and Heath Shrum could not be reached for comment Friday.

Joe Napsha is a TribLive reporter covering Irwin, North Huntingdon and the Norwin School District. He also writes about business issues. He grew up on Neville Island and has worked at the Trib since the early 1980s. He can be reached at jnapsha@triblive.com.