When a pair of new administrators took over Baldwin High School’s leadership during the summer, they decided to make a major modification.
“This year is the first year that we’ve changed the master schedule of the building since, it could be forever,” co-principal John Saras said.
At least, the daily routine dated back to when he attended Baldwin in the 1990s.
“It was the same bell schedule. It was the traditional eight-period, start around 7:30, end around 2:30,” he recalled.
As far as providing a different format for today’s students, “We want to model what they’re going to see after here,” he said.
Days now are divided into four 80-minute blocks, with an hour in the middle — called Highlander Time, named for the Baldwin-Whitehall School District mascot — during which students are able to do what they enjoy.
Perhaps they prefer to use the gym and weight room or participate in academically focused offerings, or join together in special-interest clubs that previously were limited to meeting after school.
“Now, every single kid at Baldwin High School has an equal opportunity to engage in all of the activities that we have here,” Brandon Whitfield, the other co-principal, said. “So it’s hopefully making kids be more connected to the school.”
Such forward thinking helped Saras and Whitfield gain recognition as 2026 Pittsburgh Penguins Most Valuable Principal Award recipients. They and 13 other building administrators in Allegheny County will be honored at a Penguins game in March, receiving customized team jerseys and $1,000 donations to their schools.
The MVP program is sponsored by the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation in conjunction with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit and the Grable Foundation, which supports organizations that improve the lives of children in the region and has provided funding since 2020.
“We’ve felt for years now that principals deserve to be celebrated, and so we’re proud to be a part of this effort to help do that,” Grable communications officer Ryan Rydzewski said. “If you have an interaction at all with your school’s principal, it’s usually because something bad happened. So it’s nice to spotlight something good.”
Having co-principals at Baldwin is another first for this school year.
“I wouldn’t be able to do this with a lot of people, but I think that Jay and I can do it very well together because of the relationship we have with one another, not just in the building but out of the building, as well,” Whitfield said, referring to Saras by his nickname. “He has a lot of strengths in areas that I don’t consider my strengths, and I think that I have the opposite of him.”
Their educational philosophies generally mesh, according to Saras.
“Yes, we have disagreements,” he said. “But it always comes back to what’s best for kids.”
Along those lines, they encourage students to visit workplaces to gauge career interest. For example, about 30 of them participate in a program that takes them to UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital once a week, including a girl who enthusiastically related her experience to one of her co-principals.
“She said, ‘Mr. Whitfield, I got to hold a baby yesterday.’ For somebody who wants to be in pediatrics, that’s a huge thing to be able to do as an 18-year-old without having to go to med school to figure it out,” Whitfield said. “We’re trying to get more and more kids involved in something like that.”
Another innovation at Baldwin is a “fusion” program.
“It’s giving kids flexibility in their day to learn at the speed and the pace that they need. It’s changing the way school has always been, because it’s so different than what school prepared us for,” Whitfield said.
Regarding the impetus for honoring principals, Rydzewski cited their impact on fellow educators.
“We hear all the time about a teacher shortage, and we have not been exempt from that in Western Pennsylvania. And principals are the first and best line of defense against that shortage. The data show that the No. 1 factor of whether a teacher stays in his or her job is how supported they feel by their administration,” he said.
“These MVPs are people who are doing exactly that, making their staff feel supported, making their staff feel like they can do their best work for their kids, who deserve their best work.”