Greetings SciTech students and staff. As many of you may know, Pittsburgh SciTech has gone through its third administrative change within the past two years. The following article will highlight some student and staff prospective upon the arrival of our new principal Dr. Shavonne Johnson.

This 2024-25 school year has already begun to unleash surprises onto SciTech students. Over the summer Dr. Pearlman, assistant superintendent, released a statement endorsing Dr. Johnson as SciTech’s new principal. What we gathered from this statement were basic: the who, when, and where. Dr. Johnson is coming from Pittsburgh Manchester elementary school; she is seen as a leader in the PPS community, and is said to have a passion for helping students succeed. However, for those who have been attending/working at Pgh SciTech for sometime were left without the why factor. Why did Mrs. Benjamin leave her position? Was she moved? To this, there has been recent speculation surrounding Mrs. Benjamin’s sudden transfer; credible sources suggest she may be in the process of moving back out of the PPS district. It is important to note that this information is not yet confirmed and Dorsal strongly suggests that you take the facts and formulate your own opinions on this change in our school environment.

As mentioned previously, Dr. Pearlman’s endorsement letter shines a bright light on Dr. Johnson. From the statements I’ve gathered, the student body is feeling the same way. A student leader and ambassador Shania Brazil shares “when I met her at the meet n greet she seemed super nice and bubbly; she answered all of our questions honestly”. This is exactly the kind of thing you’d want to hear about a new administrator entering your building, but of course I had to see for myself. Prior to introducing myself to Dr. Johnson I observed her interactions with other students. She seemed so inviting and open to conversation, even when it wasn’t related to academics. When introducing myself, she seemed delighted to talk to my friends and I while being genuinely interested in what we had to say. She thanked us for our ambassadorship and kept playing her music and dancing in the hallway. Although this may not be a traditional approach to principaling, Dr. Johnson may be exactly what SciTech needs to increase the level of school spirit we currently possess. Cohesively, it seems that the student body is happy to have a woman of color with a fresh spirit taking over our school.

Not only did students have opinions on our new principal, so did some of our beloved staff members. Although I will not mention their names or titles, I will say that every teacher myself and others have spoken to so far sounds very satisfied with the change. As ThunderSharks it is important that our teachers and staff feel listened to as well to ensure the quality of our learning experience. Hopefully with Dr. Johnson and some of SciTech’s dedicated educators, our school environment will only continue to get better.