North Hills School Board welcomes 2 new members

North Hills School Board welcomed two new members and three returning members at the final meeting of the year on Dec. 5.

Phil Little, Rachael Rennebeck and Helen Spade swore the familiar oath of office while Samantha Ellwood and Ashley Stephens raised their right hands for the first time. The two replaced Deanna Philpott and Kathryn Poniatowski.

Allison Mathis was reelected as board president. She joined the board in 2017 and first began serving as president in December 2019.

“(Mathis’s) leadership in the last five years has led us through many a tough time,” Spade said. “She makes sure to keep the board focused on what is truly important to the North Hills School District’s children and its constituents.”

Spade was reelected as vice president of the board, a position she has maintained since 2018.

Ellwood fills the vacancy that Poniatowski left on the North Hills Foundation board of directors. A nonprofit established in January 2001, the foundation serves as the gift-receiving organization of the school district.

Spade and Rennebeck were nominated by their peers to remain as the district’s representatives for A.W. Beattie, a career center that serves nine local districts, including North Hills.

With his experience as a community and government affairs liaison for the Pennsylvania Attorney General, Little was reelected as legislative chair of the board.