New Penn Hills High School principal looking forward to first school year with the district

Penn Hills High School students will have a new friendly face welcoming them next month to start the 2023-24 school year.

Tricia Mayo was recently hired to fill the shoes of Eric Kostic, who retired the end of June after 12 years at Penn Hills and 34 years as an educator. Mayo’s first day was July 3.

She grew up in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood and lives on the border of Penn Hills and Wilkins.

She said things can get a little complicated when it comes to real estate taxes on her front and back yards, but feels confident and hopeful about the future in her new position.

“I’m here to help these children grow,” Mayo said. “I’m here to support teachers, be a resource and tool for our families. … I am excited to meet our children.”

After getting acclimated to her new surroundings, she plans to focus on ongoing post-pandemic educational recovery school districts throughout the nation are dealing with, and add behavioral and mental health initiatives and techniques learned during her career.

“The last several years our students have been suffering from the impact of covid,” she said. “Test scores have dropped. There’s that interrupted learning. There’s that social and emotional part of learning that our students have been missing.

“Attendance has been impacted. Think about how fast we’re losing teachers in this profession. I’m afraid for this profession. … I’m looking to pull in everybody I can, whether it be the Steelers (or) the Pirates. Something to get these kids in school. Somebody to support us as a nice resource for us.”

A meet the principal event is in the works, though a date has not been scheduled.

Penn Hills has about 1,100 high school students. The first day of school for the 2023-24 school year is Aug. 22.

The district received multiple applications for high school principal. Mayo was selected out of three finalists.

Board member Jackie Blakey-Tate, a retired Perry Traditional Academy principal and former school social worker, was involved in the interview process.

“She had a lot of positive energy,” Blakey-Tate said about Mayo. “She is all about children. She’s about the academics and their all-around wellness. She had so much energy she made me tired on her interview.”

Blakey-Tate recalled Mayo talking a lot about getting families and the community involved in education, and Mayo’s responses to questions connected with her as a former educator and administrator.

“She is very professional and has a sense of humor that came through on the interview,” Blakey-Tate said. “She was child-centered and I was always child-centered.

“I think it’s going to be a change for both the staff and students and the community. We’ve got to get these (test) scores and reading levels and attendance up. I hope that the community will support her.”

Superintendent Nancy Hines

said Mayo’s recommendation to the board was unanimous.

The resume

Mayo graduated from Westinghouse High School in 1991. She earned a bachelor’s in elementary education and a master’s degree in educational leadership/administrative principal K-12 from Point Park University.

She began her education career as a substitute teacher at Pittsburgh Public Schools’ Faison K-5 in 2011.

Mayo also taught K-5 at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Pittsburgh’s North Side neighborhood and learned educational techniques from Pittsburgh Arsenal PreK-5 Principal Ruthy Rae for a couple years before returning to King as a teacher.

Mayo served as positive behavior incentive systems director for several Pittsburgh schools, including Miller African Centered Academy, where she was also a teacher on special assignment.

Mayo, 49, credited Elise Bennett, her fifth grade teacher at the former Homewood Montessori School, with fostering her desire to become an educator.

“Just watching Mrs. Bennett, how much love she poured into me, just knowing I had somebody (at the school) there for me — I just want to be that person,” Mayo said. “I want to be everything I have to these children in any way I can in any district I can. If we don’t embrace these children, we’re going to lose.”

She also commended her parents for their support growing up and throughout her life.

Mayo’s mother Recena Allen is a retired Allegheny County Housing Authority police officer, her step-dad Ronnie Allen is a flooring business owner, and her father Donald Harris is a retired truck driver.

“Just having the knowledge of how important education is was what set that (course),” Mayo said. “Watching my mother struggle with grace, watching my dad and my step-dad work so hard instilled that in me and instilled integrity and being kind to people and always serving. … I care about what they think about me. I care about what my children think about me.”

Mayo is married to Dwight Mayo Jr., a sheet metal worker and business owner. They have two children, a daughter, Miyah, an Xavier University grad, and a transgender daughter, Kiana, a Full Sail University alum.