NORTH VERSAILLES — Look. Listen. Learn.

It’s the approach new East Allegheny Junior-Senior High School principal R.J. Long is bringing with him into the 2024-25 school year, and it’s something he hopes lays the foundation for a successful future in the district.

“That’s my priority; I’ve said it to every person I’ve met so far,” Long said. “The last thing someone wants to hear from a leader is, ‘Well, we did this in my old district, so we’re doing this here.’ If I did something elsewhere that I think could work here, I’ll bring it up and we’ll talk about it. We’ll do a needs assessment.”

He added, “I think the biggest thing I want to do is ask the right questions. When you ask the right questions, you get answers to lead you to what’s working (and what isn’t). You establish the trust and open dialogue.”

To get that dialogue started, Long recently sent out a survey to staff at East Allegheny to glean the different perspectives and thoughts within the district, and find out what teachers and staff think is beneficial and what needs addressed.

Long comes to East Allegheny with an extensive background in education. He earned his bachelor’s degree in American history in 2005 and began teaching eighth grade American history at Quaker Valley Middle School that year. During his nine-year stint at Quaker Valley, he also earned his Master’s of Education degree in educational leadership in 2010.

In 2014, he began teaching seventh grade world geography in the South Western School District in Hanover. He spent a couple years as a teacher there and earned his principal certification during that time.

In 2016, Long took his first administrative role as an assistant principal within the South Western district.

“I loved it; it was fantastic,” Long said. “I really cultivated a great relationship with the other assistant principal. It was great to work and lead people who were really passionate about kids and wanted to do what was best for them. I learned a lot. I got trained in restorative practices at that point in time, and really became a better person as an assistant principal. You listen more, and you realize the scope of education is bigger than just your classroom.”

After some time in Hanover, though, Long was ready to return home to Pittsburgh. So, in 2020, he accepted the assistant principal job at Riverview Junior-Senior High School in Oakmont.

Then, in 2021, a principal Long worked for at Quaker Valley contacted him about a middle school principal/director of federal programs job at Northgate, as the former principal was serving as the superintendent of Northgate’s district.

Long made the move, and while at Northgate, was able to be a part of effective change within the district.

“We overhauled the master schedule and instituted systems that hadn’t been there,” Long said. “The PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) program was fantastic. We overhauled our disciplinary structure and increased the graduation rate from 65 to 94%, increased the attendance rate from 68 to 88%, and discipline referrals went down by 45%. We instituted new policies that didn’t sugarcoat anything, but we changed how we approached things and how we intervened at a lower level to get kids the support they needed before things became big.”

In April 2024, Long stepped away from the position to pursue his doctorate degree for a couple months and began looking for new opportunities. Then he came across the principal position at East Allegheny.

During the interview process, Long found that East Allegheny and his former district, Northgate, share many similarities.

“(These are) communities that are very proud, but have some needs and maybe have had some struggles, but ultimately are really ripe for intervention and success to bring back pride, to bring back tradition and to bring back culture,” Long said.

Long also was drawn in by the energy of the district’s new leadership.

“There was some synergy, and I walked out of the interview feeling really good (about working in the district),” Long said. “That’s what led me to this position.”

And now, it’s time to look, listen, and learn.

“I think there is a lot of really good momentum right now,” Long said. “The staff I’ve met has been great. Everybody is super welcoming and super honest about what they think, feel, and need. … I have ideas of what I want to focus on for this school year, but the biggest thing is building trust and relationships. Once we do that, everything else falls into place.”

Long does have some changes on his radar that he’d like to address over time.

“I want to make sure we have students more engaged in classes,” he said. “We only have five college-high school classes; that needs expanded. We need to expand opportunities for kids to do apprenticeships, internships and accreditation work so that they aren’t just sitting in a classroom occupying space. We need to rethink what education looks like and ask if it’s benefiting all of our kids. If it’s not, we need to put some things into place, and that’s what’s going to take some time.”

In the meantime, Long added, “I’m just really excited for this opportunity and to serve the community.”