NORTH VERSAILLES — In a lot of ways, the East Allegheny community reminds Brian Ferek of home.

It’s a tightly woven community, one with a lot of similarities to his hometown in Greene County, said Ferek, who will serve as assistant principal at the Junior-Senior High School this year.

So after nearly two decades in the district, Ferek still finds it easy to call East Allegheny home, too.

“I love it,” Ferek said. “It’s a small, tight-knit community. The smallness reminds me of the town I’m from in Greene County.”

Ferek attended West Virginia University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in sports management. He went on to earn is master’s in physical education teaching degree from WVU, and earned a separate master’s degree in education from California University of Pennsylvania.

Early in his teaching career, he worked in the South Allegheny School District and in a school district in eastern Pennsylvania before moving to East Allegheny in 2008.

Ferek enters his 17th year in the district, and has served in varying capacities from PE teacher to AEDY to serving as the acting principal during the 2023-24 school year. This will be his first permanent, full-time leadership role after serving in classrooms for more than a decade and a half.

“I have done it all for us,” Ferek said.

Of his move into a leadership role, he added, “I think I needed to move up the ladder. I was put into a position to handle more (last year), and I was successful at it. So I said, ‘Well, I can do this,’ and here I am.”

Ferek’s community ties don’t stop there. In addition to his East Allegheny teaching duties, Ferek also owns a driver’s education business, and has even taught some teachers in the district how to drive.

Those connections are something that Ferek highly values as he enters his new role.

“It’s almost more important than any sort of background or preparatory knowledge that anybody can have,” he said. “We’re a unique animal here (at East Allegheny). It’s a good place, you just have to learn who your people are and how to work with them. … I don’t know if there’s anything else I could tell anybody about coming in here, other than just come in here, experience it, and you’re going to see that this place is great.”

Now, Ferek says he’s focused on continuing to develop those relationships and to develop East Allegheny’s students into contributing members of the community.

“I’m excited to maintain the relationships that I’ve built doing this last year, and I’m excited to watch our kids grow into young men and women,” Ferek said. “I’m even more excited to get to see them out in the community after they’ve graduated, and to see them as successful community members. That makes me feel really good.”