NORTH VERSAILLES — New Logan Elementary assistant principal George Little has always had a passion for advocating for children and doing what’s best for them.

With family ties to the North Versailles area, he’ll continue to do so in a familiar community the Duquesne native says has “always just felt right.”

Little joins the East Allegheny School District after time both inside and outside of the educational setting.

After playing football at and graduating from Saint Francis University, Little began his career with Auberle, collaborating with families and children and getting experience in advocacy work and with child welfare, the justice system, etc.

“I got to a point where I kind of plateaued, and I wanted to learn how I could service kids before they got to that placement area or dealing with court procedures and things of that nature,” Little said.

So he returned to school, earning his master’s degree in social work from the University of Pittsburgh in 2019. During his studies, he took education courses, special education courses, and special education law courses, because he saw himself working as a school employee.

During his time studying at Pitt, he worked as a paraprofessional, learning things like classroom management, interventions, and more. After graduating, he became a social services coordinator, which encompassed serving as both an administrator and a social worker.

“That took my passion over. I wanted to continue to do that work, because I thought it was important,” Little said. He added, “I got a wealth of experience around how school systems operate and operationalize their resources to support the whole child. As I continued to do that work, I learned more and more about best teaching practices.”

He went on to become the assistant principal at Duquesne for three years.

“I had a wealth of knowledge and experience in MTSS (multi-tiered systems of support) work supporting children, but now my focus was best instructional practices, how to engage kids and put the whole mold together so that I can learn more about supporting the whole child,” he said. “It was a great experience.”

During the 2023-24 school year, he served as the building principal at Duquesne, which gave him the chance to learn more about classrooms and instructional practices, since he came from a social work background instead of the traditional teaching path.

Now, he hopes to use those experiences and knowledge to benefit East Allegheny and the North Versailles community, a place with which he has ties. Little’s mother and uncle are from the Crestas area and attended East Allegheny schools.

This also isn’t Little’s first experience in the East Allegheny community. For the previous eight years, Little served as the quarterbacks coach for the high school football team.

“I loved passing the knowledge that I gained being a quarterback at St. Francis, being a quarterback at Duquesne (High School). … I love talking to and advocating for kids, especially some of the high school kids at a specific time when they’re about to embark on their life journeys. I always liked to give them the knowledge about taking the next step after high school,” he said.

In the East Allegheny community, Little also sees a lot of similarities to his home area of Duquesne, which fuels his desire to make an impact.

“I think that East Allegheny serves a similar demographic to what I’m used to (with Duquesne),” Little said. “I have ties. … I’ve been a part of the East Allegheny school community with the football team and talking to a lot of student-athletes for almost a decade. East Allegheny has always just felt right.”

Little added that while he felt he was making an impact on a smaller scale, he’s excited for the chance to bring things into a larger scope at Logan, which serves about 750 students.

“I want to try to reach as many kids as I can, and to give them the tools and resources they need to be successful,” he said.

That begins with building relationships with Logan families.

“I want to be somebody that’s visible within the school community, the city community, and somebody that parents and kids feel comfortable to talk to,” Little said. “I want to be somebody who continues to know what families go through, and to be a resource for them.”

He added, “It’s a little cliché, but it truly does take a village to raise our kids, and if the parents and kids trust me to do the right thing, no matter what the situation may bring, I think that’s how we’re going to continue to make sure our kids are successful when they leave (our schools.)”