Confirming what we all knew, the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Planning Association has designated Clearview Common as a “Great Place” in the Public Spaces category. Clearview Common was one of three spots to receive the designation, sharing credit with Pittsburgh’s Market Square and Philadelphia’s The Oval.

Kelly Szesterniak is the new principal of Jefferson Middle School. Szesterniak was most recently principal at Hoover School since January 2014. Before that, she was assistant principal at Mellon Middle School from 2011 to 2014, where she was the secondary science department administrator and the district’s director of summer programs.

Before coming to Mt. Lebanon, Szesterniak was assistant principal of Lakeside Middle School in the Irvine Unified School District in California. She had been a curriculum coordinator and eighth-grade science teacher at Lakeside. She has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and a master’s degree in educational administration and school leadership from California State University, Fullerton.

Natasha Dirda is the new unit principal at Mt. Lebanon High School, with a start date to be determined. She is currently a math teacher at Upper St. Clair High School and the head varsity girls soccer coach. She has been a math teacher at North Hills Senior High School and Oakland Catholic High School. Dirda has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Virginia Tech and a master’s in instructional leadership from Robert Morris University.

Susanne Wagner, Kingsberry Circle, met the Pennsylvania Real Estate Commission’s Real Estate Broker licensing requirements  and has been promoted to associate broker as a result at RE/MAX Premier Group. Wagner, a member of the National Association of Realtors, the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors, and Realtors Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh, also serves on Mt. Lebanon’s Community Relations Board and is a member of the Bethel/St. Clair Evening Rotary Club.