Bald Eagle Area superintendent leaving position after just more than a year on the job
Bald Eagle Area School District will once again be on the hunt for a new superintendent after the Hollidaysburg Area School District approved Curt Whitesel as its new superintendent on Wednesday.
Whitesel has been with Bald Eagle Area for just more than a year — joining the district in October 2022 for a five-year contract. A longtime educator, he was previously principal of the Mount Union Area High School and superintendent for Homer-Center School District.
In an email Thursday to the CDT, Whitesel said he will stay at Bald Eagle Area until the first week of April. The Bald Eagle Area School District board of directors met Wednesday night, and there was no mention of Whitesel’s upcoming departure. No resignation letter was included in the agenda.
“I absolutely love BEA and everything about the district,” he wrote. “It is one of the greatest districts in the Commonwealth of Pa and I wish them nothing but the best moving forward.”
In a post on the district’s Facebook, the Bald Eagle Area board of directors said it would begin the search for a new superintendent and had received Whitesel’s resignation.
“This is a long and arduous task,” the board wrote. “The current shortage of superintendents in our state along with several of our neighboring districts currently searching or recently hiring superintendents adds to the difficulties of the process.”
Whitesel will begin at Hollidaysburg in April with a contract through March 2029, according to the Altoona Mirror. That will leave Bald Eagle Area with less than three months to find a replacement before Whitesel moves on.
When asked if the board had concerns about Whitesel leaving his contract with Bald Eagle Area, Carmen Bilek, the Hollidaysburg Area school board president, said “none at all,” according to reporting from the Altoona Mirror.
Whitesel told the CDT that he was excited for the challenge of leading a larger district like Hollidaysburg.
“Hollidaysburg is also a premier school district in the Commonwealth of Pa and I look forward to bringing what I know to continue moving them forward,” he wrote. “I also embrace learning new things and I think the opportunity to lead the Hollidaysburg Area School District is a true honor and opportunity that I am extremely excited about.”
No salary or contract information was released for the position.
Whitesel is the fifth Centre County superintendent to resign or retire in the past two years, marking a period of high administrative turnover for area schools.
