Get To Know: New Director of Pupil Services Ms. Renee Kozusko

It’s been a whirlwind start for Steel Valley’s new Director of Pupil Services.

Ms. Renee Kozusko started her new job shortly before the school year began and she has devoted these first few weeks to immersing herself in the ins and outs of her role. It’s been hectic, but it’s exactly where Ms. Kozusko wants to be.

“I was looking for a location where I could utilize the skills that I've been able to develop over the years and really kind of work with staff, families and a school community to be able to make some changes for students to grow their skills,” Ms. Kozusko said.

A native of Kittanning, Ms. Kozusko earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She had always been drawn to education, and for a time, she thought she might be a teacher. It was her time as a therapeutic support staff worker that helped influence her eventual career path.

“I had a couple of students that I worked with and both of them had behaviors. One had the diagnosis of autism, one just had a lot of outwardly expressive behaviors and was struggling,” she said. “School psychology was a nice marriage of my interest in working with students and the psychology aspect, as well with behavior and mental health providing supports that kids might need.”

Her initial work in therapeutic support took her back to IUP, where she earned her master’s degree in educational psychology and her educational specialist certification in school psychology. She worked for a couple of intermediate units, but she longed to be involved in the day-to-day school process. That led her to a job as a school psychologist and coordinator of special education with the Ellwood City Area School District.

“I really was able to, for the first time, be fully a part of the school experience for the students,” she said. “I had a lot of involvement with helping to move programming along and identify the students for services, but then also work with the staff to provide those services and to make sure that it was working for the students.”

Ms. Kozusko moved on to the Norwin School District for seven years, where the seed was planted for the next phase of her career.

“I was one of three psychologists and we were able to kind of bounce ideas off of each other,” she said. “And it was during that time that I really decided that I wanted to be able to be a part of administration.”

She earned her principal’s certification and joined Propel Charter Schools as the organization’s Director of Pupil Services. After five years with Propel, she moved to the Pace School, which caters to students with significant behavioral difficulties related to their educational disabilities.

“I worked for four years there, really loved the kids, loved the environment, but that process is really at the very end of what maybe hasn't worked for students,” Ms. Kozusko said. “And although I love the environment and I miss the kids already, I really wanted to get back into trying to work on the preventative end and to see what kind of supports we can get in regular environments, regular school districts, with regular education and special education teachers working together to try to prevent the need for large numbers of students to need placements like that.”

Steel Valley ended up being a match. Her work in the region meant she had a little bit of familiarity with the community, but it’s been a priority for her to learn as much as possible so that she can make the right recommendations and suggestions when the time comes.

“I’m not looking to jump in and make widespread change before knowing what’s happening right now,” she said. “Why and how did we get there? We’ll answer that and then we’ll all work together to move processes along.”

Along the way, she promises to be a proponent and advocate of inclusive services for students with educational disabilities. Ms. Kozusko said it’s important to have a robust system of academic supports, behavioral supports, functional supports and more in order to meet the needs of students at all levels.

“It’s a collaborative effort. It’s not one person’s problem to solve versus another,” she said. "We all have to work together and figure out what the process to solve a problem might be.”