Gateway superintendent excited to put comprehensive plan into action this year

Gateway School District students are back in the classroom and getting used to new teachers, new subjects and — at least for students at the remodeled and consolidated Gateway Middle School — a lot of new features in the building.

At the same time, Superintendent Guy Rossi is settling into his role after removing the “acting” portion of his title, and looking forward to putting district plans into action.

“One of the things we’re really excited to kick off is the comprehensive plan that we spent last year working on,” said Rossi, who came to Gateway in 2017 after working as an assistant superintendent at neighboring Plum.

A large part of the plan, at least from the academic side, is what Rossi called a “Portrait of a Student,” which aims to imbue graduates with not just a good education, but durable skills to complement it.

“We want to address things like communication, adaptability, resiliency and critical thinking,” he said. “Another part is career exploration. We want to provide opportunities for students to develop workforce skills.”

For fourth and fifth graders, that will include the “World of Work” program, showing elementary students a wide range of career paths that don’t always require a college degree.

“If students aren’t going straight to college, we want to prepare them to be able to go straight into the workforce,” Rossi said. “We want to open those doors for students and families, so we’re working to create partnerships with universities as well as workforce leaders in our communities.”

On the infrastructure side, the comprehensive plan calls for a critical look at all of Gateway’s buildings and facilities.

“We’ve opened our remodeled middle school, and the next phase is to really look hard at our elementary schools — the capacity of each of those buildings, the enrollment and the condition of each building,” he said.

Enrollment over the past two years has remained consistent, Rossi said. This year the district has 3,396 students.

Between 2004 and 2014, district enrolled dipped considerably, from 4,432 in the 2003-04 year to 3,454 in the 2014-15 year. The district had 3,422 students in 2023-24, 3,382 in 2022-23 and 3,422 in 2021-22, according to Pennsylvania Department of Education data.

“We have a lot of new registrations this year and had to add a couple of new classrooms in the elementary buildings,” Rossi said. “It’s nice to add classrooms, but we do need to get a better hold on enrollment.”

To that end, Rossi said the district will undertake a demographic study before officials begin looking to far into the future in terms of facility planning.

The district is also in the early stages of reviewing its policy on student cell phones. Currently, students can use person electronic devices in study halls and common areas, and during lunch periods. Students are not permitted to make telephone calls during lunch.

“We want to get input from students teachers and parents about the current policy and take a look at it as we get into December and January,” Rossi said.

Rossi said his goal for the year is to provide as many learning opportunities as possible for students.

“For me, it’s always been about the students,” he said. “That’s the best thing about being in this job and being in education — making a difference and being there to help students thrive.”