Ross Resident, Heinz Foundation Manager, Seeks Seat on North Hills School Board

Michael Yeomans, a 15-year Ross Township resident with one graduate and three children currently attending North Hills schools, recently announced his candidacy for the North Hills School Board. 

Below is the statement released by his campaign:

Mike is a program manager for the H.J. Heinz Company Foundation. In addition to his experience in nonprofit management at Heinz, he has worked in the corporate affairs department where he prepared financial communications for the Fortune 500 company, including managing the development and production of the company’s annual report to shareholders. Prior to Heinz, Mike was an award-winning business reporter for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. 

Mike has been active in the community for several years. He is a member of St. Teresa of Avila church, where he volunteers annually at the parish festival. He has also been a coach in the West View/Ross Athletic Association, as well as a coach for the Arctic Foxes Youth Hockey Association. For the past year both he and his wife, Misty Walker Yeomans, have served on the board of the North Hills High School Hockey Club. He is also a board member of Grow Pittsburgh, a local nonprofit dedicated to promoting urban agriculture. 

Announcing his candidacy, Mr. Yeomans said: 

“My children have received a solid education in North Hills’ schools, taking advantage of the many opportunities provided for enrichment in languages, sports, science and music. We are fortunate to have excellent administrators and dedicated teachers. While North Hills is in good financial shape, there are several challenges on the horizon, including increasing pension costs, declining state funding, competition for education dollars from charter schools and the reality of unfunded education mandates.” 

“Moving forward, it will be the job of the school board to ensure that our administrators are held accountable for continuing to provide the best possible educational experience for our children, while getting the most value for our tax dollars.” 

Mr. Yeomans said that the North Hills School District has been blessed to have a talented and dedicated board of directors, but added that he believes the board would be well served to have a few more members who have children currently attending the district’s schools in order to bring a current perspective to board deliberations. 

He continued, “We also must ensure that the needs of all of our students are being met; not only for students that will pursue careers that require a college education, but also those who will pursue 

vocational and trade schools or the military. There are so many stories about how many good paying jobs in trades and advanced manufacturing go unfilled because there aren’t enough people with the skills to fill them.“ 

I also want to make sure that no child is denied the opportunity to participate in enrichment activities for financial reasons. The people in our community are incredibly generous. Programs like the Backpack Initiative, which provides food confidentially in the backpacks of students whose families are undergoing hardship, show how deeply our teachers and parents care about all of our children. Working with administrators, teachers, PTOs, as well as the district’s foundation, I would work to develop and share creative ways that we can all work together to engage the business community and our residents to raise money for our schools so that all of our children can access educational enrichment opportunities.” 

Mr. Yeomans said as a board member he would actively solicit community input on major decisions facing the district. 

Click here to read the complete list of candidates for North Hills School Board. 

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