Superintendent Bill Marshall will retire in July after serving the Penn Cambria School District for 17 years. He plans to travel with his wife, Amber, and visit with their daughter, Olivia, who works as a traveling nurse. Mirror photo by Matt Churella

CRESSON — When Jamie Hartline steps into his role as Penn Cambria School District’s new superintendent this summer, he’ll have big shoes to fill, several school officials said.

Although he doesn’t have a lot of plans for the next chapter of his life, outgoing Superintendent Bill Marshall, 55, who will retire from the district on July 1, said he hopes to travel with his family and stay active within the community.

Marshall’s daughter, Olivia, is a traveling nurse who currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri. As she moves from one location to another, Marshall and his wife, Amber, hope to travel and visit with her.

The Marshall family has owned cottages in Canada for many years. Marshall, along with his mother and wife, will join his brothers and sisters with their spouses and kids there for fun, recreational activities over the summer.

In addition to his commitments to Penn Cambria, Marshall serves as the PIAA District 6 chairman, a role he has held since 2016. He said he will remain as chairman until July 2025, a year after his retirement from the district.

Marshall is also an adjunct instructor at Saint Francis University, where he has taught superintendent’s letters of eligibility courses since the fall 2018 semester. He plans to continue working at Saint Francis.

After graduating with an education degree in general science and biology from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in 1991, he began his teaching career during the 1993-94 school year in the Punxsutawney Area School District. Marshall moved to Westmont Hilltop School District to work as a principal before joining Penn Cambria as its high school principal in 2007. He became the district’s superintendent in 2015.

Penn Cambria School Board member Matt Kearney, who graduated from the district in 2021, said he remembers when Marshall was named superintendent. Kearney was in middle school at the time.

He said Marshall was “always visible” whenever he would visit students in the school.

“The first thing we noticed was how tall he was,” Kearney said. “He would always walk around and he was very tall. That helped him have a much bigger presence in the schools.”

Marshall is honest and trustworthy, Kearney said. He said the board “never had a shadow of doubt” that Marshall would always do what’s best for the students and people of the district.

“Whenever parents come to board meetings, if there’s an issue, Bill Marshall would meet with them literally the next morning if they wanted to,” he said. “Having a face that’s there consistently representing Penn Cambria has been great.”

Board President Michael Sheehan said Marshall’s retirement is “a big loss for the district.” Like Kearney, Sheehan also remembers Marshall’s first year as superintendent because it was his first year serving on the school board.

“I was fortunate that I came on right when he did,” Sheehan said, adding Marshall’s leadership and approachability is “second to none.”

“He’s phenomenal. He takes a lot of questions and fields a lot of stuff from the public and does really well with that. Mr. Hartline is going to have some big shoes to fill coming in, but we’re confident that he’s going to have what it takes to step in and pick up where Bill leaves off.”

Hartline, who will begin training with Marshall in April, said he also worked under Marshall as a coach for the district for a few years. He said Marshall has always been supportive of sports team coaches and is “supportive of all staff across the board.”

“I think Bill has done some nice things for the district, and I’m looking forward to getting in here and doing some good things as well,” Hartline said.

High School Principal Ben Watt, who became principal after former principal Kaitlyn Kalwanaski resigned earlier this year, said Marshall has been a helpful mentor to him.

“On many occasions, I have sought his guidance on how he dealt with various obstacles when he served as the high school principal,” Watt said, adding Marshall’s commitment to the district is unparalleled.

“During faculty meetings, I had always admired how Mr. Marshall was able to captivate the attention of his audience,” he said. “His stature, his confidence and his calm demeanor are traits that reflect his natural ability to be a leader.”

Marshall said he’s paying forward what others did for him when he came on board. He said he couldn’t thank Mary Beth Whited — the district’s superintendent when Marshall became high school principal — enough for the opportunities she gave him to grow as a leader.

“She was an outstanding mentor. I credit a lot of my success as being the leader of this district to her,” Marshall said, adding his father, a longtime educator in the Cambria Heights School District, was his role model and hero. “He inspired me to get into teaching and coaching.”

Marshall said the best part of his job is when he can interact with the students.

“I really like getting into the buildings during lunch when I can talk with the kids. I love that about my job,” he said. “When I transitioned from principal to superintendent, not being around the students every day was a hard transition for me.”

He said another difficult transition will be saying goodbye to the people he’s worked with at Penn Cambria every day for the last 17 school years.

“Most of all, I’ll miss the people, for sure,” he said.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.

The Marshall File

Name: William W. “Bill” Marshall

Age: 55

Residence: Clearfield Township, in the outskirts of Patton

Family: wife, Amber; daughter, Olivia; Goldendoodle dogs, Mac and Wally

Education: Cambria Heights High School, 1987; teaching degree in general science and biology, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, 1991; principal’s certification, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 1999; master’s and superintendent’s letter of eligibility, Edinboro University, 2011

Progression: Teacher, Punxsutawney Area School District, 1993-2001; Assistant Principal, Westmont Hilltop School District, 2001-2002; High school principal, Westmont Hilltop, 2002-07; High school principal, Penn Cambria School District, 2007-15; Superintendent, Penn Cambria, 2015-present

Hobbies: Golfing at Ebensburg Country Club