Shane Hazenstab Begins at Penns Valley With Trust and District Value in Focus

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Shane Hazenstab entered the Penns Valley^↗ superintendency with a simple first-year priority: earn trust.

"School leadership is less about programs and more about the people who lead them," Hazenstab wrote in response to questions from The PAEdTribune. He said his focus is building strong relationships, supporting staff and remaining accountable to the community.

The Penns Valley Area School District board approved Hazenstab as superintendent after Brian Griffith retired and Sherri Connell served as interim superintendent. The district's administration page now lists Hazenstab in the role.

Hazenstab said the setting feels familiar. He grew up in a rural community where, he wrote, he learned the value of "hard work, tradition, and community support." At Penns Valley, he said, he has found a welcoming community and a shared commitment to student success.

That relationship-centered agenda begins in a district whose enrollment has been shrinking for years.

Penns Valley enrolled 1,222 students in 2025-26, the lowest total in the available state record analyzed here. The district enrolled 1,437 students in 2014-15, so the count fell by 215 students, or 15.0%, across the full window.

A decline that continued through 2025-26

The district's enrollment reached 1,473 students in 2016-17. It then declined in every annual count that followed. The most recent year-to-year move was a loss of 49 students, or 3.9%, from 2024-25 to 2025-26.

The state record establishes the size and persistence of the change. It does not explain why enrollment fell, and Hazenstab did not attribute the pattern to a single cause. The figures instead define part of the operating landscape for decisions about staffing, programs and the district's public story.

That last piece connects directly to work Hazenstab completed while moving into the job. He said his recent doctoral work examined how organizations define, measure, communicate and sustain value.

"Public schools must do a better job of articulating our value and highlighting the quality opportunities we provide to both our students and the broader community," he wrote.

For Hazenstab, that means telling people what is happening inside Penns Valley while also listening to them. He described staff support and community accountability as parts of the same job, with the ultimate goal of helping students develop habits and mindsets for lifelong success.

Enrollment is one measure in that work, but not its verdict. A district can document how many students it serves without the record showing whether families feel heard, teachers feel supported or students receive strong opportunities. Those are the conditions Hazenstab says he wants to build through relationships.

His first year therefore starts with linked tasks: lead a district through the practical consequences of a sustained enrollment decline, and make its value clearer to the community it serves.

The state data can track the first. Hazenstab's work with Penns Valley families and staff will determine the second.

Enrollment figures come from the Pennsylvania Department of Education public enrollment record. Hazenstab responded in writing; quotations and descriptions of his priorities and doctoral work come from that response.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.

Penns Valley - EdTribune PA - Pennsylvania Education Data

Shane Hazenstab Begins at Penns Valley With Trust and District Value in Focus

A decline that continued through 2025-26