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Helen Allen

Helen Allen attended Harmony School, the one room schoolhouse which was located just beyond our present football field. In 1930, while she was attending Elizabeth High School, a gymnasium was added to the building and Helen became a member, and in her senior year, captain, of the first girls' basketball team. Encouraged by her coach to go on to school to become a gym teacher, Helen attended Slippery Rock State Teachers College. In her last semester there she was hired to teach health and physical education and to coach girls' basketball at Shenango High School. The following summer Principal Ben Byers asked her to come back to Elizabeth to teach and coach at the High School for the annual salary of $1,170.00! Her basketball team became champions of the Mon-Yough Conference in 1939-40, the last year for girls' basketball for a while because of financial problems.

Helen organized the Girls' Athletic Association and gave her time on Saturdays and evenings after school so that girls could go to the gym and play basketball. In 1946 Helen's husband Dan returned from the service and she retired from teaching after ten years to start a family. Helen returned to teach at the new Elizabeth-Forward High School in the early 1950's where she continued her dedication to the GAA. Many people in the Elizabeth-Forward community were entertained by the gym shows which Helen organized over the years. She retired in 1976 after 25 years of service. Helen and Dan recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. They have two sons, Robert of Elizabeth, and James of Chicora, and three grandchildren. 

Kenneth Balsley

Following his graduation from Brownsville High School in 1958, Ken Balsley went on to California State College (now California University of Pennsylvania) where he graduated in 1962 with a degree in science. Ken began teaching in the Munhall School District and spent three years there before coming to Elizabeth Forward.

Mr. "B" taught chemistry for the next twenty seven years before retiring in 1992 but he never quit working. All the while he was teaching, Ken became actively involved with kids outside of the classroom; he has been a coach, Activities Director, Class Sponsor, Stage Crew Director, Yearbook Sponsor and Sports Equipment Manager. To this day he holds most of those titles and even DJ's dances at both high school and middle school. Many nights Ken slept at the high school because his duties kept him there so late and he had to report back so early in the morning.

Ken and Jackie, his wife of 37 years, have faced some difficult times in their life together, from the total loss of their house to fire in 1990 to the untimely death of their only child Matthew, in 1996. They now center their lives on their grandchildren, Meghan Marie and Amanda Lynn.

Ken has been and continues to be a positive role model for the young people with whom he comes in daily contact. He exhibits a quiet strength that has been molded by blessings and adversities, both of which he has faced and accepted, he is strengthened by his deep and abiding faith in God.

Robert Cosgrove

Robert Cosgrove spent 34 years in the EF School District as a teacher and administrator. His last 14 years were spent as assistant principal at EFHS. He retired in 2001. Prior to coming to EF, Bob worked as a teacher in the Cleveland Ohio School System. He holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from California University of Pennsylvania and has completed graduate work at the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State University, Kent State, N.Y.U., North Carolina State, and W.V.U. 

Cosgrove is married to Marie and they have two daughters, Stephanie, a nun in Greece, and Kristin, an insurance executive in Pennsylvania, as well as two grandsons, Matthew and Michael. Currently, Bob is President of the Board of Trustees of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Monongahela and is a member of the Board of Directors of Camp Nazareth, an Orthodox youth facility in Mercer, PA. In 1997, Bob was named as an archon of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, an organization of 700 worldwide members who support and advance the mission and goals of the Orthodox Church.  

As a high school administrator, Cosgrove authored several policies, which are still being used wholly or in part by the school district including student discipline, new teacher orientation and training, high school purchasing and evaluation procedures for administrators. Over several years as a teacher, he served as vice president of the EF Education Association and worked to secure contract agreements between the teachers union and the school board. As an administrator he served several years as a spokesperson for the EF administrators in their formal communications with the school board.

Mary Peers Havel

Peers Havel, class of 1968, grew up in the Greenock section of Elizabeth Twp. She attended Greenock Elementary School from first grade through fifth grade before attending sixth grade at Versailles Elementary. Elizabeth Forward rented two rooms in the basement of the Versailles school since Greenock was too small and Mt. Vernon Elementary hadn’t been built.

After graduating from Elizabeth Forward High School, she attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated in 1972 with a degree in elementary education. She was hired by EF in June of that year to teach one of two newly-created kindergartens classes. She taught kindergarten for four years alongside her first- grade teacher, Grace Kline.

Havel married in 1975 and, a year later, moved to Elizabeth Elementary School, where she taught kindergarten for 26 years: Two years ago, she transferred to William Penn Elementary, where she plans to teach kindergarten until she retires. She lives with her husband and two dogs in Liberty and enjoys traveling in her spare time.

George Hays

Mr. George Hays is a native of nearby Glassport; following graduation from Glassport High School, George entered the service and was honorably discharged in 1945. He attended the University of St. Bonaventure, played football there and graduated in 1949.

George went on to play professional football with the Pittsburgh Steelers for three years followed by the Green Bay Packets for one year. Following his professional football career, he went on to coach and reach at Braddock High School, Glassport High School, Monessen High School and the University of Dayton.

Coach Hays, as he is best known, began his career at Elizabeth Forward in 1961 as head football coach and boy's physical education teacher. He also taught eighth grade science at the Elizabeth Forward junior High School for a short time. Mr. Hays coached in the district until 1975, leading the Warriors through many successful seasons, including a Big Nine Championship. He retired from EF in 1986. George and his wife Theresa have four daughters, two sons, thirteen grandchildren and one great grandchild.

During his tenure at Elizabeth Forward, "Coach" impacted on the lives of many' young people both in the classroom and on the football field.

Jay E. McElravy

Jay McElravy began his professional career as a Life Science teacher at the EF Junior High School in 1966; it was the first year in the new school. He had just graduated from the California University of Pennsylvania, then known as California State Teachers College, with a B.S. in Biological Sciences, In 1972, he earned his Master's Degree there.  

During his 22-year teaching tenure, McElravy continued taking graduate classes and in 1988 was moved up to the EF High School as an assistant principal, a position held for one and a half years. This was followed by a short tenure, the same duration, as acting principal of the High School

while the Principal was on special assignment. With the principal's return, McElravy was given the task of helping to create a new Middle School for the district and assumed the position of head principal of EF Middle School which occupies the Junior High building. He remained there for twelve years until his retirement in October, 2003.  

Having graduated from EF in 1962, his career came full circle from teaching in his home district, to the thrill of being appointed principal of his Alma Mater, and becoming principal in the building where he began his teaching career.  

In the community, McElravy is an ordained elder and sings in the choir of the Mt. Vernon Community Presbyterian Church. He is a member and past president of the Elizabeth Township Historical Society, member and past president of the Board of Directors of the McKeesport Symphony Society, member of the Board of Governors of the Long Run Children's Learning Center, member of the Antique Truck Club of America, life member of the McKeesport Sportsman's Association, and chairman of the Board of Governors of the 32° Masonic Learning Center for Children, a school that provides tutoring for dyslexic children, free of charge.  

Mr. McElravy has been a Masonic member since 1978 and was honored in St. Louis in 2003 by being coronated a Thirty Third Degree Mason, the highest honor to be given in the fraternity.  

Jay and his wife of 32 years, the former Joann Sidun, reside in Elizabeth Township with their two four legged "girls," Molly and Murphy. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling, reading, water gardening, driving his newly restored 1951 GMC pick-up truck and golfing.

 Donna Shultz

Donna Schultz, a Charleroi native, has given her entire career in education to the Elizabeth-Forward school District. After receiving her B.S. degree in Education from California university of Pennsylvania in 1958, Donna taught fifth grade at Greenock School until 1962, received her M.A. and her principal certificate from West Virginia University, then became head teacher at Central school and taught sixth grade there until 1965. 

From 1965 until 1979 she moved around the district serving as principal of all of the various elementary buildings at one time or another. In 1979, Donna was given the title Director of Elementary Education. In 1988, she served as Assistant to the as Acting Superintendent, and from 1989 to 1990 she was Assistant to the Superintendent.  Longing to be involved directly with children once again, Donna moved from the District Office back to the elementary buildings, but this time, along with being Supervisor of Elementary Education and Principal, she assumed multiple roles such as Federal Programs Administrator, District State Attendance Report Administrator, and Homebound Instruction Administrator.

In 1997, after dealing with some serious health problems, Donna retired with 39 years of service from Elizabeth Forward. As a resident of Elizabeth Township since 1965, she has been active with Educational Societies such as Phi Delta Kappa and Delta Kappa Gamma and community activities such as Central.   United Methodist Church, Twentieth Century Club of McKeesport, and Elizabeth Rotary Club.  In 1997, Donna was the Honoree of the Friends of Education Award given by the Elizabeth Forward Education Association.

Karen Smart Simon

Karen Simon, class of 1966, has lived in the same home in Elizabeth Twp. all her life. After her academic career at EF, she went on to California University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a degree in elementary education. She began her teaching career at Central School, as a first grade teacher in the same room where she once was a student. The former Karen Smart always wanted to be a teacher because she loved children. She was 14 when she started teaching kindergarten at Round Hill Presbyterian Church and she teaches the same level today.

When the district implemented a kindergarten program in 1972, Smart helped design the room and applied for the teaching job. Thirty-one years later, she still loves the job. In 1974, she earned her master's in elementary education doing a project thesis on the facilities and equipment uses in kindergarten classes in Pennsylvania public schools. She married Julius Simon in 1981 and the couple has one daughter. Simon has taught Bible school and children's choir at her church. She enjoys singing and has belonged to Elizabeth Forward Community Chorus for 30 years. She also sings in the church choir and has been a camp counselor and craft director for the Elizabeth Forward Presbyterian Camp for 20 years.