Throughout the past year, the Baldwin-Whitehall school district has successfully integrated an online learning model faster than many other districts around the country, and much of that success is attributed to Dr. Janeen Peretin. 

Peretin, Baldwin-Whitehall’s director of information and instructional technology, has been named the administrator of the year by the Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo and Conference (Pete&C). 

Peretin has always felt passionate about incorporating technology at Baldwin-Whitehall and has been working on it for years. 

“At its core, technology represents hope to me,” Peretin said in the Pete&C video announcing the award. “I see technology as a tool that can help unite us and allow us to see and experience the world in ways that we never thought were possible.”

Brigetta Del Re, Baldwin High School’s library media specialist, was one of several staff members who nominated Peretin for this award. 

“There isn’t a single thing that happens in the library media center, either in person or virtually, that hasn’t been influenced by Dr. Peretin,” Del Re said in her nomination letter. “Even now, during this global pandemic, our library media center is fully functioning due to Dr. Peretin’s

forethought when we redesigned and repurposed this space and place in our school.” 

Baldwin High School Principal Shaun Tomaszewski also nominated Peretin for the award. 

“While other districts across the region … have struggled to keep pace with the novel challenges faced by administrators, faculty, and students, Baldwin-Whitehall has been uniquely well positioned to excel,” Tomaszewski said. “This has been due to the strong foundation laid by Janeen over the past several years.” 

Peretin said the district’s technology work in recent years made this year’s move to hybrid and online school models possible.

“We’ve utilized GSuite for over five years across the district, we’ve been 1:1 for four years in grades 9-12, and for three years in grades 6-8.” Peretin said. “Wireless projects in all of the buildings also set the stage, so that the infrastructure was ready to handle the number of devices that we’re currently using K-12. Instructionally, we’ve had a focus on using technology to elevate instructional practices every year for the past six years.” 

Over the next few years, Peretin plans to tackle various projects to further and improve technological use within the district. 

“I’d like to investigate ways to incorporate more AR and VR into our curriculum to expand our lab-based science courses, increase offerings for new computer science courses, and harness the data that we have to help teachers easily personalize their instruction for students,” Peretin said. “I’d also like to focus on the aspects of this past year that we’d like to retain in years moving forward and how that might change and personalize the high school experience for students in the future.” 

Peretin said she is grateful for being recognized by Pete&C for her work and is looking forward to the future of the district. 

“I am absolutely humbled and honored to receive this award,” Peretin said. “Although I’m the person sitting in this chair right now to receive this award, I believe that it belongs to all of us.”