When Timothy J. Steinhauer, assistant superintendent at the North Allegheny School District, takes over as superintendent of the Mt. Lebanon School District on July 1, he'll be on familiar turf.

His family lived in Mt. Lebanon for several years, his oldest son, Luke, 15, attended kindergarten and first grade at Markham Elementary and his family worships at Mt. Lebanon United Lutheran Church.

And, Dr. Steinhauer and his family, which also includes his wife, Kimberly, and younger son, Nathan, 12, expect to make it even more familiar turf as they plan to sell their home in Upper St. Clair and move to Mt. Lebanon.

"I want to make sure people know that I am going to be around for a while," Dr. Steinhauer said. "What I told the board is that I want nothing more than to see my youngest son, who will be entering seventh grade, graduate from Mt. Lebanon High School."

Dr. Steinhauer was hired by the Mt. Lebanon school board Monday, but the details of his contract, which is expected to be for four years, won't be voted upon on until next Monday's meeting. He will replace John Allison, who is leaving Mt. Lebanon to become the superintendent of the Wichita Public School District in Kansas.

When Mr. Allison took the Mt. Lebanon post two years ago, he too planned to remain at the district for the long haul. But the offer to return to his home state at a time when his aging parents are in need of help was too good to pass up, Mr. Allison has said.

Before Dr. Steinhauer became assistant superintendent in North Allegheny, he spent 11 years in the Upper St. Clair School District as assistant principal at the high school and Fort Couch Middle School and principal of the high school.

During his tenure as principal at Fort Couch, the school won the National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Award in 2001-02.

Dr. Steinhauer said one of his first orders of business will be to "do an assessment of the program strengths and where the opportunities for improvement are."

In addition, Dr. Steinhauer said he plans to be involved in the design discussions involving the new high school "to make sure the building meets the needs of the programs."

The Mt. Lebanon board is poised to vote Monday on preliminary plans for a roughly $110 million renovation of the high school.

During his years in the Upper St. Clair district, Dr. Steinhauer was involved in the planning process for the major high school renovation project that took place there.

In moving from North Allegheny to Mt. Lebanon, Dr. Steinhauer is leaving a district with slightly more than 8,000 students and a $114 million annual budget. Mt. Lebanon has an enrollment of about 5,400 students and an annual budget of about $74 million.

But the demographics are similar: Affluent communities with high-achieving students. In fact, he said, during his time in North Allegheny and Upper St. Clair, achievement levels in those districts were often compared with Mt. Lebanon.

"I have the utmost respect for the achievements of the Mt. Lebanon district. When we benchmarked achievement, we were always looking at Mt. Lebanon," he said.

Dr. Steinhauer holds a bachelor's degree in music education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a master's and doctorate of educational administration from Penn State University. He started his career as a music educator in Clearfield Area School District in Clearfield County and the Conrad Weiser Area School District in Berks County.

Dr. Steinhauer started his administrative career as assistant principal at Bentworth High School in Washington County, where he served from 1993 to 1995. He then became assistant principal at Upper St. Clair High School, a position he held from 1995 to 1997. He was then named principal of Fort Couch Middle School, where he remained until 2004, when he was named principal of Upper St. Clair High School.

In 2006, Dr. Steinhauer moved to the North Allegheny School District, where he was appointed assistant superintendent for elementary education, secondary education and curriculum.

Dr. Steinhauer said it's his hope to be residing in Mt. Lebanon and have his sons enrolled in its schools by fall. In the meantime, he said, he plans to spend part of the summer "building relationships with people" in the school community.

"This is a wonderful situation to be in, a community that values education," he said.