JACKSON TWP — Knowing funding for school programs is harder to come by these days, longtime educator and former Seneca Valley School Board member Randy Hart wanted to do something special for two teachers in the district.

Being retired and having resources available to him, he selected Rebecca Finch, who teaches human anatomy and molecular biology at the senior high school, and Mickey Flood, a middle school health teacher, to each receive $1,000 per year for as long as they continue to teach in the district or as long as Hart is alive to enhance their classroom activities.

Hart announced his donation at the school board meeting Oct. 19.

Hart is a graduate of Seneca Valley High School and all of his children graduated from the district. He said the district has served him well. He is also a former educator himself.

His daughter died from cancer.

“If you have lost a child that is something you are never prepared for,” he said. “It is just another reason why I am doing what I am doing.”

When he was a teacher in the North Allegheny School District, he had a lot of resources and support, Hart said. Anytime he wanted to do a new program, he had people who wrote him personal checks for $1,000. He decided to do something similar.

“This might inspire somebody else who has the ability to come out of the community to help support the schools,” Hart said.

Eric DiTullio, president of the school board, said it is incredible Hart did this for the district.

‘The two recipients, I could not be more proud of,” DiTullio said.

Superintendent Tracy Vitale said Finch and Flood are not just terrific teachers, but they are teachers who take care of their students.

“That’s what we want as parents,” Vitale said. “Isn’t that first before test scores? Academics is important, but as a mom I want to make sure my kids are safe, nurtured and feel like they belong ... That’s what these two do.”

Vitale said they don’t stop when the bell rings at the end of the day.

“They spend time all day every day, evenings, summers and weekends teaching and caring for kids,” she said.

Flood said he is humbled by being chosen for the funds.

“I think it was an extremely generous gift. I am just happy that he chose me,” Flood said.

Since 2010, Flood has helped organize an all-school talent show and a finale fun day, he said. There is also a music day, where everybody has an opportunity to sing or play an instrument.

“You see kids in your class that are quiet and they won’t say ‘boo’ to anybody, and all of the sudden you see them get up on stage and they just wow everybody,” Flood said. “You see them bursting with pride and confidence and you are like, ‘Wow, this is why you do it.’”

With the money Hart gave him, he was able to buy microphones, stands, amplifiers and cords. In the past he would pay for all the equipment, and a couple thousands of dollars in equipment would be loaned to him.

Flood is in charge of the ski club and the outdoor adventure club, so the future funds might be used for these as well. Flood said he would like to form a club for musicians or anyone who wants to be involved.

Finch has known Hart for years. She was a North Allegheny graduate, and Hart ran an outdoors club she was involved in. Over the years as she became an educator she would run into him from time to time.

Over the summer, she come home one day to see Hart standing in her driveway. He said he has been watching all of the things she has done for her students, she said. That is when he told her he wanted to give her $1,000 for the rest of her teaching career.

“What I love about Randy is that he truly understands good public education,” she said. “I think he realizes the value of what money like this can do for a classroom, a science classroom especially.”

Finch said she is thinking about ways to use the money for her human anatomy and molecular biology classes.

There is a possibility the district might develop an anatomy 2 class, she said. She also wants to take students to watch an open heart surgery for the anatomy class and can use some of the funds for busing the students for the trip.

Finch also is considering using it for lab equipment for the molecular biology course. With the yearly stipend, she noted she will be able to maintain the equipment in the future.

Her other goal for the funds is to keep some new courses a possibility.

“With this grant, it will at least provide a possible opportunity to open up some new electives for the kids,” she said.

Finch said this is a truly pay-it-forward idea.

“I hope that someday I could do this for a teacher, I don’t know if I ever will,” she said.

“Just a huge thank you to the Hart family, and I hope I can do good with this money in his name. I want to pay it forward just like he is in my own way.”