North Allegheny middle school students will start the school year next month with a new principal.

On Wednesday, the North Allegheny school board appointed Katherine M. Jenkins as the principal at Carson Middle School at a yearly salary of $98,000.

Ms. Jenkins has been assistant principal at the school since December 2006. Before that, she was a principal and assistant principal in the Penn-Trafford school district and has also served as a middle school assistant principal in the Seneca Valley School District. She also taught sixth-grade language arts in Hudson, Ohio.

She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Akron and is working on her superintendent letter of eligibility in the Educational Leadership program at Gannon University.

Ms. Jenkins replaces former principal Brian R. Miller, who was named in May as North Allegheny's assistant superintendent of curriculum at an annual salary of $108,500.

Mr. Miller began his career at North Allegheny in 1996 as a health and physical education teacher. He was the assistant principal of Ingomar Middle School in 2001 and served as acting principal there for one year. He was principal at Carson Middle School since 2004.

He expects to finish his doctoral program at Duquesne University this summer.

In other business, the board accepted the donation of new electronic scoreboard for the gymnasium at North Allegheny Intermediate School.

The North Allegheny Basketball Association donated the $6,500 6- by 8-foot LED scoreboard, and the board agreed to pay to have it installed.