An array of viewpoints were shared by a dozen Burrell residents Tuesday during a public hearing on possibly closing Stewart Elementary School.
Some requested Stewart remain open in some capacity, and others advocated for its closure. Some requested fifth-grade classes move to Huston Middle School, and others suggested they be housed at Bon Air.
Others pondered the future of the building and what might be best for the students and the community.
“I truly would like you to, with all of your hearts, do what’s best for this community and for our children, and for our children who are coming up,” resident Linda Benish said. “That is what you are all up here to do.”
The hearing, mandated by state law when districts consider a school closure, lasted just over an hour. It was held solely to take public comment on the future of Stewart, said hearing moderator and attorney Anthony Giglio.
Questions from the public were to be written and later responded to by administrators. Superintendent Shannon Wagner said answers would be posted on the district’s website.
The board did not discuss or deliberate any options at the hearing, as requested by Giglio. It can’t make a decision on Stewart until 90 days have passed since the hearing date.
If the board were to close Stewart, it wouldn’t take place until the 2025-26 school year.
“Every point of view was represented,” Wagner said. “We didn’t have a lot of people speak, but we had a lot of different views.”
Why close?
Wagner recommends Stewart be closed due to a decline in enrollment, the opportunity to focus resources to students at only three buildings instead of four, and the condition and age of the building.
Burrell has seen a 22% decrease in enrollment over the past 21 years, Wagner said. The incoming kindergarten class currently has 95 students — a decade ago, that number was nearly 130, she said.
Wagner showed building capacities of all four buildings as determined by the state’s Education Department. Stewart’s building capacity is 500 students, but during the 2023-24 school year had an enrollment of 264 fourth and fifth grade students. That left unused space for 236 students. Projected enrollment for the coming school year is nearly identical to last school year.
“We have a lot of room in our buildings where kids could be,” Wagner said. “So the question is: Do we really need four buildings when we have all of this room?”
Having one fewer building helps school staff balance student support and special education services, Wagner said. It also includes less travel time for faculty who work at multiple buildings, increases teacher collaboration and creates one fewer transition year for students.
Stewart is the oldest school in the district; it was built in 1931 with an addition in 1939.
An architect estimated a $17 million cost to renovate Stewart, Wagner said.
Closing Stewart would save the district roughly $200,000, Wagner said, which is just over a mill of taxes.
Kole Kaczor, a district employee and Burrell graduate, recommended the board close Stewart. The building’s issues, he said, include cracks in walls, leaking ceilings and the building’s basem*nt, “(which) is just a whole ’nother mess.”
“I would love to have my children come here just for the education,” Kaczor said. “The facilities — I would hate (for) my children to have to go through these facilities.”
Where to put fifth grade?
If the board were to close Stewart, it would have to weigh where to put fifth-grade classes. Those who spoke on the issue were split between Bon Air or Huston.
Wagner said the board, while not having made a decision, has narrowed down concepts to either:
• move fourth grade classes to Bon Air, add on to the cafeteria there and have the middle school hold fifth through eighth grades;
• or have kindergarten through fifth grade at Bon Air, add on to the cafeteria and build seven additional classrooms .
The first option would cost the district, along with other necessary improvements to other district buildings, about $20 million; the second option would cost about $27 million.
Parent Jessica Horwatt said she loved Stewart as a “transition building” between elementary and middle school, which taught students a greater sense of responsibility before they enter the middle school.
“It gives them time to grow, time to figure themselves out as to who they are, before they get to the middle school. … The thought of putting her (daughter) in fifth grade at the middle school with a bunch of eighth graders, it’s a scary thought, and I know a lot of parents that I’ve talked to feel the same way,” she said.
Horwatt said having the two-year transition period at Stewart benefits their education and gives them a chance to enjoy age-appropriate things, like class parties and recess.
Some agreed with Horwatt, and others believed fifth-graders would be OK at the middle school due to their maturity and the age gap between fifth-graders and kindergarteners.
“There’s a lot of hesitation in the community (about sending the fifth graders to Huston),” Jessica Speee said. “But in teaching fifth-grade this year, and to see the matureness of them, I would be very concerned about kindergarteners seeing them and experiencing some of their actions.”
Speer said she has taught first grade for 17 years. She said when she was in school, she attended the middle school in fifth grade and did not interact with older students.
Morgan Endlich, a Burrell parent and teacher at New Kensington-Arnold, agreed with the idea of having fifth-graders placed at the middle school because “they’re much more emotionally similar to eighth graders.”
“I teach middle school, I have seventh and eighth graders,” she said, “I will tell you that my current fourth grader, who will be a fifth grader, acts way more like them than he does my kindergartener.”
What would the future hold?
Jason Wagner, who is also Lower Burrell’s Junior Council representative, said it would be a shame for the district to close Stewart. He recommended a concept that could renovate part of Stewart as a kindergarten center and house administration offices.
“It benefits our students because we have them from the time they’re old enough to learn to the time we send them off to be adults,” he said. “It allows our district to be familiarized with them and it gives admin more breathing room for decisions to be made, instead of crammed into an office in the high school.”
He also recognized the building’s history and said the outside grounds are well-used by the community.
“I would hate to see that go, but things can’t be ignored,” he said, “which is why I prefer the admin-kindergarten option.”
Endlich said from everything she’s heard, it makes sense to close Stewart; but she wanted to make sure the district had a plan in case enrollment were to increase.
“My only concern that I have with that is: Is there a plan should enrollment go back (up?),” she said. “And I say this because I also happen to teach over at New Ken, and we closed two buildings about 10 years ago. We now have a building that is busting at the seams, there is no additional space, and we don’t know what to do.
“So I just hope that there’s a thought in the back of your mind of what happens, if that should happen.”
Resident Michelle Sell told board members they have a big decision ahead and it’s important for the district to think ahead and be proactive with whatever they decide to do with Stewart.
“We don’t need another eyesore in Lower Burrell,” she said.
Kellen Stepler is a TribLive reporter covering the Allegheny Valley and Burrell school districts and surrounding areas. He joined the Trib in April 2023. He can be reached at kstepler@triblive.com.
