Schools find ways to innovate amid pandemic
Even as public health conditions changed by the day due to COVID-19, educators and students from across Butler County found ways to innovate and incorporate new programs and initiatives into their district's curriculum in 2021.
In February, at Mars Area School District, contract negotiations reached a standstill and teachers prepared to strike after going without a new contract for more than 220 days.The Mars Area School Board and Mars Area Education Association reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement Feb. 17, only two days before the date planned for striking.Meanwhile in the northern part of the county, Slippery Rock University was hit twice by “Zoom bombing” attacks during Black History Month events. Zoom bombing is a practice during which someone interrupts a virtual meeting with unrelated video or audio.University police investigated and worked with state police, the county District Attorney's Office and the FBI to respond to the incidents, which involved the interruption of a poetry reading and discussion panel with graphic images and racial slurs.In March, the Butler Eagle began a new student-driven publication program: “Soar: Imagination Takes Flight,” which gives voice to students at school districts across the county through an insert in Friday issues of the Butler Eagle newspaper.And a motion to reopen the Broad Street Elementary School in Butler Area School District passed in March, reopening the building after its closure in 2015.
Karns City Area School District administrators answered community questions in April about the $21.7 million plan to consolidate Sugarcreek Elementary into Chicora Elementary by the 2023 school year. The district has been working on a plan to renovate and expand Chicora for a few years because Sugarcreek is aging and has the lowest number of students of the three schools in the district.Students at Seneca Valley School District brought a proposal before the school board in April to reconsider and retire the district's Raider mascot, citing concerns about it being pejorative to Native Americans.In June, the district would vote to retire the mascot while keeping the Raider name.Students at Seneca Valley began work in May on a collaborative mosaic mural project to decorate the school's aquatics center. The mural features water with waves, swimmers, divers and the Seneca Valley logo, and was created by a group of students in grades nine to 12.
A group of Slippery Rock University students in June received a $25,000 grant to be NASA's supplier of a portable cryogenic atomic force microscope system that they will build.The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education Board of Governors decided in a unanimous 18-0 vote to consolidate California, Clarion and Edinboro universities in Western Pennsylvania into a single university to be named Pennsylvania Western University. Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield universities in the northeastern part of the state also will be consolidated into one university in the future.The first cohort of students will begin at an integrated university in August 2022, with the integrated curriculum being finalized by August 2024.In August, Mars Area School District board voted to approve an addition to the district's mission statement to promote “informed, engaged and patriotic citizens.” The addition prohibits “the teaching of concepts that assign fault, blame or guilt to people solely because of race, sex and religion,” and bans teaching of “social theories (for example, the 1619 Project, Critical Race Theory) and conspiracy theories (for example, Holocaust Denial Theory, 9/11 Theory)” unless approved by the school board.
Moniteau School District superintendent Tom Samosky, who had been superintendent since early 2020, resigned from his role for personal reasons in September. He was replaced by Junior-Senior High School principal Aubrie Schnelle later in November.Butler Area School District was one of nine schools and educational programs chosen by Remake Learning to receive up to $70,000 in funds through the second phase of the Moonshot Grants program.The funds will benefit a two-pronged effort to create a produce garden and greenhouses at Summit Township Elementary School and a community market at Broad Street Elementary School.Slippery Rock University celebrated the opening of the SRU Center for Community Engagement, Empowerment and Development, known as Butler SUCCEED, as an outreach office for students to collaborate with community organizations.Students staffing the center had the opportunity to get real-world experience through working with nonprofits in Butler, such as the Center for Community Resources and Butler Downtown, as well as other agencies, including the school system and local government.In October, homecoming celebrations returned for many school districts as outdoor dances or events with masking indoors made the longtime high school milestone possible again.Citing increased political polarization of the school board, incumbent Christine Valenta took herself out of the running for another term on the Mars Area School Board. A school board member since 2012, Valenta joined three other incumbent board members not appearing on the November ballot: Dayle Ferguson, Gordon Marburger and Rita Doersch.Butler County Community College started construction on the Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building, a 25,000-square-foot facility that will feature a hospital-like setting, with state-of-the art skills labs, simulation labs, classrooms and a lecture hall.In November, Seneca Valley School District announced that with less than one year until its inaugural school year, the combined Ehrman Crest elementary and middle schools are close to completion. Ehrman, which will supplant the Evans City elementary and middle schools, should be completed well before the 2022 school year.At the end of November, Butler County Community College canceled remote and online credit classes and closed its main campus and additional locations for two days to restore databases, hard drives, servers and other devices affected by a ransomware attack.
Schools responded to posts on the social media network TikTok threatening violence on Dec. 17. The threats were found to not be credible, but some schools took additional safety measures. Seneca Valley School District went online-only for one day in response to a more specific TikTok post connected to the district.A 14-year-old Seneca Valley student was arrested in conjunction with the incident.
