Burrell to close Stewart Elementary School; will move 5th grade to the middle school for 2025-26 year

After almost 100 years of serving students in the Burrell School District, Stewart Elementary in Lower Burrell will close its doors next year.

The Leechburg Road school, which currently houses about 260 fourth- and fifth-grade students, will cease operations beginning with the 2025-26 school year.

The school board made the decision in an 9-0 vote Tuesday.

“I don’t wholeheartedly agree with closing it, but I don’t think there’s any other way to do it, and I feel better with closing it than spending all the extra money to renovate it,” said School Director Jean Schager.

The board then approved grade realignments for the 2025-26 school year: Bon Air Elementary will serve kindergarten through fourth grades next school year; and Charles A. Huston will house fifth through eighth grades.

Burrell High School will continue to teach ninth through twelfth graders. The grade realignments were also approved, in an 8-1 vote.

Board President Pam Key cast the dissenting vote for the grade reconfigurations. She said she had an issue with putting fifth grade students at the middle school level.

Having just fourth grade students at Bon Air only requires additional cafeteria and kitchen space, Superintendent Shannon Wagner said.

That project, along with other necessary heating, ventilation and boiler infrastructure upgrades to the three other district buildings has an estimated cost of $20 million.

Both fourth and fifth grade levels being placed at Bon Air would require additional cafeteria space and seven additional classrooms, which, with the other district projects, would bring the total estimated cost to about $26 million. Projected construction timelines given by the architects would not allow Burrell to accommodate fifth grade at Bon Air next school year, Wagner said.

Wagner said there is space at Huston to accommodate fifth grade classes. The board previously has discussed the possibility of reconfiguring the grades that way and reassessing after the first year.

Closing Stewart would save the district roughly $200,000, Wagner said, which is just over a mill of taxes. Burrell is seeking two $10 million bonds to cover the projects and is beginning to pay the first bond off. Closing Stewart now would glean the $200,000 to start paying it off.

There are no job cuts that will result from the school’s closure.

A public hearing on the proposed closure was held in June; where a dozen people provided differing opinions on their preferences at the school.

“We all love Stewart School,” Key said. “It’s not about not loving the school and understanding the history behind it; it’s about doing what we feel is fiscally responsible.”

How it got here

Wagner said district officials have discussed the possibilities of Stewart’s future for the past two years.

She cites three factors for its closure: Stewart’s aging infrastructure, declining enrollment districtwide and the opportunity for Burrell staff to focus its resources on students’ needs in three buildings — Bon Air, Huston and the high school — instead of four.

Issues at Stewart include water damage in a few areas, damage to the flat roof over the auditorium, outdated infrastructure, needed flooring repairs and chipped tiles. According to figures from an architect, it would cost $17 million to renovate Stewart.

The building was built in 1931. It underwent an addition eight years later and upgrades in 1953, 1973 and 1997.

The district has seen a 20% decrease in enrollment from the 2003-04 school year to the 2023-24 school year. This year’s kindergarten class has 99 students enrolled — that’s the lowest figure for a single grade level in district history.

“We have slowly declined in enrollment, and we have four buildings, and we don’t need four buildings,” Wagner said. “So then the conversation becomes, which building should we give up?

“(Stewart) is the oldest — it’s almost 100 years old — it is much more difficult to maintain, And when we consulted the architects and did our feasibility study we found out that to do what that building needs, heating and ventilation, is twice that of what the other buildings need.

“So therefore, in choosing which building to close, it makes sense fiscally for our taxpayers, and due to our enrollment, to close that school.”

No members of the public spoke during Tuesday’s meeting. The only opposing voice to closing Stewart Tuesday came from Jason Wagner, a student board representative, who spoke on the building’s history in the community and said the land is well-used by the community.

What’s next?

Superintendent Wagner said she will communicate with faculty about the decision Wednesday.

She said administration will draft schedules and building organizations at Bon Air and Huston by the end of November. Then, they will meet with an employee “task force” for them to review the plans and provide input.

Burrell anticipates going public with the schedules and building configurations in February or March, she said.

“I want them to have time to digest it and have questions so they’re ready to go in August,” Wagner said.

The district purchased the land the school sits on from the Stewart family in 1930. It does not revert back to the family if the property is not used as a school, historians and officials say.

“We hope that we would be able to sell the property and bring revenue into the city and for the school district,” Wagner said.