Community bids Stewart Elementary — 'the centerpiece of Lower Burrell' — a fond farewell

Denise DeSalvo makes trips back to her hometown of Lower Burrell to visit family every once in a while, but she wanted to make sure that her most recent trip coincided with the last time Stewart Elementary opened its doors.

“I could not miss it,” said DeSalvo, who now lives in the San Diego area.

DeSalvo — and more than 100 of Stewart Elementary’s former students and teachers — descended on the Leechburg Road school one last time Wednesday night for a celebration of Stewart.

For two hours, people could walk the halls, visit classrooms and sift through old Stewart memorabilia, like pictures, PTA ledgers, yearbooks, documents and even Stewart apparel.

The school, after a 94-year run serving students in the Burrell School District, closed at the end of this school year.

Plans for the property are not yet known.

“It’s nostalgic,” said DeSalvo, who attended Stewart with her siblings, Ronnie, Ray and Renee, in the 1960s and 1970s. “It brings back a lot of memories. It makes you realize how important school was back then and how innocent we were back then.”

Three generations of DeSalvo’s family, along with her high school sweetheart, Joe, attended Stewart. That was a common theme throughout attendees Wednesday.

Six of Bridget (Larrow) Surma’s 11 siblings — including herself, Victoria, Valerie, Timothy, Lori, Kevin and Philip — went to Stewart from 1963 to 1978, she said; as well as her husband, David, and their three children, Janet, Louis and Audrey.

Bridget, Lori, Timothy, Phil, Audrey and Janet walked through Stewart’s halls Wednesday.

Bridget said she enjoyed her time as a Stewart student and had fond memories of their crossing guard, Laura, and the principal at the time, Paul Serluco.

“He was very nice. It seemed like he was 7 feet tall,” said Bridget, of Lower Burrell. “And the teachers — all the teachers — were nice.”

Her sister, Lori Larrow, remembered walking through the school’s breezeway and looking out to the playground on one side, and a candy food market on the other.

Janet Surma enjoyed watching her mom, aunts and uncles reminisce.

“From when I went here, it looks exactly the same,” she said. “They walk around, remember which teachers were where, and did the comparison.”

Documenting history

Josh Melville of Marietta, Ga., also made plans to visit Stewart during a visit home. A 2000 Burrell graduate, Melville walked around Stewart recording video. He said his kindergarten room is now the principal’s office.

“I can still remember the seat I was sitting in,” he said.

In addition to the memorabilia, Stewart student Teddy Heberling presented a project he worked on this year of the history of Stewart Elementary and the Burrell School District.

Since 1800, there have been 26 public schools in the Burrell area. Next school year, there will be only three: Burrell High School, Charles A. Huston Middle School and Bon Air Elementary.

Teddy invited people at his display to sign where they went to school. Christine Pater of New Kensington and Suzanne Turner of Arnold signed in honor of their mother, Janice Bosak Pater.

Although none of Bosak Pater’s children — Christine, Suzanne and their brother, Jim Pater — attended Burrell schools, the sisters came to Stewart on Wednesday to pay tribute to Janice, who died in December.

“Mom grew up in Kinloch and went to Wills and Stewart schools,” Pater said. “She would tell us stories that she would walk up to Stewart, even in the winter.”

Bosak Pater graduated from Ken-Hi in 1958, so Pater believes she would have went to Stewart at about 1953 to 1955 for junior high.

Rick Bates, who went to Stewart from 1960 to 1962, remembered his second grade teacher, Mrs. Springer. Rick’s son, Brian, who attended the school from 1990 to 1994, recalled time with friends on Stewart’s playground.

“This was a great school … it’s a neighborhood school,” Brian said.

He added: “And everyone will remember ‘the bullhorn lady’ in the cafeteria.”

‘Centerpiece of Lower Burrell’

Good times of Stewart flowed back for many.

“It brings back so many memories,” said Vicki Galzerano of Lower Burrell. “I remember all my teachers I had here; some fondly, some not so fondly.”

Galzerano, who went to Stewart for fifth and sixth grade in the early 1970s, enjoyed the reconnecting of sorts among friends, family and neighbors who shared memories of Stewart.

“It’s great,” she said. “It’s great seeing old and new friends.”

Rob Balcom of Lower Burrell went to Stewart as a kid in the 1960s and worked as a custodian there in the 1990s.

“I liked it. It was very close to home. I walked,” he said. “To me, it’s a nice looking school. It’s going to be sad.”

Beth Kohnle of Allegheny Township, who went to Stewart from first through sixth grades in the early 1970s, also recalled her teachers fondly. She still has a Christmas ornament she made in third grade. She was disappointed Stewart is closing.

“It was a really good education,” she said. “Every grade was lots of fun, and lots of learning.”

Kohnle’s family lived a block away from Stewart and she remembered walking to school. Her mom could watch her and her siblings walk to school while she’d wash dishes in their kitchen.

“It’s the centerpiece of Lower Burrell,” Kohnle said.