The time is finally near for the Burrell School Board to make a decision on Stewart Elementary School’s fate.

The board will meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday to consider closing the building, which serves fourth and fifth graders, effective next school year.

Superintendent Shannon Wagner recommends the board close Stewart because of aging infrastructure, declining enrollment and the opportunity for the district to focus its resources on students’ needs in three buildings — Bon Air Elementary, Charles A. Huston Middle School and Burrell High School — instead of four.

“We really have been talking about this for 24 months. We really have studied it,” Wagner said.

The decision comes at a time when the board is considering construction projects at Bon Air, Huston and the high school. Officials in September directed the district’s architect, HHSDR Inc., to prepare specifications for paving and HVAC upgrades at Bon Air, air conditioning at the middle school and air conditioning, boilers and controls at the high school.

HHSDR also is preparing specifications for a project that includes additional cafeteria and kitchen space and seven classrooms at Bon Air, should school directors vote to close Stewart.

Wagner said the first three projects are needed regardless of whether the board decides to close Stewart. The district has pursued a $5 million state grant to cover some of the costs for the upgrades at the high school; those awards haven’t yet been announced.

Projects at Bon Air, Huston and the high school have an estimated cost of about $20 million; if it were to include HVAC and boiler upgrades at Stewart, it would cost a total of $36 million.

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 — that, according to Wagner, is more fiscally responsible than taking out one $20 million bond.

Business Manager Jen Callahan said Tuesday the district has secured the first bond and is beginning to pay that off. Closing Stewart now would glean the $200,000 to start paying it off.

The board held a public hearing on the matter in June, when opinions ranged from closing the school to wanting to keep it open. Information in response to questions asked at the meeting is posted on the district’s website.

Stewart was built in 1931 and received an addition in 1939. It underwent upgrades in 1953, 1973 and 1997.

Issues at the building include water damage in a few areas, damage to the flat roof over the auditorium, outdated infrastructure, needed flooring repairs and chipped tiles.

There would be no staff cuts if Stewart closes. Wagner said the district already has adjusted its staffing in response to declining enrollment.

Fifth grade

If the board votes to close Stewart, it then must consider a second vote for grade reconfiguration. That would put fourth grade at Bon Air and fifth grade at the middle school for the 2025-26 school year, Wagner said.

Sending just fourth grade students to Bon Air only requires additional cafeteria and kitchen space, Wagner said, and that project, along with the other district upgrades, would cost $20 million.

Having both fourth and fifth grade levels at Bon Air would require the additional cafeteria space and seven additional classrooms added on, which, with the other district projects, would bring the total cost to about $26 million.

The 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 that, administratively, there is a plan to have fifth grade at the middle school next year and kindergarten through fourth grade levels at Bon Air.

The board previously has discussed the possibility of reconfiguring the grades that way and reassessing after the first year.

“The middle school can take fifth grade; (it) can take the six classes and the six teachers, and class sizes will not be impacted — at any building, actually,” Wagner said.

If the board were to go that route, it wouldn’t be the first time fifth grade was housed at the middle school. That was in the 1990s, Wagner said.

And it’s also not the first time Burrell has reconfigured its grades. In 2011, Bon Air and Stewart switched from their prior K-5 models to housing K-3 at Bon Air and fourth and fifth grades at Stewart.

During the June hearing, the board also heard an array of viewpoints from parents and teachers about having fifth grade at Bon Air or the middle school.

Trending low

District enrollment for the 2024-25 school year is 1,674, according to Wagner. Projected enrollment from the Pennsylvania Department of Education was 1,670.

Last school year, enrollment was 1,723.

This year is the first time ever that districtwide enrollment is below 1,700.

“We lost 40 to 60 kids every year,” Wagner said.

This year’s kindergarten class has 99 students, the first time kindergarten has ever been below 100, Wagner said. First and second grades have fewer than 110 students per grade level.

Those numbers previously were 130 students per grade level, down from about 160, Wagner said. In 2005, enrollment in kindergarten through fourth grade was 745 students. Now, that number is 576 students, which is a 23% drop.

Enrollment at secondary classes holds at around 140 students per grade level, she said.

Over the past 21 years, there has been a 22% decrease in district enrollment. That’s a figure Wagner cites in her recommendation to close Stewart.

Looking back to 2011, Burrell’s actual enrollment compared to state Education Department enrollment projections were always fewer students than projected.

This changed in the 2015-16 school year when the district began to meet the projected number because it began accepting tuition-paying students from other districts in 2013-14. Burrell has averaged about 50 tuition-paying students for the past decade, which helped it meet state enrollment projections through 2019-20 school year.

But, starting in the 2020-21 school year, even with the tuition students, Burrell’s enrollment began to decline.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)