Burrell School District takes art education seriously, and it shows. The district has recently been named as an Outstanding Visual Arts Community by the Pennsylvania Art Education Association (PAEA). Only 27 districts across the state received this prestigious recognition.

Change is the name of the game at Burrell this year, but not only because of the pandemic. The district has also added two new teachers, Elizabeth Hartman and Alli Oberdorf, to the roster.

This year, Burrell School District has a new resource officer on campus — patrolman Robert Acquaviva from the Lower Burrell Police Department.

Acquaviva is filling the role vacated by John Marhefka, who left last year to become the chief of police for Lower Burrell.

Burrell School District’s 2020-2021 Health and Safety Plan is requiring teachers to offer lessons both in the classroom and virtually, and many teachers, like Mr. Bryan Mike, have spent the summer getting ready.

Mr. Mike, a biology teacher who is celebrating his 25th year with the district, calls this upcoming year “very different.”

“In other years, I had a pretty good idea what I was going to do,” said Mr. Mike. “My preparations were just to get my room ready. This year, I have had to create different documents, change documents to fit the virtual model, and will have to prepare my Google Classrooms (I have 6 classes, so 6 Classrooms).”

After much discussion and planning, Burrell School District has created a Health and Safety Plan for the upcoming 2020-2021 year.

The plan consists of three options families and students can choose from before the school year begins.

Francine Corsi, choral director at Burrell School District, never imagined that after her 38 ½-year career, her final lesson in the classroom would come so suddenly.

“It’s sad,” said Corsi. “I never thought that March 13th would be the last day I would see everyone.”

While Corsi had planned to retire this year, the school shutdown limited her chances to say goodbye to students and faculty.

This year has been difficult for the Burrell High School class of 2020, but Principal Dr. John C. Boylan believes the seniors handled the challenging situation with ease.

“Life throws you curveballs, and the class of 2020 exhibited patience and gratitude,” said Dr. Boylan. “The class always modeled positive leadership for our underclassmen [and they] got a head start on the challenges of everyday life.”

In particular, three seniors – Emma Kobelenske, Jacob Strenkowski, and Tanner Spohn – all achieved great things.

Because of COVID-19, students at Burrell School District haven’t been to school since March 13.  Amidst the chaos, the district worked hard to create a remote learning program that was implemented on March 30.

Students and teachers now log into Google Classroom for lessons, which are either pre-recorded or live sessions. The school day runs from 8:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., and teachers are available for questions through chat or email. While students still have assignments, they don’t need to be done in real-time like a typical school day.