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Education

March 16, 2021

Riverside School District Employee Placed On Administrative Leave

According to multiple media outlets, a Riverside Beaver County School District employee has been placed on administrative leave after reportings of inappropriate conduct with students. The announcement was made by a board member at Monday night’s school board meeting. A statement made available by the district reads: “The Riverside Beaver County School District as placed an employee on paid administrative leave. After learning about the possible inappropriate conduct with students, the District reported the matter to law enforecement and is taking all other steps requried by law. The District is cooperating fully with law enforcement during its investigation. The District…

March 10, 2021

BC3 Nursing Students Gain “Once-In-A-Lifetime” Experience Serving Community During Pandemic

(Butler, PA) Nearly a year after Butler County Community College donated personal protective equipment to healthcare workers at the outset of a global pandemic, its registered nursing students are gaining “once-in-a-lifetime” experience – experience uncommon among nursing schools, they add – as volunteers serving the community at a COVID-19 clinic inoculating up to 1,200 visitors a day. Brittney Barnett, Mackenzie Dean, Michele Gaiser and nearly 80 others from the Nursing, R.N., program on BC3’s main campus are assisting senior citizens from Butler Memorial Hospital’s parking lot and into its nearly 3-month-old COVID-19 clinic that is providing vaccinations against a virus…

March 4, 2021

ECASD to Return to Classes Five Days a Week with No Delay Starting Monday

Students in the Ellwood City Area School District will return to school in person, five days a week beginning Monday, March 8 without a delay in the morning. Although the board agreed unanimously that the students should return to school full-time, the board was split regarding whether or not to maintain the delay. Before polling the board regarding a delay, Superintendent Dr. Wesley Shipley recommended a full return to school without a delay. “To continue to have a delay would be a disservice to all students who are able to attend,” he said. Shipley assured the board that no student…

March 4, 2021

Teachers Now Qualify for COVID-19 Vaccinations

As Pennsylvania strives to return more students to their classrooms for in-person instruction, teachers are now eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccinations under a newly announced expansion of the Commonwealth’s immunization plan, according to Senator Elder Vogel. Under today’s (March 3) announcement, teachers will have their own separate vaccination program and will not be included in Class 1A (senior citizens and those with pre-existing medical conditions). Teachers will not receive priority status nor will they receive vaccinations ahead of those in Class 1A. “By vaccinating teachers, Pennsylvania can expedite the reopening of schools all across the state,” Senator Vogel said. “This…

February 23, 2021

LCCTC Students Receive Pride and Promise Award

Seven area students recently were selected as “Pride and Promise Award’ winners for the month of February by the Lawrence County Career and Technical Center (LCCTC) during the school’s February Joint Operating Committee meeting. Each senior Health Assistant student passed the TNAT (Temporary Nurse Aide Test) which (because of Covid) is equivalent to the standard CNA (Certified Nurse Aide) test. The Pride and Promise Award is a coveted award given monthly to individuals who have gone above and beyond in search of excellence relative to their function at LCCTC. The Lawrence County Career and Technical Center, located at 750 Phelps Way,…

February 11, 2021

ECASD Superintendent Offers Update on COVID Lockdown; Board Rescinds Approval of Choir Trip

During the Ellwood City Area School District Board of Directors February 11 meeting, Superintendent Dr. Wesley Shipley said Lincoln High School was forced to go on lockdown following a breakout of COVID cases in the district. According to Shipley, on Friday February 5, there were 3 cases and upon return to school the following Monday there were 7 cases and then an additional case on Tuesday. He did not say whether the cases were among students or staff. The plan moving forward, Shipley said, is for Lincoln students to have full-remote learning until February 23 when the cases will return…

February 11, 2021

Course Examines Rise, Fall of Steel Industry

New Castle, PA – It lifted a region, provided livelihoods to hundreds of thousands, forged secondary and tertiary commerce up and down and across western Pennsylvania. It fed, it housed and it clothed, financed births and weddings and funerals, empowered its sometimes poorly educated immigrant workers to patronize main streets for a century. And then the steel industry collapsed. “Life changed dramatically,” said author Dale Perelman, a New Castle resident whose course titled The Birth and Death of Steel in Western Pennsylvania is one of 47 classes this spring on Butler County Community College’s menu of Lifelong Learning opportunities in…

February 11, 2021

2021-22 Ellwood City Kindergarten Registration Announced

The North Side Primary School in the Ellwood City Area School District will be hosting Kindergarten Registration for the 2021-2022 school year next month. The registration is schedule to take place on Monday, March 29, Tuesday, March 30, and Wednesday, March 31, 2021. To be eligible for Kindergarten for the 2021-2022 school year, the child must be 5 years old by August 15, 2021. Please contact North Side Primary School at 724-752-1381 to pre-register your child. The North Side Primary Center is a K-2 building in the Ellwood City Area School District. According to the district website, learning at North…

February 10, 2021

BC3 Effort To Assist Food-Insecure Students Turns 2

A Butler County Community College initiative to confront food insecurity this month marks its second anniversary, not from its original snack rack, not from its subsequent cramped room behind a kitchen, but from a spacious classroom whose shelves of nutritious nonperishables help to feed a drive-up food bank that provided Thanksgiving turkeys and holiday hams last fall. The free grab-and-go food station that debuted in February 2019 outside Karen Jack’s office in the college’s Student Success Center followed a report that nearly 40 percent of BC3 students who responded to a 2018 survey indicated they experienced low or very low…

February 9, 2021

Riverside School District To Hold Full Virtual Learning On February 9

According to information made available on the district website, the Riverside Beaver County School District will hold a Virtual Day, February 9th and will operate on a regular schedule. Students will attend school virtually on Tuesday and the district will run on a regular schedule. Students will log into their Google Classroom at 7:35 AM. According to the district no transportation will be provided.  The district asks you to review the regular schedule posted on the district website for details. The Middle School will operate on the Regular Schedule 1A, grades 6, 7, and 8. Students in grade level K-5…