Three C-M schools bid adieu by celebrating their histories
Canon McMillan’s Cecil Elementary building is one of the three buildings slated to close at the end of the school year. Students from this school will be going to the new Muse Elementary building.
Canon-McMillan’s Muse Elementary School is one of the three buildings slated to close at the end of the school year. Students from this school will be going to the new Muse Elementary building, shown in the background.
Canon McMillan’s First Street Elementary building is one of the three buildings slated to close at the end of the school year. Students from this school will be going to the new Muse Elementary building.
Canon McMillan’s new Muse Elementary School is nearing completion on the same site as the original Muse Elementary. Students from Muse, Cecil and First Street elementaries will be attending classes in the new building.
Canon-McMillan School District is shuttering three elementary buildings that are a collective 255 years old. One was built before the Depression, two during it.
Students and a number of educators in those schools will be consolidated into the glistening elementary being constructed in Muse. But, in the coming weeks, they will bid adieu to the buildings where four generations learned, misbehaved, grown and matured. Buildings that have been memory-makers.
That’s why the principals at Cecil, First Street and Muse elementary schools – without pause – employed the term “bittersweet” when asked about the aura enveloping their buildings as the closures approach.
To make the shutdowns more savory, and to reflect on the wonderful things that occurred there, all three schools have planned farewell celebrations for this month.
Shannon Balch is in charge at First Street, which opened in 1924 as First Ward School, during the Calvin Coolidge administration. First Street is a two-time Blue Ribbon academic awardee, most recently in 2015.
“It is bittersweet,” she said. “It’s exciting to have a new building opening and to see so much growth in the community, but First Street is the oldest building. We have parents and grandparents coming through, talking about teachers and classes. It’s definitely bittersweet with such a history.”
That history will be marked by an open house May 30 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Memorabilia will be displayed, and there will be children’s and family activities.
Balch, after four years at First Street, will move to South Central Elementary and share principal duties with Michelle Tomicek. Balch also is federal programs coordinator for Canon-McMillan.
Muse and Cecil opened the same year, 1936, and both were renovated in 1986.
“The schools look alike because the renovations were the same year,” said Tom Theodore, who has been the principal at Muse for 12 of the past 17 years. He served at North Strabane Intermediate in between, to avoid being the top administrator at the elementary his children were attending at the time.
His school will have a celebration May 31 from 6 to 8 p.m., the day before classes conclude, as part of the positive behavior support plan. Memorabilia will likely be part of the equation, as will a fundraiser featuring the sale of an ornament featuring a black-and-white photo of the original Muse building on one side, a current shot on the other. The money, Theodore said, is being raised for Kristen Tarr, a seventh-grader at Canonsburg Middle School who has been diagnosed with bone cancer.
The Muse building thus far is the only of the three schools planned for demolition. It will be razed over the summer to make way for parking for the new facility, which will open for the 2017-18 academic year and also be called Muse Elementary. The estimated cost is $31 million.
“You can’t beat having a brand-new facility,” Theodore said. “But this current building is near and dear to my heart. I’ve been here since 2000. It’s a good school and I’m going to miss it.
“It is bittersweet, but I’m looking forward to seeing students from First Street and Cecil along with our current students.”
He will be co-principal at the new Muse Elementary along with Tula Dziak, who is currently in charge at Cecil. Dziak is wistful about leaving a building where she has been the top administrator for four years, but eagerly anticipating her future educational digs.
“The best word is bittersweet,” said Dziak, an 18-year employee in the district. “There are definitely some positives moving into the new building. Air conditioning is big. Safety. The new building will have a better security system. More tech upgrades.”
She added that Cecil has a multipurpose room that serves as a gym, cafeteria and venue for programs, whereas new Muse School “will have a separate gym, stage and cafeteria. … But everyone will miss that small community building.”
Cecil’s farewell party will be first among the three, May 25 from 4 to 6 p.m. There will be tours, memorabilia including class photos and sales of a similar ornament with original and recent pictures of the school.
Dziak said there also will be a “mega-party” for students during the day on May 24 or 25.
The three facilities being shuttered are within a six-mile radius, with new Muse School in the middle, virtually equidistant from the others. Canon-McMillan will begin the next academic year with nine schools instead of 11, a more efficient, modern and safer set of circumstances.
But, still, somewhat bittersweet.