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f ox c hapel a r ea s chool d is tr ict | s tat e of t he s chools
New Kerr School Opens
After more than a year of construction, the new Kerr Elementary School opened its doors to students at the beginning of the 2019-2020
school year. The school was built on the same property as the former school, and construction began in June of 2018. The new school features
innovative learning spaces where students can gather to work on projects,
conduct research, collaborate, and plan. This includes a collaboratory
that houses the library, a makerspace, a SMALLab learning space, and a
computer science robotics lab. The new Kerr also hosts the district’s new
Pre-Kindergarten program, as well as the new Spanish Immersion pilot
program. The cost of the school was approximately $21.5 million.
Administrators and teachers spent the 2018-2019 school year
planning for the full-day Pre-Kindergarten program and the Spanish
Immersion program. Both were implemented at Kerr for the 2019-
2020 school year.
The Pre-Kindergarten program is for 4-year-olds and is aimed at
preparing young learners for school. The five-day-a-week schedule
is designed to promote positive approaches to learning, including a supportive
classroom environment; strengthening social, emotional, and behavioral skills;
and working collaboratively with families. Children enrolled in the program are
required to meet income eligibility requirements.
The Spanish Immersion program is offered to a class of first-graders at Kerr, and the
class has 25 students from across the district. The students spend the majority of
their school day listening, speaking, and learning core subjects in Spanish. Once
the first-graders enrolled in the initial Spanish Immersion class become second-
graders, a new first-grade class will begin, and, eventually, the program will be
offered to first- through fifth-graders. The program is the first of its kind in Western
Pennsylvania.
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