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VIDEO PRODUCTIONS DOCUMENT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS ' HISTORIES
In the fall of 2026, a new elementary school will be opening its doors to the Bellefonte Area School District students, and thus, two elementary school buildings will be closing their doors to its young scholars. These buildings are Bellefonte Elementary and Benner Elementary. In honor of the history of these elementary schools, the video production students and their teacher at Bellefonte Area High School are creating documentaries that feature the memories and experiences of the staff, community members, and former students of these respected academic institutions.
During the 2023-2024 school year, Mr. Michael Baughman, the principal of the Bellefonte Elementary School( BES), expressed interest in creating a video to honor the history of the school building. He knew that much of the community and the staff cared deeply about the school and believed that creating something visual to honor its history would help with closing its doors one last time. He reached out to Carla Cipro, the video production teacher at the Bellefonte Area High School( BAHS), to see if she and her students would want to take on this project. Mrs. Cipro was excited to learn about his ideas, and immediately began creating a plan.“ I have an excellent group of upperclassmen that I have worked with since many of them were freshmen. I knew it would be a great opportunity for them to take the skills and knowledge that they’ ve learned in class and put it to use in a real-world situation,” explained Mrs. Cipro about her students that are working on the project.“ These students were tasked with recording B-roll of the building, interviewing current staff and community members, and then helped to organize all of the footage for editing.”
Other individuals that helped with this project included Mr. Matt Maris, a history teacher at BAHS and local historian, Mr. Steve Klein, a retired BES teacher, and Dr. Duffy Besch, the current athletic director for BASD and former administrator and student of BES. Each of these members helped to tell their stories and knowledge about the building’ s history. Mr. Klein provided his end-of-the-year tour that he would give to his students on their last day of fourth grade. It covers the auditorium, the dirt cellar, the gymnasium, and its locker rooms, along with the memorials that are on the outside of the building.
Mr. Klein was delighted to be a part of this project.“ It was my pleasure to share the uniqueness of Bellefonte Elementary School with both former students of the school and also to introduce the school to students who attended different elementary schools. It is a school with a significant history, and the students seemed honestly interested in what they were seeing and with the stories that accompanied each part of the school." History teacher, Mr. Maris was very interested and invested in this project, as well.“ The schools are the heart of our community. Working with Bellefonte students and staff to document the history of these schools has been a very meaningful and reflective process.”
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