File Photo of Margaret Ross Elementary School in Hopewell
Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published March 28, 2023 9:08 A.M.

(Hopewell Township, PA) Friday night around 7pm, a student was found outside the school with a potential weapon, according to an email sent out to parents by Superintendent Dr. Jeff Beltz.  According to the email there was no danger to anyone. Hopewell Police are investigating, and they weren’t available to comment Tuesday morning.

 

 

(Photo of water facility in Industry, submitted by Industry Residents)
Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio News Director. Published March 28, 2023 7:40 A.M. 

(Industry, PA) Industry Borough residents say they are planning to speak up at a council meeting in regards to their ongoing water issues. They say the Industry Borough Municipal Authority has provided them with zero answers about their water problems since they started in late October. Residents claim to be experiencing brown water with low pressure, and they say the water facilities are in disrepair. Residents hope to get answers at the meeting Tuesday night at 1149 Willowbrook Drive in Industry at 6pm.

PA Cyber Polytechnic Van File Photo
The PACSEA released the following statement:

PA Cyber Special Education Association (PACSEA), the union representing 135 Special
Education Teachers and Reading Specialists employed by The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, has been bargaining a new contract with their employer since December 2021. They continue to work under the terms of a contract that expired on June 30, 2022.
PACSEA members are seeking equity and fairness with other PA Cyber educators in terms of compensation and work/life balance as their members are required to work in June, July, and August, yet their compensation remains comparable to their peers who are only required to work nine months a year.
They are also fighting for improved working conditions, which they know will further enhance their students’ learning conditions. For instance, establishing clear class size maximums will ensure that students receive the support they need and deserve. In addition to their teaching duties, the Special Education Teachers are responsible to manage an Individual Education Plan (IEP) for each student on their roster. An IEP is developed to ensure that a child who has a disability identified under the law and is attending an elementary or secondary educational institution receives specialized instruction and related services.
Teaching in a cyber school, educators are not face-to-face with their students in a building, so ensuring teachers have a reasonable number of students on their roster provides the ability to build and maintain relationships with both students and parents, which is essential and crucial for student success.
Members remain optimistic that representatives negotiating on behalf of The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School will show respect and support their teachers by working collaboratively to settle a fair, equitable, and just contract.
In a show of solidarity for their bargaining team, members of PACSEA are conducting an informational picket on Tuesday, March 28th from 4:30 – 5:30 pm in front of the PA Cyber offices located at 1200 Midland Avenue, Midland, PA 15059.

 

(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)

Just a few months after the New Brighton School Board stood pat with leadership, they elected to do the same up at the very top.

Superintendent Dr. Joseph Guarino was approved for a contract renewal for five years in a unanimous decision by the New Brighton School Board on Monday night. The contract would extend Guarino’s term as the head of the school district until June 30, 2028. The extension for Guarino, who has served as New Brighton’s superintendent since 2013, will begin its active status on July 1 of this year.

Another major agreement approved by the school board was the establishment of a notice to proceed with Constellation Services to begin repair on the majority of windows and doors in various school buildings in the district. Guarino stated that this initial agreement for a total of $3,293,300 is so that the company can procure materials as soon as possible.

“We’ll start this, and then in a subsequent month we’ll have to approve the contract,” Guarino added, “but this is enough for them to start procuring materials. Right now the timeline is they think that the best-case scenario is they might actually be able to start doing some of the doors in the August/September time frame.”

All of the votes throughout the brief meeting were unanimously approved, including the entirety of the measures organized at the board’s March 13 meeting. Among the measures were the contract for Nutrition Inc. to provide cafeteria food for the 2023-24 school year, the official submitted list for graduates for the Class of 2023, and the appointment of Nicole Oliver to the New Brighton Recreation Commission as a representative of the New Brighton School District.

A dual enrollment agreement with Robert Morris University that was not established at the March 13 meeting was also unanimously approved by the board.

Due to the Easter holiday, the next New Brighton School Board meeting will not be held until April 24 at 7:30 PM.

The Hopewell HEA released the following statement regarding contract negotiations:

Hopewell Education Association (HEA) members have been working without a contract since July 1, 2022, even though early negotiation talks began with the District in November 2020.
Historically, HEA and the Hopewell Area School District have worked amicably to settle contracts prior to the expiration date. Even though that date has passed, the HEA bargaining team remains optimistic that with future negotiation dates already scheduled, both parties will come to terms on a fair and just contract that benefits the students, teachers, and the community they serve.
The HEA membership stands in solidarity with their bargaining team and has unanimously voted to give that team the authority to authorize a strike if they feel it is necessary; however, they hope the Board will recognize the value of keeping them in the classroom and bargain a fair contract.
Members of the community plan to join HEA members for a solidarity rally on Tuesday, March 28th at 6:30 pm at the Hopewell Area Junior High School, prior to the School Board meeting which begins at 7:00 pm in the Jr High Cafeteria.
The Hopewell Education Association represents 165 teachers, nurses, and guidance counselors employed by the Hopewell Area School District.

Scattered across Southwestern PA, nonprofits, educational institutions, religious organizations, foundations, activists and more are working toward asserting greater agency over the future of their communities. Since the fall of the steel industry, community leaders have regularly lamented regional division as well as a misaligned direction for the future, making many residents of the region uncertain of how to formulate effective, sustainable change. That’s where creative
advocacy comes into play. On March 30, RiverWise and New Sun Rising will
release the Creative Advocacy Playbook, a dynamic resource that
provides adaptive, evolving and practically applicable tools for practitioners of community-focused work. Creative advocates are
committed to understanding, engaging and transforming mindsets in ways that
produce greater agency and more vibrancy in the community.
The Playbook will be presented during the Ignite Creative Advocacy workshop, where leaders will receive information about the concepts and strategies of creative advocacy, individual mentoring for campaign plan development, and an optional pitch competition where participants can share their campaign plans with a panel of judges. Three creative advocacy campaigns will then be selected to each receive a $5,000 grant and three months of technical assistance to support the implementation of their plan. The Creative Advocacy initiative is a partnership between New Sun Rising and RiverWise to help build community capacity and power across

Allegheny and Beaver counties. The development of the Playbook was supported by a diverse team of Creative Advisors, along with the research and design support of Trailblaze Creative and Collaborative Craft.
“Although community leaders are increasingly aware that their communities are missing out on opportunities, they often do not know how to make a public case for something different,” said Daniel Rossi-Keen, executive director of RiverWise. “The Creative Advocacy Playbook helps leaders develop effective strategies for communicating what they want to see come alive in their communities.”
This form of advocacy is a public and intentional form of engagement that employs artistic practice to disrupt prevailing narratives and strengthen community movement toward an identified goal. Creatives — artists, writers, artisans, performers, documentarians, and more — use their skills to expose, explore, and elevate a specific issue, all while inviting others to think critically, ask questions, and find their own way to be active participants in that movement.
“Creatives help you dig a little bit deeper into seeing things in their natural state, answering questions with people that are going through the issues, seeing their surroundings and their environment, being able to see their actual emotion as opposed to it being scripted, or acted out or reimagined in some way,” said Jay Manning, otherwise known as JM the Poet, creative advocacy advisor.
When undertaken intentionally and deployed wisely, creative advocacy can help communities become better informed, inspired, connected, mobilized, and resourced to realize their shared vision for the future.
RiverWise used creative advocacy during a 30-day social media campaign in September 2022 to raise awareness of a bridge and trail project, which includes transforming Black’s Run Bridge, an historic bridge that crosses Route 51 between Monaca and West Aliquippa.
Most recently, RiverWise and New Sun Rising together produced “Boom & Bust,” a
documentary following a handful of community leaders from Beaver and Allegheny counties who, just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, took a trip to Louisiana’s chemical corridor to learn from locals about the impact of petrochemicals. The film poses questions about the future health and vibrancy of Beaver County in the wake of Shell opening its ethane cracker plant in Potter Township.
Creative advocacy is meant to engage a wider group of people in dialogue and provide
opportunities for them to contribute to the future that they envision. Using creative and innovative techniques can equip residents to be active participants in moving their region forward.
New Sun Rising helped communities advocate for a just use of vacant property through the Ground Truthing project led by Grounded Strategies. The alternative future expressed in the campaign video was envisioned by Homewood residents, and produced by artists Marlon Gist and Christopher Padgett, owner of Human City Creative.

“If we are to overcome the economic, social, and environmental issues of our time, we must find new ways to inspire more people to take action,” said Scott Wolovich, executive director of New Sun Rising. “Our hope is that people will use the resources in this playbook to bring community leaders and creatives together and mobilize people towards shared goals.”
The Creative Advocacy Playbook combines theory and practice to help community
organizations de-risk their commitment to and investment in advocacy efforts. It explains the who, what, when, where, why, and how of building a campaign. The playbook includes 17 worksheets that can be adapted, used individually, or together as part of a sophisticated campaign to guide readers through the creative advocacy process.
More activities related to creative advocacy are in the works, with events planned later in the spring.

This image provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech shows an artist’s conception of what the surface of the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1f may look like, based on available data about its diameter, mass and distances from the host star. The Webb Space Telescope has found no evidence of an atmosphere at one of the seven rocky, Earth-size worlds orbiting a nearby star. Scientists say that doesn’t bode well for the rest of the planets in this solar system, some of which are in the sweet spot for harboring water and, therefore, life. In a study published Monday, March 27, 2023 a NASA-led team reported little if no atmosphere exists at the innermost planet in the Trappist system, 40 light-years away. (NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The Webb Space Telescope has found no evidence of an atmosphere at one of the seven rocky, Earth-sized planets orbiting a nearby star. Scientists say that doesn’t bode well for the rest of the planets in this solar system, some of which are in the sweet spot for harboring water and potentially life. In a study published Monday, a NASA-led team reported little if no atmosphere exists at the innermost planet in the Trappist system, 40 light-years away. Researchers say the lack of an atmosphere would mean no water and no protection from cosmic rays. More observations are planned.

Emergency personnel work at the site of a deadly explosion at a chocolate factory in West Reading, Pa., Friday, March 24, 2023. ( Ben Hasty /Reading Eagle via AP)

WEST READING, Pa. (AP) — The governor Pennsylvania has ordered commonwealth flags flown at half-staff in honor of seven people whose bodies were recovered from the site of a powerful explosion at a chocolate factory. The announcement Monday came the morning after the remaining bodies were found at the R.M. Palmer Co. plant in West Reading. Mayor Samantha Kaag called it “a devastating loss.” The Berks County coroner’s office on Monday identified two of the victims as 49-year-old Amy Sandoe of Ephrata and 60-year-old Domingo Cruz of Reading and said more tests are needed to positively identify the other five victims. The blast happened about 5 p.m. Friday. The cause remains under investigation.

Xfinity Comcast File Logo
Story by Beaver County Radio News Staff. Published March 27, 2023  

(Brighton Township, PA) Comcast customers in the area have been experiencing interruptions in their tv, phone and internet service since the weekend wind storms. Comcast is reporting ongoing outages affecting a large portion of Brighton Township and other surrounding areas.  Comcast reports that the outages are due to power outages, and customers can expect services to be restored when power is.

Story by Sandy Giordano – Beaver County Radio. Published March 27, 2023

(Beaver County, PA) Duquesne Light Company issued an update at  8:15 a.m. stating that 4,000 customers are still without power due to the high winds on Sunday, Aliquippa, Brighton Township, Conway, Freedom, and New Sewickley and Hopewell were the hardest hit areas with a total of 2,290 customers affected.