Emily Brittain Elementary School is getting a new name and philosophy this year.

Educators in the Butler School District are wrapping up a summer spent planning a new program at the school on North Washington Street.

It'll start the new year with a new name, Emily Brittain Community Partnership and Demonstration School, but still serves the same grades, kindergarten to fourth grade.

The school is set to become a crossroads of programs sponsored by various community groups outside the school district.

The name is a mouthful, yes, but the school's new principal, Cassandra Pencek, said their wide plans justify the long name.

“The idea here is that we can really connect and communicate with different resources that can support our population of students,” Pencek said.

The name can be broken down into two ideas.

“Community Partnership” refers to efforts to dramatically increase the amount of partner programs between the school and various community groups.

The idea is to identify needs of student families, and then find partners in the area to meet them.

The “Demonstration” starts once the new programs are established. The end goal isn't to simply better Emily Brittain's community, but rather to test and establish solutions to common struggles throughout the school district.

Here's a for-instance: If teachers and parents identify that students aren't finding enough room for homework in their home lives, a college like Slippery Rock University might be tapped to bring in college students to run an after-school program.

Then, if it succeeds, the program's template would be handed off to other area elementary schools, with Emily Brittain serving as a model.

Julie Hopp, the district's curriculum director, said success will come when they're finding partners to help families in all the district's schools.

“We want to explore and try out new materials and new techniques,” Hopp said. “What works? What might be a good fit for the district? And then we take that to scale in the other buildings.”

How it works

Right now, Pencek and Hopp are starting to gather input from parents. They said the school is collecting information by talking to parents and conducting surveys. They're trying to find out what families need to better educate the school's students.

“What do families need?” Hopp said. “What are the barriers that families have? Maybe its workforce development. Maybe its access to services. Maybe its just filling out forms.”

In September, a new advisory board will hold its first meeting to go over those needs and start thinking about how various community groups and leaders might meet them.

The board's members will include representatives from SRU, Butler County Community College, Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV, WQED, Butler County's various government agencies and the Green Building Alliance, a sustainability group from Pittsburgh.

Throughout the year, teachers, administrators and other staff members of the school will hold monthly meetings to discuss more obstacles that might benefit from outside help.

Pencek noted that workers — like custodial staff, food service workers and secretaries — might be among the most vital sources of information. She's been holding one-on-one meetings with teachers this summer, as well.

Why Emily Brittain?

Emily Brittain's physical location is a big reason it's the host of the program, according to Hopp.

“When we thought of this partnership idea, this was the logical place,” Hopp said. “There's already connections. We have Head Start here. The YMCA is right across the street. We have the downtown. People, volunteers, could walk here.”

The population it serves is the poorest of the district's schools, according to the superintendent's office.

“There's a need here,” Hopp said. “The staff here has been working hard for many years to meet the need that they see. It's often an overwhelming task, for them.”

Meet the principal

Pencek is joining the district this year after serving as the assistant principal of a middle school in the Fox Chapel Area School District. Before that, she was an assistant principal at two elementary buildings in the Seneca Valley School District.

Emily Brittain's former principal, Chad Broman, is now assistant principal at Center Township Elementary School.

Pencek said she's excited to be spearheading the new program her first year at the district.

“To me, being new, success will look like parents and families who come to Emily Brittain and can see that we are all working together for the success of their children,” Pencek said. “They'll see we're a place they can trust.”