Memorial Elementary, student government and ESL teachers highlight end-of-year activities and supports

Staff and students from Memorial Elementary presented a collection of school-level programs and celebrations to the Bethel Park board.

Student government representative Caleb reported on staff appreciation week (May 6–10), ongoing officer elections, and community service plans including delivering snacks to local fire departments. Memorial Principal Eric Challis introduced staff who described programs such as MTSS work, team teaching, a learning-support running club, and the Chef Chalis healthy-eating initiative. "We're ensuring that they are at the right tier of support," Jessica Nowart, the MTSS math specialist, said as she summarized Memorial's MTSS implementation.

ESL teacher Denise Brown said the building now hosts 61 elementary ESL students speaking 14 different languages and described the use of Imagine Learning and classroom translators to support students at varying levels of English proficiency.

Multiple teachers described team-teaching benefits for inclusion of learning-support students and flexible small-group instruction. The board and superintendent thanked the Memorial delegation for their presentation and recognized upcoming retirements; the superintendent also noted a district retiree and explained the masonry work left by a retiring maintenance employee.

The segment concluded with light-hearted in-meeting demonstration material (tasting of a healthy snack called "hip peas") and the board's expression of appreciation for students and staff.