The challenges facing the Spring Cove School District in the new year will largely be the same as those in 2024 — including the rising price of cyber school, student mental health concerns, the influence of social media and proliferation of misinformation.

“Cyber school costs have increased since the pandemic even though more people have come back to school in-person,” Superintendent Betsy Baker said.

That impacts what the district is able to budget for salaries and pensions, Baker said, and is “making it harder to get teachers and support staff in education.”

As far as students’ mental health, that concern has grown “moreso since even the pandemic,” Baker said, but Spring Cove has a school counselor contracted through the IU8 in every building.

“Social media definitely is something we also have to deal with,” Baker said. “We’re a part of the social media lawsuit.”

With the challenges come strengths, one of which is the district’s curriculum, Baker said.

“We’ve maintained a seven-year curriculum cycle,” Baker said. “Not everyone can manage that.”

Spring Cove has also participated in the Project Lead the Way program for about 10 to 12 years and has taken up the STEELS standards — which stands for Science, Technology and Engineering, Environmental Literacy and Sustainability.

“We were really fortunate because we already had Project Lead the Way and inquiry-based learning with science,” Baker said. “Our students get a lot of exposure to STEM and higher-level, inquiry-based thinking.”

New materials

At the beginning of the 2024-25 school year, a few departments at Central High School received new curricula that came with digital components. One is family consumer science, which not only got new textbooks, but received resources like “a Real Care Baby and Empathy Belt” that gave students in the child development class “a glimpse into the responsibilities of having a baby,” according to a district newsletter.

The business, computer and information technology curriculum also got an upgrade in the form of Business U, which students can access on their Chromebooks at school or at home.

“I worked in different fields of business before becoming a teacher and often share my ‘real world’ experiences with the students,” said Kassondra Leidy, who teaches BCIT. “Business U includes so many real-life examples of what we are learning — it really complements instruction.”

Not to be left out, business, computer and information technology students at the Spring Cove Middle School begin the year with a two-week course on digital citizenship, the newsletter stated.

For sixth graders, the course is followed by “learn-by-doing instruction on Google’s most common productivity apps like Google Drive, Gmail, Docs, Sheets and Slides.” The seventh grade course has a continued focus on robotics, while eighth graders focus on Microsoft Office applications, workplace readiness, communication and writing skills, the newsletter stated.

Activities abound

In addition to new curricula, the district is also seeing a growing number of extracurriculars, academic, music and art programs and competitions, Baker said. Spring Cove increased its dual enrollment offerings to 22, which they were able to offer for free during the 2023-24 school year.

“It’s a significant savings,” Baker said. “Students are entering college as first or second semester sophomores, cutting years off of college, increasing their savings or becoming a dual major.”

The number of students interested in attending the Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center has gone up as well, enabling students to obtain as many industry-based credentials and certifications as possible before graduation, Baker said.

One extracurricular activity that has made a significant comeback since the pandemic is the school musical, with students putting on “Foot Loose” in 2023 and “Bye Bye Birdie” in 2024. “Grease” was recently announced as the musical selection for 2025.

The cast and crew of “Bye Bye Birdie” were the first to win the new Mishler Award for Professionalism at the 2024 Altoona Community Theatre’s Isaac Awards for High School Musicals, according to the newsletter. Criteria for the new award include punctuality, teamwork, preparedness, following instructions and good theatre etiquette.

“It was by far our proudest moment of the evening and spoke to the caliber of our student actors and theatre program as a whole,” said Spring Cove Musical Director Rachel Wagner.

More than just scores

For Baker, Spring Cove students winning a professionalism award wouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

“We always have great kids,” Baker said. “When our kids go to other districts, that’s one thing we always hear, is how well behaved our kids are.”

The district also has “dedicated faculty and staff,” who, “despite the teaching shortage,” manage to maintain strong relationships with students. Baker said the pandemic “kind of disrupted that,” but their faculty and staff have worked hard to rebuild.

It’s for these reasons, and a multitude of other factors, that Baker doesn’t believe that standardized test scores necessarily reflect a student’s true performance or capability.

In 2024, 45.2% of Martinsburg Elementary and 40.7% of Spring Cove Middle School students scored proficient in the PSSA’s English language arts exam, compared to the state averages of 53.1% and 52.9%, respectively.

In math, 50.6% of elementary and 22.4% of middle school students scored proficient, compared to the respective state averages of 47.6% and 33.3%.

In science, 74.6% of elementary and 50.4% of middle school students scored proficient, compared to the respective state averages of 77.1% and 54.5%.

For the 2024 Keystone Exam, 34.3% of Spring Cove School District students scored proficient in algebra I compared to the state average of 41.6%; 47.2% in biology compared to the state’s 50.5%; and 64.3% in literature compared to the state’s 63.2%.

In a different form of education, Baker “can’t say enough” about the district’s “excellent” special education programming, which she describes as “very flexible.”

“We have people tell us they do come here for the special education programming,” Baker said. “That’s something we’re proud of, that we have a strong administration and teachers that know what needs to be done to support students, whether they’re in special education or not.”

Finding the means

Looking ahead, the district is coming to the end of a feasibility study, and Baker knows some of its buildings will need improvement. However, the “funding to do that isn’t there anymore” without relying on the tax base.

“We’ll need to determine what the greatest need is,” Baker said. “Our staff does great on keeping up with what needs to be done.”

In 2024, the district increased its school safety through grants and was able to install security cameras, blue strobe lights in large group areas “for announcements or if you’re hearing impaired,” and created a “nice police force,” Baker said.

During the summer, the maintenance department and hired contractors also made some improvements throughout the district for the 2024-25 school year, including replacing kitchen equipment, adding more safety mats to the middle school gym, repairing and resurfacing the district’s tennis courts and upgrading the lights in Spring Cove Elementary School classrooms to LED.

“We’re in good shape now, but you have to continually maintain these things,” Baker said.

If she could have a district wish list, she would add an AED for their second police car, any kind of funding for facility improvements, more security measures for safe schools and additional social workers.

“We are really proud of our school community — the retired teachers, parents and hundreds of people who are board-approved that help as volunteers,” Baker said.