PA Distance will have a new home for the 2020-2021 school year. Developer, J.J. Herbert & Sons broke ground on a new, state-of-the-art and energy efficient building at its Nicholson Road Herbert Campus in Sewickley in April 2019.
Herbert Campus is home to five buildings with PA Distance set to lease Building IV for at least the next 10 years. The school will occupy the entire 34,500 square foot building.
The new building and its efficient use of space will support current staff needs, as well as the school’s plans for continued growth. PA Distance has grown quite a bit since leaving an education management organization in 2012-13. The school began leasing 5,390 sq.ft. at its current location, 2100 Corporate Drive in Wexford, PA; to now lease over 23,000 sq.ft as they continue serving approximately 934 students across the commonwealth.
“The school grew significantly in 2017 from 500 students to 850 students and continues to grow each year. We will have 82 teachers this fall, making our projected student teacher ratio 12:1. Our support team consists of seven school counselors, and 14 other team members, including a Social Worker, a School Nurse, an Attendance Officer, and others,” Mrs. Patricia Rossetti, Chief Executive Officer of PA Distance, explained.
“The efficiency of the new building, along with its new features will also result in expanding on our Career Education and Work graduation and beyond pathways for our students," Mrs. Rossett added.
Most importantly, the Herbert Campus building allows all of the school’s teachers and staff to continue a high-level of collaboration with our families across all departments in one centralized location, which is rare for a cyber school.
“Collaboration and communication with our families is the key to success for students who attend our public cyber charter school. With a newly formed Family Engagement Team, we look forward to expanding our community-based support in the areas our students live,” Mrs. Rossetti said.
“Moving into a customized educational environment will enhance our live learning classrooms,” Mrs. Rossetti she added. “As the first organization to call Building IV our home, PA Distance will add more science labs, physical education, art and music teaching rooms, a flexible training area, as well as a dedicated student materials shipping and receiving center."
PA Distance will officially call the Nicholson Road building their home on June 8, 2020 and begin the transition for teachers and staff when the new 2020-2021 school year begins this August.
