Edgeworth Elementary fifth graders gain TV production experience

The next Walter Cronkite or Barbara Walters could be sitting today in a fifth-grade chair at Edgeworth Elementary School.

Quaker Valley School District has helped give its young learners a chance to experience what it is like to be TV reporters with a recently upgraded student studio.

Several students each week are selected to run the Edgeworth morning announcements. Broadcasts include weather reports, professional and school district sports scores, birthday announcements as well as the day’s lunch menu.

The studio was first created in 2018 through an Edgeworth Parent-Teacher Association, now called the Home and School Association.

It recently underwent an estimated $9,200 renovation including three new 4K Canon video cameras, teleprompters, cabling, software, a switchboard controller and monitors. Gone are the iPads and other entry-level equipment.

“Our goal is to give our students an authentic, real-world experience in video production,” said Erik Kolodziej, an Edgeworth music teacher who oversees the studio. “The original news concept worked with well with iPads. We are now ready for the next step in growing the program by upgrading to equipment that emulates what is used in real-world recording and production applications.”

Upgrades were made possible through donations from the Edgeworth HSA, Edgeworth Fifth Grade Class of 2023, the Sewickley Valley Community Fund as well as fundraisers at Caliente Pizza & Draft House.

“Multimedia is definitely where we want development across the community,” Sewickley Valley Community Fund board member Brennan Hydzik said. “It was in line with our intent to continue to develop the community in providing the resources and tools that our students in our community need. They came to us. They said, ‘We have a gap in our system.’ We decided to help them fill that gap. I’m very happy about it.”

How it works

Edgeworth has about 70 fifth graders. The production involves a minimum of three students.

Two of them sit at a desk in front of a green screen, which usually projects the school or district logo as a background.

Another student is in a production area stage left managing the cameras.

The broadcast starts with a brief music introduction while the school district’s logo is show above the title “Edgeworth Morning News.”

Participants have to arrive at school at least a half-hour earlier than normal in order to go over the script and generate the announcements before homeroom.

They would then go to their classroom and watch the broadcast.

“All fifth graders are given the opportunity to be part of news crew,” Kolodziej said. “Our numbers differ each year depending on interest. We find that it is a big draw with the students. The news crew students are scheduled on a rotating weekly basis.

“They get at least two rotations working in the studio, depending on the numbers we have that year.”

Studio upgrades were spearheaded by parent volunteer Chris Moyer, vice president of Community Voice Channel. That’s a public access station in Connecticut.

Moyer has been involved in TV production for 30 years. He designed Edgeworth’s new layout.

“It’s basically small-scale for what real-world TV production would be,” Moyer said.

His children, Ben and Allie Moyer, were the first reporters to use the upgraded studio. Their broadcasts were the week of Oct. 7 and were posted to the school’s website.

“It was exciting because we knew it would go to the whole school,” Allie said. “One day Ben would do weather, then I’d do sports. He would do food. The next day, I would do food. He would do weather and I’d do sports.”

Ben said he noticed an improvement in sound and picture quality compared to last year’s morning announcements.

Both Allie and Ben said they had a great time in the studio, but were unsure if TV production careers were in their future.

Conor Hart, 10 and Sydney Kusick, 11, were a part of the broadcast team at the end of October.

Sydney was a reporter while Conor worked the controls.

“I thought it was pretty fun,” Conor said about being a camera boss. “I’m not saying school’s not fun, but this is a lot more fun because you get to talk to people and get to see them before school.”

Sydney said she was nervous in her first broadcast, but relaxed as the week went on and became a bit of a celebrity.

“Even if we mess up, we always start again,” Sydney said. “There’s not really that much stress because it’s not like we’re live. You can always be fun because it’s just our school. At first I thought I was going to be really nervous, but when I got here and started doing it, it was perfectly fine.”

Sydney recalled a broadcast in which she wore a red dress. Students later in the day recognized her from the morning announcements and complimented her performance. Her co-anchor was Parker Eldridge.

Conor said watching the production in homeroom gives the crew a chance to critique themselves and improve.

“This is going to the entire school and if the entire school is watching it, I think that gets rid of your stage freight,” he said. Conor encouraged future news crews to relax and enjoy the studio experience.

“It’s going to be hard at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s going to be a lot easier,” Conor said.

Edgeworth librarian Sarah Wilson also helps out in the studio.

How it’s going

The school plans to work with Parkway West Career and Technology Center carpentry students to expand its set.

Moyer said he hopes to create another space in the studio for a student reporter and possibly have an interview segment.

The Edgeworth Morning News has inspired other Quaker Valley schools to step up their broadcasting game.

Osborne Elementary principal Benny Canan said his school began doing video announcements this school year. The Osborne HSA provided funding to purchase startup equipment.

Canan said Kolodzeij was very accommodating in allowing him to observe Edgeworth’s process. Some of Osborne’s teachers also worked with Edgeworth’s team to build their announcement program and learn some tips and tricks.

Quaker Valley Middle School has what it calls an Xpress video announcement program overseen by computer science and technology teacher Tom Demko. He and instructional technology specialist Kieran Vora work with QTech students to conduct interviews and create video content.

QTech has been around for a little more than a year.