Regional learning alliance offers school districts opportunities to innovate [Video]

California Area School District is 3D printing its way into an elementary orchestra program.

The Washington County school district, where a third of residents live below the poverty line, is not able to provide students with costly string instruments, nor are many of its families in a position to rent or buy them.

That meant innovating, and Superintendent Laura Jacob put the district’s 3D printers to use to supply instruments for elementary school students.

“A lot of kids don’t get into playing music because of the cost of lessons and then the cost of renting the instrument,” said Jacob, who became California’s superintendent during the covid-19 pandemic. “The covid disruption gave us the liberty to think outside the box.”

California Area is part of the Western Pennsylvania Learning 2025 Alliance, a regional cohort of school districts working together with support from The Grable Foundation and the national School Superintendents Association. …