Antietam School District teachers clean Carsonia Park and Crystal Lake

Mar. 21—Antietam School District teachers spent a recent morning outside their classrooms, digging debris from the muck edging Crystal Lake and clearing litter from the fields and woods of surrounding Carsonia Park.

More than 70 teachers participated in a cleanup of the park property, mostly in Exeter Township and partly in Lower Alsace Township, as part of an in-service day on Friday.

"The focus of our day today was embracing the community, which is part of our mission," said Dr. Heidi A. Rochlin, district superintendent. "So everything today was about coming together and learning about each other and learning about our community."

The district's close to 100 teachers had the option of choosing three workshops from a selection that included the hands-on environmental cleanup and sessions on building a social-emotional friendly classroom and teaching children who have experienced trauma.

The majority of those who were physically able chose the park cleanup as one of their options, she said.

The 27-acre property is owned by the Mount Penn Borough Municipal Authority, which harnesses water from beneath the lake and park to supply about 30,000 households in Mount Penn, St. Lawrence, Lower Alsace and part of Exeter.

Much of the land is leased to the Antietam Valley Recreation and Community Center for a swimming pool, recreation center, playground, basketball courts and ballfields. The rest of the area encompassing the lake is used for passive recreation.

Removing litter and other contaminants from the tract helps to protect the water sources beneath the lake and ground, said Joseph Boyle, vice chairman of the Mount Penn Borough Municipal Authority and chairman of the source-water protection committee.

He organized the teachers into two work shifts for a total of three hours spent clearing litter and other debris from the lakeside and surrounding area.

"I was here for both sessions, and we were pulling tires, tires and tires, and beer cans out of the woods," Rochlin said, gesturing to a pile of about 20 tires awaiting pickup for proper disposal.

Fifth-grade teacher Scott Kerper used a rake to remove litter, decaying leaves and other vegetation from the lake's edge.

He and his wife, Michelle, of Ontelaunee Township both teach in the Antietam district.

"When we first got here," Kerper said, "we were asked to look for any trash and to rake leaves up from the lake." Pointing across the lake, he added, "Some other teachers are picking up logs back there."

Tangled fishing line, plastic bottles, beer and soda cans and fragments of foam coolers were among the non-biodegradable items collected for proper disposal.

Originally scheduled for March 2020, the cleanup was delayed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Berks County.

"I greeted everybody this morning saying, 'Welcome three years and three days later,'" Boyle said.

The cleanup Friday was a first step in an estimated $1 million state and federal grant-funded lake improvement project aimed at protecting the underground aquafers, he said.

In the last 40 years, Boyle said, the lake has been heavily damaged by stormwater runoff and sediment, pollution from non-native migratory geese, litter and other contaminants. Removal of sediment from the lake bottom will return its depth to about 10 feet from the currently reduced depth of about 3 feet, he said. The harvested sediment will be used to build up a section of the lake's east end to form a wetland area that will strain stormwater flow.

The project, targeted to start in 2024, will include a series of storm-sewer management measures, including repairs and modifications to the lake spillway and planting native species to reduce shoreline erosion.

Boyle, who teaches earth sciences and global geography at Daniel Boone High School, said the restored lake and wetlands habitat will become resources for teachers in area school districts.

"Teachers can bring their students and do biology, environmental biology, ecology, chemistry and those sorts of programs here," he said. "It's going to be a destination."

Seeing so many Antietam teachers digging in and helping with the cleanup made her heart happy, Rochlin said.

"The teachers were covered in filth," she said, "and they were happy to do it. I'm really proud of them. They did a really good job."