TIONESTA, Pa. (EYT) — A local second-grade teacher is celebrating 35 years of service to the West Forest School District.

Erin O’Toole Brannon, of Oil City, graduated from Clarion University in 1986. After graduation, she taught fifth grade at Madison Elementary in Madison, Ohio for one year before heading to West Forest in 1987 to begin her career as a second-grade teacher.

Erin worked hard to keep current in the educational setting by obtaining graduate credits either on campus or through distance learning. In obtaining her graduate credits, she attended Gannon for the majority of her masters credits but also attended Clarion, Penn State, Wilks, The College of Saint Rose, Millersville, University of Alaska, John Carroll, Carlow and Indiana Wesleyan University.

When the pandemic occurred in 2020 and teaching and learning were done remotely, she took classes at Clarion to learn how to be an effective online teacher. She also completed Google Certified training to become a Google Certified teacher.

During her tenure at West Forest, Erin held several coaching positions. In her first twelve years and her last four, she coached elementary basketball. She also coached junior varsity basketball for four years. In 2021, she was an assistant high school baseball coach. Every year, she did a second-grade yearbook for her students.

Erin’s mother, Mary Schierberl O’Toole, came to Tionesta to teach English Language Arts in 1948 and retired in 1987. Her father, Michael O’Toole, spent his career at West Forest from 1950 to 1986 as a biology teacher and then the high school principal.

She resides in Oil City with her husband of 28 years, Ken “Teke” Brannon. Her daughter, Mallory, has followed in the family tradition and is teaching junior high math in Union City. Her son, Nolan, is a senior at Slippery Rock University studying to be a physician assistant.