Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker addresses Jamestown School Board (June 6, 2023)

The Jamestown School Board has approved a plan related to changing the high school’s “Red Raider” nickname.

The New York State Department of Education required the district to submit a plan by June for review and approval by the state.

Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said the plan is a multi-year process, “I do know that Mr. (Ben) Drake, who is the chair of the (Mascot) Committee, spoke with over the announcements to the high school students today. And there is soon to be, if not already, a survey going out to the staff, to the parents, and to kids around the brainstorming of the name and then the process will follow as detailed in this plan.”

Jamestown Public Schools Proposed Mascot Plan

Whitaker said the Mascot Committee will use public input to narrow down the nickname possibilities and select a new nickname by the end of this calendar year with implementation in the 2024-25 school year.

The board also approved a contract with Armoured One to perform a security vulnerability assessment of all school buildings. The cost of the service is $19,000. Whitaker said the company will begin work this week. Once the assessment is done, a report will be given to the Superintendent, the Safety and Security Committee, as well as the School Board.

The Board recognized outgoing board member Shelly Leathers, who is stepping down after 10 years of service. She was praised for her “no nonsense” work on Finance Committee. The two ex-officio student members, Emylia Hallberg and Aubrey Reynolds, also were recognized for their service to the board.

JPS Board President Paul Abbott, Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker, District Clerk Juanita Walter (May 17, 2023)

The Jamestown High School Varsity Boys Swimming team will be merging with three other districts for the 2023-24 school year.

Jamestown School Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said the merger with Frewsburg, Southwestern, and Falconer is due to number of participants across all four districts. Frewsburg will be the host school.

School Board member Christine Schnars questioned why a school the size of Jamestown is having trouble with student participation in sports and other activities.

Whitaker said he had had that same discussion with Athletic Director Ben Drake and PTO President Joanne Dean, whose son is on the swim team, “Post COVID, the pretty dramatic drop off in interest in student participation in clubs, and activities, and sports. So, both of those things together, we have an issue as do many other school districts.”

Whitaker said he doesn’t have an answer for why participation is down specifically for the swim team.

Board President Paul Abbott wondered if the school’s Community Navigators could have a role in encouraging students to participate in extra curriculars, “That ought to be a task of somebody to reach some of these kids and get them into sports or music. It certainly enhances their educational experience but also, statistically, it absolutely increases their chances of graduating.”

Board Member Joe Pawelski shared that band and orchestra instruments had been purchased for students to use as well as demonstration programs held for elementary students to try out instruments to increase their interest in playing.

WRFA’s Collin Wood chats with Ben Drake, who is stepping down from the head basketball coach position at Jamestown High School. Drake, who in 25 years racked up numerous achievements, reflects on his time coaching.

Ben Drake

After 25 seasons as the Jamestown High School Basketball Coach, Ben Drake is stepping down.

Drake will remain the District’s Athletic Director.

His announcement ends a coaching tenure that has turned Jamestown into one of the state’s elite basketball programs, amassing 425 wins, 17 Erie County Interscholastic Conference Division I titles, seven Section VI titles, three appearances in the New York State Public High School Association Final Four, most recently in 2022, and two appearances in the state title game in 2011 and 2014.

Drake said he’s stepping away to focus more on family and ministry.

The district will begin an immediate search for the program’s next leader.

Coach Ben Drake talks with Collin Wood and discusses his 9-2 (5-0) Red Raiders team. They are off to a hot start, and are in pursuit of yet another SECTION VI title.

Jamestown School Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker addresses Jamestown School Board (January 24, 2023)

Jamestown Public Schools will have two new sports team offerings this Spring.

The Jamestown School Board approved the creation of a Unified Basketball team and a Girls Flag Football team at its meeting Tuesday.

Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said the Unified Basketball team is aimed at promoting social inclusion for special education students. He said unified sports has been a “growing phenomenon” in the last several years, “Basketball, I think, might have been one of the first, possibly track and field. But over the course of the last several years, it’s grown in popularity and interest. And so, Ben Drake, in conversation with other Section VI athletic directors saw that there was an opportunity for us to have competition and to begin this program. So, we wanted to make sure we gave kids the opportunity to participate in sports no matter what their developmental level as opposed to their age.”

Whitaker said students approached the District about creating the Girls Flag Football team, “Our students came forward and said, ‘Hey, why can’t we have a flag football team? There are other teams around.’ So, Ben Drake, our athletic director said, ‘If you can get enough people, we’ll get it done.’ So, that’s the process. We have a number of other teams who are interested in playing. It’s a very popular sport that’s growing in popularity. And I know, I’ve spoken to a number of superintendents who are interested in starting teams. And so I would anticipate we will have both local and sectional competition.”

Both team sports will be added for the Spring 2023 season

The Board also made the final approval to the new Visitors to Schools policy. The new policy includes the purchase of technology to screen visitors as well as issue photo identification that visitors will wear while in district buildings.

Chief Information Officer Jessie Joy said front office staff at all 11 locations will be trained on the new equipment by the middle of next week.

Athletic Director Ben Drake makes presentation on scholar athletes to School Board

Scholar athletes and the Jamestown High School Football team were recognized for their efforts at the Jamestown School Board meeting Tuesday night.

Athletic Director Ben Drake said studies have shown that inter-scholastic athletics improve graduation rates, school attendance, decrease discipline issues, and there’s a correlation with improvement with grade point averages. He said this was the first year they can remember where every one of the high school’s varsity teams were named scholar athlete teams, “During the first ten weeks of the school year, take the top 75% of every roster and if it comes out to a 90% or better, you’re named a scholar athlete team. And we always have a few teams but this is the first year that we could remember that every team in the season was a scholar athlete team, so that over 75% of our varsity athletes this year had a 90% or higher GPA in the Fall.”

Drake said 18 students were named All Western New York Scholar Athletes, “And in order to do that, you have to be a senior and you have to have a cumulative GPA of 90% or higher from your first six semesters in high school. And so 18 of them is a lot. We always have a handful. Some seasons we’ll have more than others but 18 is quite a few so I just want to recognize them.”

The Jamestown High School Football team was recognized for their accomplishments this season and the players offered their thanks to the school board for all of their support for the team.

Jamestown High School Individual Fall All-WNY Scholar-athletes:

Cecelia Eklum (girls tennis) – winner

Rylie Loomis (girls volleyball) – winner

Nick Miraglia (football) – winner

Jaymin Morano (boys cross country) – winner

Ben Anderson (football) – honorable mention

Madison Arthurs (girls tennis) – honorable mention

Skyela Banse-Fay (girls soccer) – honorable mention

Mia Brown (girls tennis) – honorable mention

Colton Cappalino (boys cross country) – honorable mention

Nicole Carlson (girls volleyball) – honorable mention

Regan Coombs (girls volleyball) – honorable mention

Hannah Grey (girls volleyball) – honorable mention

Rena Huntington (girls tennis) – honorable mention

Cadance Main (girls volleyball) – honorable mention

Nicole McGrath (girls tennis) – honorable mention

Natalie Reinhardt (girls swimming) – honorable mention

Haileigh Rhodes (girls soccer) – honorable mention

Annika Spitzer (girls tennis) – honorable mention

Ben Drake with JPS Mascot Proposal

A return to a “big cat” has been proposed as Jamestown High School‘s new mascot.

Jamestown High School Mascot Committee member and Athletic Director Ben Drake gave that proposal to the Jamestown School Board Tuesday night.

The Mascot Committee had decided in 2014 to stop using the Native American caricature and then again in 2020 recommended the board approve changing the mascot and logo to remove all Native American imagery.

The board approved that recommendation in July but voted down a resolution to change the team name of “Red Raiders.”

Drake said the first mascot in Jamestown’s history was a “big cat” in the early 1900s, “And so after lengthy discussions, the committee ultimately was in favor of going ‘back to our roots’ with that original logo. We just felt that it provided a great story behind the re-brand. And the committee felt that story of the Red Raiders, how that logo has changed over the years would be very educational to our students and our community.”

Drake said two local graphic artists were hired to create design proposals with 360 Graphics being ultimately chosen by the committee.

Board Member Pat Slagle said he thinks it’s important to look back at history and working with the Seneca Nation on why the district ever used the Native American imagery, “Why other sports teams and things went that way and why it’s important to go back and to, you know, not just try to bury that aside but to recognize that chapter in our history but I think it’s very important to go back to what the old mascot was and I love the updated version, how we could easily use all kinds of different variations of that.”

Board President Paul Abbott encouraged the community to provide feedback on the new mascot and logo.

The Jamestown School Board must still vote to adopt the new mascot and logo.

Athletic Director Ben Drake chaired the mascot committee, which had 20 members from coaches, student athletes, parents, teachers, and members of the committee. He said the committee originally formed in 2014, “And at that time, the committee had decided to cease using the Native American imagery. And during that time we adopted the new logo of the “J” with the feathers. And we’ve been using that for the last six-plus years.”

Drake said the committee looked back in history and found the sport teams in Jamestown were known as the “Red and Green” from the early 1900s until the 1930s. He said the late 1930s is when they found the first reference to “Red Raiders,” “In the late ’40s is when the first mascot was seen in yearbooks. And the original Red Raider mascot was what we’re referring to as a big cat-slash-panther. That was used sporadically over the next 20 years. And in the early 1970s is the first time that we saw, and it was on the side of a football helmet, the first Native American logo.”

Drake said the committee will continue meeting through the summer and into the next school year to make further recommendations.

The Jamestown School Board accepted the award of a $10-thousand dollar grant from the United Way for the Summer LEAP program. The board also passed the Bond Resolution for $86,500,000. The resolution had been approved by district voters in May. The money will be used for reconstruction and renovation to various District buildings and facilities.

Members of the Jamestown board of education discuss the 2015-16 budget during the April 15 board work session. From left to right: Dan Johnson, Laurel Lucas, Shelly Leathers, Paul Abbott, and board president Joe DiMaio.

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown School Board is inching closer to completing a budget for next school year, but there’s still some work left to be done.

On Wednesday the school board spent over two and a half hours reviewing the tentative $77.6 million budget that was presented by Superintendent Tim Mains on April 7.

The meeting focused primarily on five budget items – staff reductions, professional development, athletics, fund balance and taxes. The tentative budget calls for 16 positions being cut primarily through attrition, although there is also the potential for four layoffs.

All five board members who were at the meeting agreed that the district should do what it can do prevent any layoffs from happening. As a result, they asked Mains to come back with a budget that cuts funding in professional development – along with several other areas – in order to stop the layoffs from happening. That would mean Mains will have to cut an estimated $200,000 from other areas in order to bring back the four positions.

Following the meeting, School Board President Joe DiMaio said it’s obvious the board wants to save as many jobs as possible, although each board member has a slightly different opinion on how to do that.

“When you have a board of education, you have people that come from different [backgrounds] and that’s the good thing about it. It sometimes makes it more difficult, but it’s also a good thing,” said DiMaio. “I realize it makes it tougher on Tim and the rest of his administrative staff, but at the same time it’s important for them to know what’s important for us.”

The largest line item likely to see a cut is professional development – which had more than $400,000 devoted to it in the initial budget presentation.

Because Jamestown is considered a Focus district by the state, Mains said it’s crucial that the district invest in professional development in order to not only bring up student performance in the coming years, but also to ensure all teachers in the district are better equipped to deal with a changing education climate.

“Traditionally, teachers did a lot of training up front, they got good at their craft and then the just kept delivering and delivering. And that’s the old model,” Mains explained. “The new model is, in the world outside of schools, things are changing all the time… so if we’re going to adjust as a system to be able to prepare our kids for that very volatile world that their about to graduate and move into, then we need to be stepping up our game. I believe that change is going to be the constant for education – for us and for schools across the country.”

As for bringing back four positions, Mains said he’s already found a way to save two jobs by providing two of individuals with a Long Term Substitution position, adding that he’ll do his best to find a way to protect the two other positions.

“I felt that I’ve already cut the four [positions] down to two,” Mains said. “If it’s a question of trying to avoid two more, I’ve already begun to anticipate that. And so I believe I can come up with an adjustment, I just hope that the board can be comfortable with it.”

Mains would not publicly say which of the four positions were facing layoffs – due to confidentiality reasons and because the budget has not yet been finalized.

As part of the budget discussions, Jamestown Athletic Director Ben Drake delivered a presentation regarding the costs associated with running extra curricular athletics. In addition, Jessie Joy – Director of Curriculum, Instruction & Assessments – gave a presentation on the benefits of Professional Development, along with two other staff members.

In addition to DiMaio, board members Paul Abbott, Dan Johnson, Shelly Leathers and Laurel Lucas were also in attendance. Tom Pope and Pat Slagle were absent, although Mains said each passed along their thoughts on the budget prior to the start of Wednesday’s meeting. With the exception of Pope, all other board members have said they are comfortable with a slight tax increase of 1.5 percent – which they feel is necessary in order to help prevent any more programming or position cuts.

Mains will return with a revised budget at the board’s next meeting on April 21. It has until April 26 to approve a spending plan and put it before a public vote.

More information and comments regarding the budget will be available during this week’s Community Matters program, which airs at 6 p.m Thursdays / noon Sundays on WRFA.