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.

JPS Coordinator of Student Support Services and Equity Tamu Graham-Reinhardt presents first year results of the Community Navigator program to the Jamestown School Board (August 30, 2022)

Attendance and course grades went up for students referred to Community Navigators in the Jamestown Public Schools District.

Community Navigator Carmen Perez and JPS Coordinator of Student Support Services and Equity Tamu Graham-Reinhardt presented the first year results of the Community Navigator program to the Jamestown School Board Tuesday night.

The Community Navigator positions were created to help provide a connection between the district and Latino population, including helping overcome language barriers between families and the schools as well helping navigate the technical aspects of schooling.

Two bilingual navigators were hired for the 2021-22 school year with one navigator working full time at the high school and tech academy and the other navigator visiting the middle schools.

Graham-Reinhardt said attendance, behavior, and core academics will be the focus for this coming school year.

She said for students that were referred to the Community Navigators, there was a 63% improvement in attendance, “Our navigators were very tenacious about the families they worked with – getting students to school, improving their attendance, getting them here, following up, ensuring that they have a way to get here. We even had one of the staff actually worked with CARTS to get one of our English-language learners picked up on the bus to be brought here every day for school.”

Graham-Reinhardt said the behavior rate was at 60%, which was down from the previous year, but she said that was due in part to the 2020-21 school year being a hybrid year for in-person attendance so there weren’t the type of behavior referrals you’d normally expect to see.

She said the really important data point was that 71% of referred students passed all their course grades, “So, that’s very encouraging. Because the more that they come to school, once they’re in school they can get their work done. And so we’re really encouraged about these numbers with just the two people that we had working this year.”

The Jamestown School Board had approved hiring two more Community Navigators for this school year, bringing the total to four. Graham-Reinhardt said one will continue to be at the high school and tech academy with the other three, once hired, mainly at the Middle Schools.

She added that the goal for navigators this year is to continue to reach out to struggling students and families to break down mistrust that parents may have and make them feel welcome in the buildings. They also will be expanding discussions with middle and high school students about planning for what happens after high school graduation.

Community Navigators Max Martin and Carmen Perez present to the Jamestown School Board (June 7, 2022)

The Jamestown School Board received its first update on the new Community Navigator program that was started this school year.

The Community Navigator positions were created to help provide a connection between the district and Latino population, including helping overcome language barriers between families and the schools as well helping navigate the technical aspects of schooling.

Navigator Max Martin said he and fellow navigator Carmen Perez spent the first two months of the school year working with the administration to determine needs and responsibilities before starting work with the community, “We saw 139 families, 131 students, and 522 requests. A little note about the requests – Those are requests that are initially one time. It doesn’t mean that additional requests weren’t done or requested. So you probably have if you write everything down, we’re probably talking about thousands instead of 500.”

Carmen Perez says she spends most of her time at the high school while visiting the Tech Academy once or twice a week, “So here’s our areas of concerns: we have family support, attendance, student support, academic, and behavior. One of the biggest (at the high school) is attendance. You know, a lot of things this year that occurred with that is transportation, weather, COVID. COVID was the number one thing too.”
Perez said providers have come to the high school to do presentations and let students know what’s available for resources and career paths, “This is our Espagnol Facebook page for JHS. We’re slowly growing. We got about 80 people on there. We’re growing. Just to connect with them about some of the things going on at the high school, outside services, anything they need, if parents need to get a hold of me here. But, it’s just great that they have something where they’re informed.”

Martin said a resource guide was created for Hispanic families, “And what this does, it gives you all the important part in Spanish for education, the responsibility of the teacher, the responsibility of the student, and the responsibility of the parents. We also give them all the information that they need to reach, if they need to reach anybody in the school district. And one thing that I put in here is something neat. It’s something that tracks the kid from the beginning to end of graduation. So, they can actually see and checkmark all the courses that the kids are taking to see when they’re ready to graduate they’re actually ready to graduate.”

Martin said a referral form also was created for teachers and administrators to easily access Navigator services.

Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said the second Community Navigator presentation to the board will happen this summer and be focused on the data and outcomes of bringing on the new positions. Two new Community Navigators were approved in the 2022-23 school budget and will start in the Fall.