JPS Board President Paul Abbott and Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker (September 13, 2022)

The Jamestown Public Schools district, including three schools in the district, have been assigned a “targeted for improvement” designation by New York State.

JPS Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said the State Department of Education initially gave the targeted and comprehensive support designations to the district in 2019, “Those are generally based on sub-group performance, so how sub-groups perform on state assessments, graduation rate, and things like that. The problem is, we hit COVID, so it rolled over from ’19 to ’20 and ’20 to ’21 and ’21 to ’22, and so they’ve rolled it again. So hopefully, and we are hoping to move off that list.”

Whitaker said having students back in school is key to moving off the list, “The second things we need to do is make sure that we’re engaging a process that identifies kids early. So, creating an early warning system, making sure that we’re looking at data that says, ‘Hey, maybe this kid is falling off track a little bit.’ How can we bring supports at an early age rather than months or years later when they’re way off the track?”

The Jamestown School Board approved comprehensive improvement plans for the district and improvement plans for Ring Elementary, Jefferson Middle, and Washington Middle Schools at its meeting Tuesday.

Jamestown Public Schools said Dr. Carrie Pawelski, is one of 16 New York music educators among 219 across the country named for the award.

Dr. Pawelski has been the band director at Jefferson for six years, is on staff as a brass technician with the

JHS Red Raider Marching Band and she holds an adjunct position in the School of Music at SUNY Fredonia where she directs the All College Band.

Former student, JHS senior Kylie Luce, nominated Dr. Pawelski.

The Music Educator Award was established to recognize current educators who have made a significant and lasting contribution to the field of music education and who demonstrate a commitment to the broader cause of maintaining music education in the schools.

Each year, one recipient is selected from 10 finalists and recognized for their remarkable impact on students’ lives. The winning honoree will be flown to Los Angeles to attend the 65th Annual GRAMMY Awards® and a range of GRAMMY Week events.

Jamestown Public Schools

School Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said in the message, “When we received this terrible news, my thoughts immediately went out to family and friends. The impact of the passing of a young person has a lasting impact on those close to them, and the school district stands ready to offer support however needed.“

Jefferson Middle School Principal Leslie Melquist said, “Our Jefferson Family is deeply saddened after receiving this terrible news. The student was such a kind, warm-hearted individual and will be missed tremendously.”

The District said the School Crisis Intervention Teams will be available to assist any students and staff in their buildings with any grief support they may need.

Nearly 200 people were in attendance for the Dec. 13, 2019 Jamestown Board of Education meeting at Jefferson Middle School.

JAMESTOWN – Over 150 students, parents, teachers and other community members were at Jefferson Middle School last night to attend the Jamestown School Board meeting and share their concerns about ongoing student behavior problems throughout the district and the impact its having on the community.

The anticipated turnout came after a student lockdown incident on Nov. 6 at Jamestown High School when fighting broke out in the hallway and police had to be called in to help calm things down. In all, 27 different people spoke to the school board, spending over an hour and a half to share concerns and also request changes in school policy.

• RELATED: LISTEN TO FULL DEC. 3 DISCUSSION REGARDING STUDENT BEHAVIOR

Jamestown Teachers Association president Stephanie Sardi

Among those who spoke was Jamestown Teachers Association president Stephanie Sardi, who said the administration needs to bring in more staff members who specialize in helping students with emotional and behavioral issues.

“As classroom teachers we are not in the position to meet the needs of students who should be seen by an interventionist on a regular basis,” Sardi said during her statement on behalf of the JTA. “The students we are talking about are those who are victims and witnesses of emotional, psychological and physical abuse. These students need to be identified and supported by the appropriate staff members at the very first sight of distress. So what is the purpose of us being here tonight? Our purpose is to let you know the Jamestown Teachers Association is going to continue to advocate for better work conditions for everyone – not just the teachers, but for the staff and students in each building.”

Another who spoke was parent Joanne Dean, who said that unless changes are made, more and more students who don’t have behavioral issues will leave the district.

“Our district seems to be doing a great job at providing resources needed to support the 25-30 percent of our student population that doesn’t graduate by keeping kids in school and increasing daily attendance. But this seems to be done at the expense of the 70-75 percent majority of our population. Those students are going to start leaving Jamestown Public Schools to attend a district where they will be the focus. We can’t afford for this to happen.”

Jamestown resident and parent Joanne Dean

Another parent who spoke was Alyssa Canfield, who said that even though her spouse works at Jamestown, her family is still considering having their children attend school outside of the district.

“We have four daughters in the Jamestown School district and one is in eighth grade and she is currently in AP classes. But we have had the conversation about putting money aside, because if our other children aren’t able to attend these classes, we will be paying to send them somewhere else. That should say a lot, coming from a teacher of the district who wants to send his kids somewhere else.”

Several students also spoke to the school board, including those Dylan Lydell, who said the district needs to bring back programs that provided better support for at risk students, like night school and other alternative educational programs.

“To be perfectly honest, most of the students who attend JHS are good. But it’s the other small percentage who don’t know how to show basic respect and behavior in school who ruin it for everyone else,” Lydell said. “We’re not exactly sure why the night O.S.S. and AP programs were ended, but the board stated it was due to budgetary constraints. The board also felt the night program wasn’t doing enough to help students academically. So instead they took the students who did not belong in a classroom because they can’t participate in basic behavioral practices and stuck them in with students who actually care about their studies. Behavior problems started almost immediately.”

Much of the concerns and criticisms from the public comment were aimed at both current high school principal Rosemary Bradley – who only joined the district at the start of this year, along with former school superintendent Tim Mains (who left the district in early 2017), who critics say was responsible for reducing or eliminating the consequences and punishment that had been used to deal with poor behavior. Some who spoke also voiced disappointment that their repeated concerns have fallen on deaf ears with the current administration.

The Jamestown Board of Education during the Dec. 3, 2019 meeting

“This is not a new problem. This problem was addressed and then ignored under old superintendent Tim Mains. Then almost two years ago, this was brought up with new superintendent Dr. Apthorpe during a meeting with JTA,” explained 4th grade teacher Joey Leone. “I thought JTA did a great job of presenting at the meeting. We talked about the problems of student behavior and discipline. We offered some solutions or ideas. I walked away feeling very frustrated, not really listened to, and dismissed. These feelings were also shared by my colleagues.”

Following the public comment, board president Paul Abbott thanked those who attended and said he and others will encourage the administration better deal with misbehavior across the district.

“I know this has been focused on the high school to a great deal but I also agree with the comments about making sure that we’re getting our house in order right from the foundation with our kindergartners and first graders. This is very important to us. I’m not asking for any credit for it, but I can tell you that we have labored over this a great deal even before Nov. 6 and we expect some immediate improvements.”

Jamestown School Superintendent Bret Apthorpe during the Dec. 3 school board meeting.

Prior to the public comment, School Superintendent Bret Apthorpe provided further details on a series of action steps that have been introduced in response to the high school lockdown incident, although the return of night school was not on the list. He did, however, say that among the steps being taken was identifying and removing 45 students from the high school who’ve exhibited chronic absenteeism and behavior issues. Those students will not be given alternative education programming at the school’s Tech Academy.

Apthorpe also said told WRFA following the meeting that other steps can and will be taken in the coming months. In the meantime, he was also thankful so many stakeholders showed up because it shows the community cares about its schools.

“It was a great two hours of public feedback and discussion. We need a lot more of that in this community,” Apthorpe said. “I thought the last speaker of the night – a mother of six kids – I thought she was very articulate about this should be the start of a conversation and a larger conversation of our community and being involved. I think its very healthy to have this sort of dialogue.”

Apthorpe also said he could not discuss how the district would deal with high school principal Bradley in the wake of the criticism from the students and staff, which included a vote of no confidence from JTA last month.

“While I can’t get into any individual personnel piece, it ultimately stops with me, the superintendent. So if our environments are not where they need to be I expect to be held accountable for that and the opposite is true of that. I expect people to do there jobs and hold them accountable for that,” Apthorpe said.

Apthorpe also said that the district will be providing an update on the various steps that have been undertaken and how they’ve impacted student behavior later this school year, most likely in mid March.

• LISTEN DIRECTLY AT SOUNDCLOUD

JAMESTOWN – An estimated 150+ teachers, parents and students attended the Dec. 3, 2019 Jamestown School Board meeting at Jefferson Middle School, with two hours of the meeting devoted to concerns regarding student behavior throughout the district, as well as the recent incident at Jamestown High School that put the building into a lockdown. Opening remarks by Superintendent Bret Apthorpe, followed by more than an hour-and-a-half of public comment from 28 different people in attendance and moderated by Board president Paul Abbott.

James School Board president Paul Abbott and school superintendent Bret Apthorpe during an April 2019 school board meeting.

JAMESTOWN – Officials with Jamestown Public Schools are expecting a large turnout for the Board of Education’s next regularly scheduled public meeting on Tuesday night, Dec. 3 beginning at 6 p.m.

As a result of the expected large audience, the meeting’s location has been changed to the auditorium of Jefferson Middle School. It was previously planned to be held in the school board meeting room inside the school administration building.

Tuesday’s meeting will be the school board’s first publicly held meeting since Jamestown High School was put into lockdown on Nov. 6 in response to fights that had broken out in the building. Following the incident, both parents and teachers voiced concern about the fighting and how the lockdown process played out. The Jamestown Teachers Association also announced it had issued a vote of no confidence in new high school principal Rosemary Bradley.

Meanwhile, the school board held a closed-door meeting the week after the lockdown to discuss student discipline matters and to finalize several action steps that would be taken in order to work toward preventing similar incidents from happening in the future.

The agenda for Tuesday’s meeting allows for an opportunity for public comment near the start of the meeting. The complete agenda can be found online at the school website.