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.

Schools that don’t comply risk losing their state funding.

Jamestown Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said this was a formal adoption of the State Department of Education‘s proposed regulation regarding nicknames and mascots, “So, while before, over the course of the last few months, it was a proposed regulation, and it was open to public comment, public comment closed a short time ago and the Board of Regents met yesterday and they voted unanimously to approve that into regulation.”

The order does not require public schools, school buildings, or school districts named after an Indigenous tribe to change those names.

An exemption to the order is included for federally- or state-recognized tribes to use the banned names, mascots and logos for sports teams comprised of their tribal members. Public schools will also be allowed to continue the use of the names, mascots and logos if an agreement exists in writing between the tribal nation and the school prior to the effective date of the ban, according to the state.

WIVB reports Seneca Nation of Indians President Rickey Armstrong, Sr. issued a statement Tuesday that said, “Respect for Native people and our history should always be the expectation, not the exception. We believe the State’s provision for agreements between school districts and Native Nations should be rare and limited, rather than an open invitation for districts to go ‘approval shopping’ among Native Nations. The Seneca Nation will carefully consider how that standard may potentially apply within our community.”

The decision by the state board of regents goes into effect on May 3.

JPS Board President Paul Abbott reads statement on Raiders nickname (February 28, 2023)

The Jamestown Public Schools district has been ordered to change the Raiders nickname or risk losing state aid.

School Board President Paul Abbott, reading a prepared statement, said Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker and six other districts in the region had a virtual meeting recently with members of the State Department of Education regarding nicknames or mascots that were questionable or needed to be changed.

He said State Education informed districts that the Raiders nickname could no longer by used, “Districts that do not comply will not receive state aid. They have set a timetable for these changes. So over the next two plus school years we have to replace all school uniforms, paint over all walls, and replace any flooring or turf at the expense of local taxpayers. The state is not funding any of this.”

Abbott reminded board members that the district willingly went through the process, starting in 2014, of removing Native American imagery following a letter received from the Seneca Nation, “It is also worth noting that as we continued through the process and chose a new mascot in 2021, we collaborated and communicated with the Seneca Nation. Let me say this – If this is the final decision on the matter, we will change. Priority one with this Board has always been the students. We won’t do anything that we can clearly see would be bad for students. We won’t lose taxpayer money over a mascot.”

Whitaker said the district’s plan for the process they will follow for a nickname change must be approved by the School Board and submitted to the State by June, “Then, in the next year, meaning 2023-24, we have to change all of the imagery, anything that is relatively inexpensive to change. Then by 2024-25, June of 2025, we have to change everything. So, that would be turf, very expensive stuff, turf, uniforms, things like that.”

Whitaker said the district does plan to reconvene the Jamestown High School Mascot Committee to work on selecting a new nickname.

School Districts across the state received notice in November 2022 from the State Department of Education that the use of Native American imagery for mascots for schools was being effectively banned, and that additional requirements would be forthcoming. That came after another school district lost its appeal in State Supreme Court to keep its Native American mascot and nickname.

Jamestown Public Schools Board of Education President Paul Abbott statement on the order by the New York State Department of Education that “Raiders” nickname must be changed.

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.

In a letter released Tuesday, State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa wrote that officials “determined there is content on the new Regents Examination in United States History and Government that has the potential to compound student trauma caused by the recent violence in Buffalo.”

The letter continued, “While developed by NYS-certified social studies teachers more than two years ago and field-tested to confirm that the exam’s content is educationally sound, the tragedy in Buffalo has created an unexpected and unintended context for the planned assessment. In the wake of the Buffalo tragedy, it is not appropriate to administer the exam with a question that could compound the grief and hardship faced by our school communities.”

Rosa said that the 2022 exams had already been printed and packaged for shipment to schools so they cannot be altered. The exam was scheduled for June 1.

At the June Board of Regents meeting, the Education Department will ask the board to approve a graduation exemption for students scheduled to take this test next month.

The state penalized the school district in 2012, by $4.9 million, for missing final cost reports for a 2005 capital improvement project. Former State Senator Cathy Young had secured $3 million since 2013 to help the district pay down the penalty and avoid passing the burden onto taxpayers in the rural school district. The remaining penalty balance was $1.9 million.

State Senator George Borrello stated his deep disappointment in the Governor’s veto, saying, “There is zero justification for diverting critically-needed education dollars away from the classroom to pay a bureaucratic fine from almost two decades ago.”

Borrello said the original fee was instituted because of an “administrative error on the final cost report for a capital project.” Both he and Cathy Young had made statements that the unresolved fine prevented a merger with the Clymer School District.

The James Prendergast Library

JAMESTOWN – The James Prendergast Library Board of Trustees will wait until at least the fall before it determines whether or not it will change its bylaws to determine how future trustees are selected and whether or not to establish a residency requirement.

The Prendergast falls under the category of an Association Library in New York State. Earlier this month residents approved a proposition to create an Association Library District for the library, which allows it to raise $350,000 each year through a library property tax that will be added to the Jamestown School District tax bill. The library district – which follows the same boundaries as the school district – was established to help offset a recent reduction in funding from city government. The new $350,000 levy also can not be adjusted or eliminated unless another public vote takes place.

As a library board, the trustees have the fiduciary responsibility of overseeing the annual budget, which now will include the annual library tax paid by all property owners in the district.

If the Prendergast were a Public Library instead of an Association Library, it would be required by state law to hold elections for its board members or have them appointed by other elected officials, such as the mayor and city council. There is no state law mandating a process for selecting trustees for association libraries, but the New York State Education Department (NYSED) states at its website that an association library can emulate the basic characteristics of a public library by providing a process for, among other things, the public election of its trustees. NYSED also states, “Association Library bylaws should be amended by the board of trustees to ensure that all eligible voters within the library’s service area can ‘join’ the library association as members and participate in annual elections to select library trustees.” NYSED also states that while not mandatory, residential requirements for the board of trustees may be established in an association library’s bylaws.

As it currently stands for the Prendergast Library, only those individuals who serve on the board of trustees are considered “members” and have the ability to select any new trustees to join the board.  And anyone is invited to apply to be a member of the board of trustees, regardless of residency. The bylaws also state that the number of trustees shall not be less than seven nor more than fifteen. As of this month, there are seven trustees who reside within the district and five who do not.

Prior to the vote approving the $350,000 library tax levy, one of the questions that was raised in the community was whether or not there would be a residency requirement for the board of trustees if the district was approved – or even if city residents would be able to directly vote for who they want to serve on the board, similar to what currently happens with the school board.

“This board could vote to institute that. If that’s important to people, let us know,” explained recently-retired Prendergast executive director Tina Scott during a “community conversation” meeting last October. But Scott also added that there hadn’t been a lot of interest in board participation from within the community, or for there to be stricter requirements on who would serve on the board. “It’s tough to get people to sign up to be on the board and [if there was a required public vote] we would need to pay to hold a vote. But if that’s what the community would want, then absolutely. We’d love the participation,” Scott said.

The library’s new executive director Anne Greene also told WRFA earlier this month that changing the bylaws is something the board is willing to consider.

“The board is open to this idea. However, this year it is impossible due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve been focusing on providing service and adhering to public safety guidelines that we have to maintain. But they are definitely open to that and they’ve been discussing it. There would have to be candidates, a campaign, and elections and what not, but they definitely are investigating it,” Greene said.

Because the board doesn’t typically meet during the summer months, the next time it meets wont be until September 17. Whether or not there will be discussion on changing the bylaws for selecting future trustees and also a implementing a residency requirement at that time remains to be seen.

The grant is an annual award of $579,500 over a five-year period, yielding nearly $3 million dollars over the life of the grant. The funds will be used by Jamestown Schools to provide supplemental services and enrichments for some 500 Jamestown elementary and middle school students, during the critical after school hours between 3:00 and 6:00 PM.

The district will work to provide the services with several community partners, including the YWCA, YMCA, Chautauqua Striders, Jamestown Community Learning Council, Infinity, CASAC and the Hispanic Community Council.

The State Education Department awarded more than $78 million in grants to school districts, not-for-profits, institutes of higher education, and other community-focused organizations through the program.

During its February board meeting the board of trustees voted to move forward with selecting the Kinley Corporation of Allegany to serve as lead contractor for its Phase 2 renovation project. Prendergast executive director Tina Scott said the library will pay the company $310,000 to construct a new handicapped-accessible bathroom on the second floor, as well as convert a freight elevator into a passenger elevator.

“People can come right up from the children’s room into the second floor meeting room once the elevator is complete,” Scott said. “So that’s going to be a huge benefit, especially for the mothers with strollers. We also have people who use our meeting rooms that are handicapped and they have a wheel chair, so that will make it much easier, especially with the rest rooms. They won’t have to go back down the elevator and to the front of the library.”

Work will begin this month and will continue for several months, with the project expected to be fully completed by the end of September. Scott said that once the work gets started… she doesn’t think the construction will impact library services.

“Usually what they do is put a wall up, so in the children’s room, near the back, they may have a wall up. I don’t really see that interfering with anything because they’ll probably do must of their work on the backside of the wall, in the staff area. The rest room upstairs will also have a wall during construction, so I don’t think it will impact any services.”

The cost of the project will be covered by a $243,000 grant from the New York State Department of Education’s Public Library Construction grant program, along with a $77,000 grant from the Hultquist Foundation.

New York State is ditching Pearson as its test-maker after years of high-profile missteps, switching to a smaller vendor that will cost more but comes with less baggage, the State Education Department announced earlier this month.

The state awarded a new five-year deal to Questar Assessment Inc., a Minneapolis-based company that has emerged in recent years as a smaller competitor to Pearson, the dominant vendor in the country’s lucrative standardized testing market.

The switch allows the state to distance itself from Pearson, which has faced intense criticism for missteps and errors included in its New York tests and become symbolic of broader concerns about the privatization of public education.

The new $44 million contract, which was not released and is still under review by the state’s attorney general and comptroller, is more expensive than Pearson’s $32 million contract. But it likely includes a requirement to design computer-based exams for use in spring 2017 in addition to paper-and-pencil tests for third through eighth grades in math and English.