Outgoing Jamestown School Superintendent Tim Mains discussed the legal ramifications of a district-wide transgender policy during a presentation to the Jamestown School Board on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017.

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown School Board received its final presentation regarding transgender student policy during its board meeting at Lincoln School on Tuesday night.

Following up on a presentation last month about challenges transgender students face, outgoing superintendent Tim Mains took time to present the legal implications of transgender policy for students, including discussing a recent case that is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding a transgender student in Virginia, who’s challenging his school district’s decision to not provide equal rights for transgender students, as it pertains to federal Title IX law. Mains also discussed implications of current policy already being used in other districts in New York State, along with proposed policies.

Following the presentation, he said regardless of what happens in the courts, the Jamestown School Board should move forward at some point in implement its own policy for its transgender students.

“We already have transgender students that are identifying as transgender at the high school, and it’s likely that we are going to have more students coming forward,” Mains said. “We could have students in our elementary schools and middle schools. So before the number increases, I think it’s important for everyone to know that there is an appropriate way to support those students, and a policy will help us do that.”

Jamestown School Board president Paul Abbott said that he would like to see what happens in the courts, prior to finalizing and approving any type of policy for the district’s trans students.

“The first step to developing any intelligent policy is gathering as much information as you can,” Abbott said. “Certainly we are going to look to the courts and what decisions they render as far as this goes, and we’ll sort of use that for guidance, as Mr. Mains suggested.”

Abbott added that despite any court ruling in favor of our against required transgender policy, the district may still proceed with one of their own.

“We certainly have to comply with anything the courts require us to do legally, but as is the case with any state or municipality, you can afford rights that go beyond what you are required to provide,” he said.

Abbott also said that he doesn’t have timeline in place for when such a policy may be enacted by the school board.

“I don’t think it would be wise to set a hard deadline on it. If it happens by [the start of the new school year], that’s great, but I’m more concerned with having an intelligent policy that’s in compliance, rather than stumbling out with something because we felt like we had to reach a certain date,” the board president explained.

MAINS’ FINAL BOARD MEETING

Last night was also Tim Mains final school board meeting at Jamestown. Last month it was announced he would be leaving the district at the end of this month  to take a new superintendents job on the other side of the state at the Pine Bush School District, located just west of Newburgh, NY.

During last night’s meeting, Abbott and the school board thanked Mains for his three-plus years of service, unveiling Mains’ portrait that will be on display in the school administration building, as well as holding a held small reception for him following the meeting.

Abbott also discussed how the district plans to proceed with finding a new superintendent, saying that the board is currently working to identify a consultant to assist with the process, and more should be known about how it will play out during the next couple months. In the meantime the district has hired Sylvia Root to serve as interim superintendent.

WRFA will focus more on the transgender policy discussion, as well as Main’s departure from the district, during our Community Matters program on Thursday, Feb. 16, at 5 p.m.

Sylvia Root in 2011 (from The Evening Sun newspaper)

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown School Board has appointed an interim superintendent to manage the school after current Superintendent Tim Mains leaves the district at the end of February.

School officials announced on Thursday night that Sylvia Root will serve as the interim superintendent. Root served as the superintendent of Potsdam Central School in Northern New York until her retirement in 2005. Since then, she has assisted various school districts on an interim basis, including Springville-Griffin Institute Central School District in Erie County. Root is from Arcade, NY.

According to the Post-Journal, Root has said her first priority is to familiarize herself with the Jamestown district and to also begin work on the 2017-18 budget.

While Root will serve on the interim superintendent, the school board must now begin the process of finding a new, permanent superintendent. To assist with the search, the school board approved appointing Erie-2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES Superintendent David O’Rourke as search consultant.

Jamestown Public Schools Superintendent Tim Mains

Meanwhile, Mains has also requested the board waive the requirement that he give 60-days notice before leaving the district. On Wednesday, mains was appointed the new superintendent for Pine Bush School District, in the lower Hudson Valley region of the state. As a result his last day in Jamestown will be February 26. According to the Post-Journal, Mains said the Pine Bush school district originally approached him about the position.

As for his reason for leaving Jamestown, he said it was a mutual decision between him and the school board.

In the coming weeks, Mains said he will work with Root to ease the transition process. While he will be finished at the Jamestown school district on Feb. 26, Mains said he is not completely leaving the area.

Mains also reportedly will also continue to have a presence in the Jamestown area, saying he looks forward to continuing relationships he’s established and will enjoy coming to Chautauqua County in the summer. His final board meeting will be Feb. 14.

Jamestown Public Schools Superintendent Tim Mains

JAMESTOWN – Jamestown Public Schools will soon start looking for a new superintendent.

On Wednesday the school district announced that current superintendent Tim Mains will be leaving the district at the end of February to take a job at the Pine Bush Central School District, located in the lower Hudson region of the state, just to the west of Newburgh.

Mains final day at Jamestown will be Feb. 26.

Mains came to Jamestown from the Rochester City School District where, according to his website, he served as Director of Internal School Operations and previously as Elementary School Principal. He took over as Superintendent at Jamestown on August 1, 2013, replacing then-retiring superintendent Deke Kathman. At that time he signed on to a two-year contract, but that agreement was extended for an additional year in January 2015.

His total salary for this year, according to the website SeeThroughNY.net, is $171,286.

In a released statement, Jamestown School Board President Paul Abbott said that the board has been very pleased to have had the opportunity to work with Mains since 2013, adding that the district has accomplished a good number of goals it set out to achieve during his tenure.

Mains also said that it’s important to note that the district’s accomplishments over the past three and half years don’t belong to him, but to the staff, students, parents, and community members who have continued to work together to make Jamestown into a District of distinction.

As a result of his departure, the board will now work to find a new superintendent. In the meantime, Abbot said the board is confident that the district and administration will continue working to achieve all the important goals Mains and the board have set forth.

The Board will address questions regarding Mains’ departure at the regular Board of Education Meeting taking place tonight at 6 p.m. in the Jefferson Middle School auditorium.

MAINS’ IMPACT AS JAMESTOWN SCHOOLS’ TOP ADMIN

According to the Jamestown school district, Mains has made great strides and achieved a number of milestones during his 3.5 years in Jamestown.

Jamestown School Superintendent Tim Mains discusses the 2015-16 budget numbers with the school board during the March 12, 2015 board meeting.

In a media release sent out Wednesday night, the district laid out the numerous accomplishments, including:

• Creating the District’s first ever Strategic Plan involving 140 staff, students, parents, alumni and community members;
• Increasing graduation rates from 69% in 2012 to 77% in 2016;
• Increasing focus on curriculum and instruction in order to meet the new, more rigorous standards and introduction of a district-wide effort towards more differentiated instruction;
• Expanding professional development for staff and adding more coaches to expand teacher leadership and provide support to our classrooms;
• Taking four of the district’s nine schools off the “Focus School” list;
• Forming our own educational foundation – the Jamestown Schools PROMISE Fund, which raised $25,000 in its first 18 months;
• The completion and approval of 10 collective bargaining agreements;
• Revamping our suspension process/program; introduction of trauma-informed and restorative practices; expanding PBIS into our middle schools and high school; and focusing our approach to student behavior management on prevention;
• Complete renovation of four of our nine school buildings; introduction of secure vestibules as a new safety feature as we moved through our $68 million construction project.

But Mains’ time as superintendent has also been met with some criticism. During the 2014-15 school year, there were a number of incidents involving the district’s discipline policy, and Mains was criticized for supporting a policy that placed unruly students in the same environment as those with little to no behavior problems.

Some parents and teachers in the district were also disappointed that Mains was in support of the new common core teaching standards imposed by the state, rather than speaking out against them.