Jamestown Public Market Director Linnea Haskins and Market Community Coordinator Hanna Bavuso present to Jamestown School Board (October 25, 2022)

The Jamestown Public Market has received a $50,000 from the USDA to bring edible gardens to Washington Middle and Bush Elementary Schools.

Public Market Community Coordinator Hannah Bavuso, speaking to the Jamestown School Board, said bringing edible gardens to the schools is a new initiative, “The idea of these edible school gardens is to really engage students in learning about where their food comes from. So taking it from, ‘This is something good to eat. This is not good for you to eat,’ and really showing individuals about what that means. And then empowering them to learn how to do it on their own.”

Bavuso said they will be helping Washington Middle School revitalize their garden and using funds to put tower gardens in at Bush Elementary.

She said the public market had worked with the Summer LEAP program at Fletcher and Bush schools this past summer, working with 165 students, “And really talked about where their food comes from and got them engaged with planting seeds, and we created business plans around food. It was really fun to watch them get inspired and learn about this really important aspect of not just how to nourish our bodies but actually how to grow the things that do nourish their bodies.”

Market Director Linnea Haskins said the program is not only a way to help make Jamestown a healthier community, but it’s also a way to inspire kids to get involved in local agriculture and the local economy.

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.

Governor Kathy Hochul speaks at NY Gun Coalition Meeting (May 25, 2022)

Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed raising the age to buy guns to 21 in addition to increasing police patrols of schools across the state.

These actions came as response to the mass shooting in Texas that claimed the lives of at least 21 people, including 19 elementary school children.

Hochul questioned how an 18-year old can purchase an AR-15 in New York State when they’re not old enough to buy a legal drink, “I want to work with the legislature to change that. I want it to be 21. I think that’s just common sense because as we’ve just seen for the two horrific crimes that we can’t get out of our minds, what happened in Buffalo, what happened in a school, children in Texas? The common denominator, there are three, the weapon was an AR-15. The perpetrator was a male. And the age of the perpetrator was 18. I don’t want 18-year-olds to have guns at least not in the State of New York.”

Hochul already is working with the Legislature to pass two bills to address and streamline the investigation of gun-related crimes. The first would set forth a process to require semi-automatic pistols manufactured or delivered to licensed dealers in New York to be microstamping-enabled. The second piece of legislation would strengthen gun reporting protocols by requiring all law enforcement agencies to report the recovery of any crime gun within 24 hours of their discovery.

Hochul said the increased police presence includes check-ins at schools to be conducted by both uniform and plainclothes members. This effort will continue through the end of the school year.

In Jamestown, Jamestown High School and Washington Middle School were placed under a lockout Wednesday afternoon for a short time period.

Jamestown Public Schools said in a statement that a “suspicious individual was observed outside the high school and a lockout was activated as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of students and staff inside the school. A lockout was also activated at Washington Middle School as a precautionary measure related to a person of interest that JPD was looking for.”

The district said a lockout means that no one is allowed entry into the school, outside classes are brought inside, and interior operations continue as normal. Officials said Jamestown Police responded immediately and verified there was no immediate threat.

Washington Middle School

JAMESTOWN – Jamestown Public Schools Superintendent Tim Mains has issued a statement regarding Washington Middle School being under lock down for one to two hours on Wednesday as local police initiated a drug investigation.

According to a media report, the north-side Junior High School was in lockdown for one to two hours on Wednesday after several students were found to have marijuana on school grounds. School officials became aware that there may be drugs in the school after one student ingested marijuana and became sick. Police then brought in a K9 officer to sweep the school.

There are no criminal charges being placed at this time. The investigation into the incident is ongoing.

On Thursday morning, Superintendent Tim Mains issued the following statement:

An incident at Washington Middle School came to light on Wednesday, involving the presence of marijuana in the school. This statement is to help provide accurate information on what happened, how the school district responded and to dispel any rumors from the incident.

Late in the afternoon on Wednesday, April 9, Washington Middle School’s administration was alerted that marijuana may have been present in the school. Swift and decisive action was taken by Principal Emerson, who called the Jamestown Police Department (JPD) to assist with her investigation. With the able assistance of the JPD,  a number of students were identified as either possessing or having knowledge of the drugs at Washington.  All students involved in the situation are being dealt with according to district disciplinary guidelines. Their identities are appropriately being kept confidential.  The details of the events are still under investigation by both the district and the JPD.

As the superintendent, I take this situation seriously, and I ask for your help in addressing the important issue of drugs in the schools. We must all be vigilant and willing to communicate whenever there is the potential for danger in our schools.  If any parent, student or community member has knowledge of drugs in any Jamestown school, please contact the school principal and/or the Superintendent’s Office immediately. Our district has a zero tolerance policy for drugs in our schools and will take swift and appropriate action against anyone violating that policy.