Barbi Price

Barbi Price, a longtime educator in the Jamestown Public Schools system, will deliver the keynote address at Jamestown High School’s 2024 Commencement exercises on Thursday, June 20, at the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater.

Price retired from Jamestown High School in 2022 after spending 43 years of service to the district.

“Our student panel and I are thrilled to have Mrs. Barbi Price deliver the keynote address at this year’s Commencement ceremony,” said Allyson Smith, Jamestown High School principal. “Mrs. Price was influential in many of these students’ academic careers, having many of them request her Public Speaking class in her final year of teaching. We look forward to welcoming her ‘home’ to share one final message with our graduates as we send them off into the world.”

Price began her career in Jamestown in 1979 as an English teacher at Jamestown High School. She spent two years at Jefferson and five years at Washington Middle School, where she invented “Movie and a Muffin,” an early morning movie-literature activity that she brought back to JHS with her in the late 2000s. At JHS, she taught Drama, Biography, Art Born of Art, Poetry, Advanced Placement Language and Composition, ninth-grade Advanced Track English, and college-level Public Speaking. She also served for 10 years as chair of the English department.

Simultaneous to her career at JHS, Price served as an adjunct English instructor at Jamestown Community College for 33 years. She spent two years as an “honorary member” of the JHS A Cappella Choir, singing with them during class and during previous commencement ceremonies, and also spent two years as a member of Brandy Fuller’s Advanced Placement art courses at JHS. She enjoyed being a student with her students and learned much from them!

“I am thrilled to be speaking to students who are so talented, intelligent, motivated, and charming,” said Price. “I remember them when I had them as every-other-day freshmen right after COVID. Many were in my sophomore homeroom class. I am so very fond of many of these kids, and I hope that anything I have to say will be meaningful and helpful to them on their journey through life.”

Price holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Denison University and a master’s degree in Educational Administration from the University of Virginia. She and her husband Tom have been married for 50 years and are the proud parents of four JHS alumni — Pie, Markie, Pen, and Coco.

The 2024 JHS Commencement Ceremony will be held on Thursday, June 20, at 7 p.m. at the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater. The ceremony will be live streamed at jpsny.org/graduation. Baccalaureate will be held on Tuesday, June 18, at Ss. Peter & Paul Church at 7 p.m. For any questions regarding graduation activities, contact Jamestown High School at 716-483-3470.