From hosting students completing their early field placements to providing student teaching opportunities, the area’s largest local education program has always worked hand-in-hand with the county’s largest school district.

Last year, the partnership took a new step forward with the signing of a memorandum of agreement that helps address one of the biggest barriers to student access: transportation. Thanks to collaboration on both sides, SUNY Fredonia students can now travel directly to Jamestown’s schools using an already existing bus run that will utilize an empty bus trip to and from the Fredonia area. This allows these students reliable access to necessary classroom experiences.

“As our profession faces a generational shortage of teachers, Jamestown Public Schools is committed to doing everything we can to support and encourage young educators in their development,” said JPS Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker. “Partnering with the teacher preparation program at SUNY Fredonia and providing transportation for students in the midst of that development is a natural opportunity, and we are grateful for the college’s continued collaboration in helping us address this need.

Debra Karpinske-Keyser, director of the SUNY Fredonia Office of Field Experiences, praised the strengthened partnership. While JPS “has always been a strong PreK-12 partner with SUNY Fredonia, I am beyond excited for our new endeavors with the district,” she said.

Jamestown Public Schools and SUNY Fredonia executed a memorandum of agreement last school year that helps provide transportation for college students to complete field placement experiences across the district. Pictured at C.V. Bush Elementary School, from left to right, are Debra Karpinske-Keyser, director of the office of field experiences at SUNY Fredonia; Dr. Kevin Whitaker, JPS Superintendent; SUNY Fredonia students Tahani St. Bernard, Madison Giordani, and Camryn Hauptman; Kate Benson, Bush Elementary Principal; and Tina Sandstrom, JPS Assistant Superintendent of Instruction & School Improvement.

“We have amazing school-based teacher educators who host our pre-service teachers every semester, but getting our candidates off campus has been one of the biggest challenges the Office of Field Experiences faces,” she continued. “With our latest collaboration, our future teachers are now able to gain access to JPS classrooms without the worry of how they are going to get to and from Fredonia. We are so grateful to the district for this opportunity. We look forward to many years of placing teacher candidates in the Jamestown Public Schools.”

Last school year, teacher candidates were placed at C.V. Bush and C.C. Ring elementary schools, as well as Washington Middle School, and Jamestown High School in the city. During the 2025-26 school year, field placements will take place across the district.

Additionally, an increased number of student teachers will also complete their placements at Jamestown schools during the 2025-26 school year thanks to a new incentive program. The initiative offers student teachers a stipend per placement as well as a sign-on bonus, tied to a three-year commitment, to begin their professional teaching career at JPS. Cooperating teachers also receive a stipend as well.

Donnelle Conti, a social studies teacher at Jamestown High School, has long served as a cooperating teacher. Doing so, she notes, has helped “bring in fresh perspectives.”

“Their new ideas, energy, strategies and approaches in the classroom help to rejuvenate my teaching style,” Conti said. “I continue to grow as a teacher as I reflect on the challenges the student teachers face and how to help them handle these situations.”

Her former student teacher, Zackary Peterman, now serves as her colleague after completing his placement during the 2023-24 school year.

“Student teaching with Donnelle showed me that one of the most important aspects of being a good teacher is connecting with both students and staff members,” he said. “I think that I was able to find success as an educator by first understanding that my students weren’t just students, they were people, and the school I was at wasn’t just a school, it was a community.”

For SUNY Fredonia students who traveled to Jamestown last semester, the impact has been immediate.

“This is the first early field placement that I felt was extremely effective in helping me to become a better teacher,” reflected one student. “The cooperating teacher I was placed with was very helpful to me and was constantly teaching me different things in the classroom and made it a point to better my skills as a teacher.”

“My biggest accomplishment during the field experience was teaching a lesson in my first grade classroom,” shared another. “I got the chance to plan a short lesson and do it with a small group. I got a sense of how to handle things. The school’s support system made me feel so welcomed and a part of the school’s culture.”

Karpinske-Keyser knows the power of learning how to be a teacher at Jamestown Public Schools: it’s where she began her career nearly 20 years ago as an English teacher at Persell Middle School.

“Jamestown is a great place to learn and grow as a novice teacher,” she said. “The lessons I learned at JPS are still helping me today in my role at SUNY Fredonia.”