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JPS Faces Struggle To Fill Vacant Positions

A parent is asking the Jamestown Public Schools Board of Education to fill a vacant orchestra position at Washington and Jefferson middle schools.

Jennifer Lumia spoke during Tuesday’s board meeting and said it is important to fill the position as quickly as possible because morning ensembles start this week.

“As the mother of two Jefferson orchestra students, I have seen many benefits of this program, such as increased cognitive development, transfer of skills between instruments, better understanding of mathematical concepts, appreciation for the payoffs of hard work and perhaps most importantly, an appreciation of this art and its therapeutic properties,” Lumia said.

“I am sorry that I do not have any helpful strategies for locating a qualified person this late in the school year. I wish only to ask that the district get creative in quickly filling this position in the short term while not setting a precedent that will devolve into the reduced capacity to offer a strong orchestra program at the middle schools in the future.”

Neither board members nor Bret Apthorpe, district superintendent, responded to Lumia’s comments. Apthorpe, however, said the orchestra position isn’t the only position the district is having trouble filling.

Apthorpe discussed during his superintendent’s report the difficulty the school district is having filling English as a Second Language positions and technology positions.

He discussed those issues during a recent phone conversation with Beth Berlin, interim state education commissioner. Apthorpe said Berlin told him other school districts in the state are running into the same problem.

“I explained to the commissioner that in this part of the world, in Western New York, that SUNY Fredonia, there is a symbiotic relationship between the health of the education program at SUNY Fredonia and the schools of Western New York because of the physical proximity,” Apthorpe said. “We have three ESL positions open and we literally have no applicants. I mean no bodies. And SUNY Fredonia does not have that program. In terms of finding a certified teacher in technology, SUNY Oswego is the generator of technology teachers around the state. … I can’t, nor would I, just put anybody, even if they had certification in New York, in the classroom. You don’t want to have the wrong person. But we literally have no applicants for those positions.”

In other business, school board members unanimously approved a resolution accepting a grant from the Jamestown PROMISE Fund to pay for 1,000 ponchos. Joe Pawelski, school board member and a member of the PROMISE Fund board, said the PROMISE Fund board discussed the idea at its latest meeting. The ponchos will cost $1,129.60 and will be distributed to building principals so that they can be given to students.

“The Promise Fund is also going to have a winter clothing drive to try to stockpile winter coats, mittens, boots and stuff like that,” Pawelski said.

“As we talked around the table, it came up that maybe we should do something like rain ponchos for all the kids so you don’t see somebody walking down the street in the morning soaking wet and coming to school soaking wet.”

Board members also accepted a donation of 10 Cordoba 15 centimeter ukuleles, eight Cordoba C3M classical guitars, classical guitar strings, 18 chromatic tuners, 10 a-frame stands, eight classical guitar bags and 10 ukelele bags through the Guitar Center Music Foundation.

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