From left, Jamestown Public Schools Board of Education President Paul Abbott and Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker listen to Director of Human Resources Renee Garrett speak. P-J photo by Michael Zabrodsky

Familiar faces will lead the Jamestown Public Schools Board of Education for the 2025-2026 school year.

At its reorganizational meeting Tuesday, both President Paul Abbott and Vice President Joe Pawelski were unanimously elected to seats that they previously held in 2024-2025. Pawelski also was sworn in for his fourth three-year term that will end in 2028.

Frank Galeazzo also was sworn in Tuesday as he began his third three-year term on the board which ends in 2028.

The board also approved a memorandum of agreement between the Jamestown Principals Association and the district which began July 1, 2022 and ends June 30, 2027.

“That agreement is not specific to a principals’ contract. It’s more specific to recruiting and retention,” Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said.

Whitaker added that the MOA has benefits for longevity.

According to MOA, the district will pay sign-on bonuses of $7,500 to a person hired for the position of principal, and $5,000 for a person hired for an assistant principal. In order to be eligible for a bonus, the person must be new to the JPA. If an assistant principal should advance to principal, he or she would receive the difference ($2,500) between the assistant principal sign-on bonus of $5,000 and the principal sign-on bonus of $7,500.

For people represented by the JPA, the MOA said, longevity payments will be received upon completion of certain benchmarks which include at a point of tenure, after three or four years – $2,500; beginning of the fifth year – $5,000; beginning of seventh year – $7,000; and beginning of 10th year – $10,000.

Eligibility for each longevity payment, the MOA said, will be based on the person’s administrative service to the district, and payments are a one-time, non-recurring, non-cumulative, and will not be added to any person’s base pay.

The district’s website, jspny.org, shows two assistant principal vacancies – Jamestown High School and Washington Middle School.

Other district vacancies listed include special education teachers from birth through second grade; special ed teachers from first through sixth grade, special education teacher fifth through ninth grade, special ed teachers from seventh through 12th grades, reading teacher, and a world language teacher.

“This year is going to be similar in that last year we had difficulty filling special education teacher positions, so we are seeing that same trend this year, where the applicant pool is extremely shallow for special education (teachers) specifically,” said Director of Human Resources Renee Garrett.

Garrett added that the district needs to fill eight reading teacher positions.

“The reading (teacher) positions are more difficult (to fill) because they are reading certified teachers,” Garrett said.

In other business:

The board approved the non-resident tuition rate. For residents living outside the district, the rate is $2,000 for the 2025-2026 school year.

The board approved a tentative agreement with the Jamestown Educational Support Personnel Association.

The board approved its first reading of its max temperature for buildings and facilities policy, social media policy, and students and personal electronic devices policy.

“We’ve surveyed various constituents, and we’ll continue to do that and get feedback on our plan moving forward,” Whitaker said of the electronic devices policy.

He added that no cell phones are allowed in the elementary and middle schools while at JHS, there are some different processes in place that are not uncommon or different from other schools.