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JHS Interim Principal’s Contract Has Been Extended

Dana Williams

Dana Williams will remain as Jamestown High School’s principal through the end of the 2020-21 school year.

The Jamestown Public Schools Board of Education unanimously approved the extension of Williams’ memorandum of agreement between the district and the Jamestown Principals’ Association during a video conferenced board meeting Tuesday.

“I’m very pleased to make this recommendation to the Board of Education this evening,” said Dr. Bret Apthorpe, Jamestown Public Schools superintendent. “Tina Sandstrom (district chief director of schools) and I charged him with bringing a sense of calm to the high school and to put the focus back on student achievement. Not only has he done well with that, but here we find ourselves in a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. And they say it’s true that these moments really define people and their leadership. We felt as a leadership team, and I know the board felt this as well, that now more than ever we need some predictability in our leadership and we once again went to Mr. Williams and we had great conversations with him and asked him if I was to make this recommendation to the board would he accept, and he said he would.”

Williams has spent more than a decade in the Jamestown Public Schools District and was appointed interim Jamestown High School principal in December after the resignation of Dr. Rosemary Bradley after incidents the month prior that culminated with unions at the high school holding a vote of no confidence.

Williams’ administration going forward consists of Traci Thompson, assistant principal; Tom Langworthy, assistant principal; Allyson Smith, dean of students; and Leigh Ann Bellitto, principal’s secretary.

“I want to thank Dr. Apthorpe and Mrs. Sandstrom for having the confidence in me and I want to thank the school board for considering me,” Williams said Tuesday. “I’m very committed to Jamestown High School. I think we have a lot of good things planned. It’s unfortunate we had this current situation come up. I thought we really have a good team in place at the high school. We’re ready to do some really great things. I definitely feel I have the support of all our staff and we’re ready to put learning first and foremost, school improvement first and foremost. I’m 100% confident we will be able to do all those things. Again, I really want to thank everyone for their faith in me. I’m going to do everything I can to make Jamestown High School the successful school that it definitely has the potential to be. I look forward to it.”

Williams graduated from the Southwestern Central School District in 1979 and has lived in the Jamestown area for much of his life, which he believes adds to his legitimacy of being the leader of the city’s high school. Williams has served as an assistant principal in the district for 11 years at various times at Jefferson Middle School and at Jamestown High School. Most recently, he has been serving as an assistant principal at the high school for the last three years.

Paul Abbott, Jamestown Public Schools board president, said board members felt it is important to have continuity at the high school in case school reopens this year and for when the 2020-21 school year starts in September.

“The times that we’re going through and the times we’re going to be going through, let’s face it, when the time comes where we open our doors again, whether it is during this school year, which we’re all accepting is not the likely scenario or come the fall, it’s going to be an adjustment,” Abbott said. “It’s not going to be just, ‘we had a few snow days and we’re back to school now.’ There’s going to be a lot of work to do. Dana, for your part stepping into this, I know we, the board, appreciate it. … We thought it was important to have some continuity and stability coming back, whenever that is.”

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