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Coming To Grips

Class Of 2020 Optimistic About Remaining Year

From left, Southwestern counselor Robin Kayner, student council adviser Anne Beck, senior advisers Jenn Anderson and Katie Damcott, counselor Chelsea Winchester, assistant principal Matt Kindberg and high school principal Scott Cooper surround senior Chloe Peters during a lawn sign distribution last month. Lawn signs were provided to each senior by the Southwestern Class of 2020 student council. Submitted photo

When Dana Williams arrives at Jamestown High School in the morning, there’s usually a lot of activity.

The lunchroom has occupants eating breakfast, the halls are filled with students waiting outside their lockers and the parking lot off Foote Avenue becomes crowded with cars as the clock inches near the first bell at 8 a.m.

These days, that’s not the case.

“It’s so empty,” Williams, the school’s interim principal, said of the school building on East Second Street. “It’s just not the same without them here.”

The “them,” he’s referring to, of course, are the students.

Jamestown High School senior Karley Kennedy stands with a lawn sign provided to each member of the Class of 2020 by the JHS After-Grad Committee. Submitted photo

“My heart, of course, breaks for all of our students, but as a parent, I just can’t help but truly feel sorry for our seniors,” he said, referring to the roughly 305 members of the Class of 2020 who, two weeks ago, had the figurative nail placed in the coffin of their final year of traditional adolescent education after Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s announcement that all K-12 schools would remain closed for the remainder of the school year due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

“We love our kids,” said Maureen Donahue, the Southwestern Central School district superintendent. “It is really hard to be here every day without them. They’re the ones that drive us to do what we do and are why we keep doing what we do. I have been so impressed.”

“But, these seniors … they’ve lost out on emotionally important things to them,” she said. “They’ve shown incredible strength and grace throughout it.”

“I just want them to know: we haven’t given up on giving them the recognition they deserve,” Williams added. “We will do all we can to honor them in the most appropriate way possible.”

Rosie Hagel, a senior at Southwestern High School, will depart for Agnes Scott College in Atlanta this fall, aiming to study a diverse pallet of academic offerings. Intending to major in international relations with aspirations toward becoming a public defense attorney, she also intends to pursue a minor in music.

But, the highlight of her second semester was supposed to be a track and field season that never was.

“Missing an athletic season, that didn’t hit for me immediately,” Hagel said. “I feel like, as the date sectionals would’ve been would come up or with anything like that, it will start to hit harder. But, I had a choir concert scheduled recently and when it got to that date, it was like ‘Oh, we’re not doing this.’ But, a season that I’ve been working for since I was in seventh grade: that took longer for me to process.”

Karley Kennedy, a Jamestown senior, meanwhile was looking forward to a more unique tradition at her school: taking part in an extra credit opportunity for an Advanced Placement European History course following the exam.

“It may sound silly, but I was really looking forward to a dance performance with my class for Mr. (John) Twinam’s AP European class,” she said, referring to an annual class talent show.

And while she’s accepted the realization that her senior year is over, she also doesn’t believe the impact has fully hit her yet.

“I think it has hit me that high school has ended for me, but I don’t think I have fully processed all it that truly involves and all the milestones that we will miss,” she said, referring to prom and graduation. “I was still optimistic that we would start school up again until the day it was officially canceled.”

“I think it’s going to be one of those things that when you look back and in college, you’re going to look and realize that you’re never going to be able to share those memories that your friends might have had in years before you and hopefully in years after,” said Mitch Pascarella, a senior at Southwestern.

“It’s going to be tough to wrap your head around and realize that it never happened for you the same way that it has for everybody else in the past,” added Pascarella.

School districts across Chautauqua County have yet to announce how traditional events, such as prom and graduation, will be affected due to social distancing measures. But, administrators, for the most part, have been optimistic that something will be done to honor the class.

“I’m really sure that prom and graduation will occur, not in the traditional way but I know Mr. Williams and (Jamestown superintendent) Dr. (Bret) Apthorpe have been working hard, trying to make it up for us seniors in some way,” said Gabriella Rosario-Negron, a senior at JHS.

Masen Maggio, who also will graduate from Jamestown and attend Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., also is just hoping for some sort of ceremony.

“I’m a pretty rational person so I had already realized school this year was very unlikely; however, now that it is concrete it has really hit me,” Maggio said. “Now, instead of looking forward to these major events in my life, I’m just hoping that we can have some sort of graduation.”

And while Chloe Peterson, a Southwestern senior, is also hopeful that these events will be made up, she’s more nervous about the social impact of this shutdown.

“Everything can be compensated except for time,” said Peters, who will study biotechnology at Rochester Institute of Technology next year. “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to see my friends before I go to college. That’s what I’m most worried about, honestly, is the more personal impact this is going to have on my memories rather than like a school-wide sort of thing.”

“The main thing that is so challenging with this quarantine is the isolation from friends,” Maggio added. “Not being able to have the last few months with people I’ve grown up with has definitely been the worst part of this.”

Matt Barton, president of Southwestern’s student council and an ex-officio member of the district’s board of education, recognized early, in partnership with Peters, the potential social isolation that could occur in the weeks since the shutdown and started conferring with administrators ways in which it could be prevented.

“Right when the at-home order was placed, a few of us met in a digital events group to talk about ideas to implement to create that school unity still,” said Barton, who will attend SUNY Fredonia with aspirations of becoming a math educator.

The result has been a Steps Across America challenge, which asks each grade-level to track their daily steps, as well as virtual movie and trivia nights.

“We understand that it’s hard for some students to get engaged because they’re just so, this time just breeds un-motivation,” Peters added. “But I also want people to protect their mental health, so I feel like this has been a great way to encourage that slowly without pushing people too far and just doing fun stuff.”

“One of the first things we tried to grapple with and figure out was how we were going to be there to support our students all day and every day,” assistant principal Matt Kindberg said. “This world has never been more interconnected as it is right now … and yet, some people have never felt more alone. So, at Southwestern … I think our digital events committee that we formed, events that we’re planning and things that we’re doing in reaching kids on a daily basis, has really been beneficial.”

And, according to the students, social outreach has made all the difference — especially when the time came to distribute lawn signs honoring and recognizing each student, which both districts provided for members of the class.

“I was really impressed and thankful,” Rosario-Negron said, commending the JHS After-Grad parents, who raised money to purchase each sign. “It was such a great initiative from the senior parents in making those lawn signs available for us. … They know how we are all dealing with this situation.”

The administration at Southwestern, meanwhile, visited each student at their home, personally delivering each sign.

“Honestly, I couldn’t care about the sign,” said Peters. “I was more excited the moment I walked out and saw all these teachers I never thought I’d see again.”

“It was really nice to see the teachers and all those faces that I’ve kind of been with for so long and just to see them again was so cool,” said Hagel. “It was just really nice and we all appreciated it.”

While Pascarella, who will attend the University of Connecticut next fall on a baseball scholarship, wasn’t home at the time his sign was delivered, another social outreach measure meant a lot to him.

“My baseball coach actually came around to different players’ houses and dropped off hats, sunflower seeds, and candy bars and just wanted to let us know that even though we missed out on the season, we’re still part of the team,” he said. “Our school really does care a lot about the student body and it’s pretty nice to be part of such a good school.”

“The school is the one constant in the lives of so many students, and to lose that completely, and not have any real control in getting back to school and some sense of normalcy, is tough on kids,” Williams added. “I’ve heard from kids I thought would be the last ones who would possibly miss school and they are saying how much they want to come back. I just really wish we were able to make that happen.”

Still, the students are remaining optimistic.

“It’s always a little difficult to be optimistic in situations like this,” said Kennedy, who will attend Gannon University to become a physician assistant. “But I do have complete faith in Mr. Williams and the rest of the faculty that they will do everything in their power to provide us as close to a normal prom and graduation as possible when they can.”

“You’re always going to remember this time for the goods and the bads, but if you can make those goods outshine the bad and do something special,” added Barton. “It doesn’t have to look like formal graduation, although how much we would like that, but anything to recognize us or the seniors, would be better for the long run and make it shine even greater in the grand scheme of things.”

And, as far as administrators are concerned, this period has helped the general public appreciate all that occurs during a normal school year.

“Hopefully we can get back to school in September and everyone, kids and adults, will have a new appreciation for simple, everyday things we could possibly have taken away from us,” Williams said.

“Overall, You have to step back and listen to our kids,” said Donahue. “Going forward, we’re going to learn some valuable lessons. I think we’ve always been strong, but we’re going to emerge with stronger resolve than we ever have and this class will always be a part of us, even though they’ll graduate. And we will do everything in our power to have the most unique and best graduation ever.”

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