The Pavilion Alumni Hall of Fame Committee urges community input and support to nominate outstanding PCS graduates who have achieved distinction in their lives and chosen field after high school through significant contributions to their career, community or through personal achievements. 

Inductees for the Annual Hall of Fame Assembly are selected by the PCS Alumni Hall of Fame Selection Committee, a voluntary group comprised of PCS alumni, current and retired faculty members, community residents, and district administrators. Since launching in 2014, the PCS Hall of Fame has honored over two dozen exemplary alumni who inspire current and future Pavilion students to strive for excellence. 

“The Hall of Fame Assembly is a chance for all of our students to see the many possibilities of life after PCS,” says Pavilion Superintendent Mary Kate Hoffman. “What I love about the ceremony is that our students see alumni from all walks of life. They hear stories of people who have made great achievements in life and who have made important contributions to their community. But they are not hearing just from alumni who excelled in academics while in school. Many of our speakers have shared that they maybe didn’t have the best grades…but they still went on to great things.”

“Being inducted into the PCS Hall of Fame was a tremendous honor for me,” says Ken Weaver, Deputy Director with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and PCS Alumni Hall of Fame Class of 2018 Honoree, “What made the induction especially meaningful was the opportunity to connect with young people and discuss their goals and aspirations. One of the highlights of the experience was hearing a student express appreciation for my speech. Knowing that my words resonated with someone and might have inspired them is a heartwarming reminder of the impact shared experiences and wisdom can have on the next generation.”

Several laureates like Diane Davis Torcello, President of the WNY Tompkins Community Bank, have continued their support of the PCS Alumni Hall of Fame by joining the Selection Committee and recognizing more impactful graduates.
“I joined the Hall of Fame Committee because I believe in the mission of what the group is trying to achieve. Honoring leaders from all different professions and backgrounds is important to deliver the message to the current students of PCS – they can accomplish anything if they work hard,” says Torcello, “attending a small school is not a disadvantage – rather an advantage.” 

Nominations are currently being accepted and can be found on the PCS Hall of Fame website (www.PCSHallofFame.com) and printed applications are available at the following Pavilion businesses and organizations: Kemp-Rudgers Service Station, the Pavilion Public Library, The Lost Sock, Jazzy Creations, Blessings Café, Dorothy B. Bunce Elementary School, and Pavilion Junior/Senior High School main office. 

All nominations must be submitted by March 8 and the PCS Alumni Hall of Fame Assembly will be held on May 31, 2024, at the Pavilion Junior/Senior High School Auditorium.

More and more students in the Genesee Region are finding their athletic niche by participating in Unified Bowling, a component of the Special Olympics Unified Sports program.

About two dozen schools – including Batavia, Pavilion, Le Roy and Perry -- are participating in the Section V Unified Bowling League this season.

Matches get underway this coming week, with the Batavia team opening against Churchville-Chili at Spencerport Bowl and the Perry team taking on

The Pavilion Central School District Board of Education members warmly welcomed Deputy Trevor Sherwood as the district's new School Resource Officer at their Monday evening meeting.

The board approved the tax warrants for the academic year.

The tax rate in the Town of Pavilion will be $16.68 per $1,000 of assessed value, a decrease from $16.73 this school year.

Pavilion Central School District is looking at spending nearly $69,000 on a consultant who would visit district schools and assess their security vulnerabilities. 

Most, if not all, of the expense, could be covered by state aid to school districts.

The Board of Education voted on Monday to table the proposal in order to first talk with the consultant, Don Shomette, via Zoom during its Aug. 28 meeting.

Deputy Trevor Sherwood, a Batavia High School graduate who was a star athlete in baseball and basketball, was approved by the Pavilion Board of Education on Monday night as the school district's new resource officer.

The board voted unanimously to approve a new memorandum of understanding with the Genesee County Sheriff's Office.

Superintendent Mary Kate Hoffman told the board that a committee interviewed four deputies for the position and recommended Sherwood.

Sherwood joined the Sheriff's Office on road patrol in early 2021.

The SRO position became vacant after Deputy Jeremy McClellan was reassigned to road patrol at the end of the 2022-23 academic year at the apparent request of the school district, which was a move several parents protested.

The Batavian will have a more complete story on Tuesday.

The terms for the other five districts range from 10 to 24 months for SROs Eric Meyer with Alexander, Josh Brabon with Byron-Bergen, Ryan Young with Elba, Jordan Alejandro with Oakfield-Alabama and Patrick Reeves with Pembroke school districts. Expenses are reimbursed by each district for the hourly rate, fringe benefits and insurance. 

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After hearing from nine speakers over 27 minutes express passionate -- and sometimes angry -- views on a planned change to the School Resource Officer position, no member of the Pavilion Central School District had anything of substance to say to the public.

There was no comment from the

In his three years as the school resource officer in Pavilion, Deputy Jeremy McClellan has apparently made quite an impression on parents and students.

Parents and students have learned that the Pavilion Central School District doesn't plan to have McClellan back as SRO, and they've started an online petition drive to support his return and in online postings and in emails to The Batavian many said they plan to attend tonight's (Monday) school board meeting to protest his removal from the position.

There are a handful of students at Pavilion Central School who’ve gained much attention for their heavy use of social media both during and after the school day.

Evelyn Northrup and Christopher Doody are two of them who spend several focused hours a week not only posting, but talking about it, planning for it, and mapping out schedules for how to get their posts done throughout their busy school days.

Think these students are among the many people mindlessly scrolling the Internet and potentially getting caught up in all of the negative chatter out there? Not at all, they say. Instead, they are part of Pavilion’s student PR team with a goal to market and promote the positive actions of student clubs, sports and groups around campus.

The team has eight students guided by Instructional Technology Support Leader and Online Learning Coordinator Nancy Stauber as advisor.

"This Team was created a couple of months ago when two students presented an idea to our administration about creating a social media page, PavilionGopherPride Instagram Page. Since then, they have grown to eight students and are already evolving their public relations campaign to include teacher interviews and, hopefully soon, podcasting," Stauber said. “These students are solely responsible for what is posted, reaching out to various people to gather information, and making sure what they post is safe, positive, inclusive, and informative and monitor all comments for appropriateness.

“These students are also learning many ‘life skills’ and participating in an activity that could potentially become a real life career involving social media," she said. "Additionally, they are also learning about and modeling good digital citizenship along with learning about privacy laws and permissions involving state and federal laws.”

Evelyn saw the PR team spill out of a school spirit committee that had gotten so big, that the PR team was created to help with promoting school happenings. That means attending games, conducting interviews and taking videos and photos of athletes, teachers and coaches, and selecting and decorating the gym each month with coordinated themes — such as a volleyball beach bum theme.

“We began in early October 2022 to get ready for Girls Volleyball sectionals,” 17-year-old Christopher said.

The main goal was to make people aware of the games and schedules, encourage participation in the theme nights, and “open them up to extracurriculars and to show off our school,” Evelyn, a senior, said.

“And we highlight other activities, like musical theater, Scholastic Bowl, FFA chapter, and Art Club,” she said.

Going for the 'Likes'
They have become not just word masters, but visual artists with those themes to draw an audience, and the desired likes, comments and shares that they have also learned to track. They were happy with the early results.

“Within a week to a week and a half, we had 100 to 200 followers,” Christopher said.

For the record, the account is currently at 317 followers.

While so many people — young and old alike — seem to zero in on the negative parts of social media, through cyberbullying, comparing, arguing, complaining and such, these kids are homing in on the opposite.

“We try to keep everything positive,” Evelyn said. “If someone is being negative toward a student specifically, they can be deleted, or we contact them and ask them to be respectful.”

Twice so far, they’ve had to do that — and not with a fellow student, but with a parent. In each case, a parent was complaining about either a referee and/or a student-athlete and had to be reminded of the policy. Evelyn reached out to one of them and wasn’t intimidated to do so.

“Just knowing how to talk to individuals, and that’s being professional and respectful and is not retaliatory,” she said. “It’s kind of ironic that the parents are the ones being negative. I think students know there are consequences.”

It must have worked; the parent did not return to the site with any more comments.

Practical side of social media
Aside from learning how to handle rule-breakers, there has been other lessons within the business side of social media, such as handling privacy laws, the need to acquire consent forms before publishing names and faces in certain circumstances, creating a schedule for posts, content planning, learning new technology, cropping photos and videos, time management, analytics and tracking statistics, they said.

They have also learned how to share content from another site that posts area sports to take advantage of what’s already out there and save time. They have also tried out free apps to save money and sent out emails to district members — staff, teachers, students, and coaches — reminding them to send material for the online page.

Personally, both Christopher and Evelyn use Instagram and Snap Chat more than Facebook and don’t even consider Twitter. In their professional endeavors in the PR team, it’s mostly Instagram with some posts on Facebook.

Drama is relative, enjoy the small moments
“You have communication apps, and Snapchat and Instagram, one is used to talk to your friends, and one is used to share your experiences,” she said. “I do agree that some parts are bad. There’s drama.”

She and Christopher agreed that there was some social media drama a while ago at the school, but it seemed driven by a couple of particular students. And when they left the school, so did the drama. Aside from that instance, life for these students is fairly low-key where social media is concerned, they said. 

Has the positive focus made a difference? These savvy kids think so. Teachers and staff, and parents have thanked them for their efforts and expressed their appreciation for the Gopher spotlights, though student response has been more lackluster.

“I don’t think students say it as much,” Evelyn said, adding that she thinks maybe when they’re older, it will be a bit of nostalgia to look back on more fondly. “It’s almost like a yearbook, a digital version. Don’t take for granted the small moments.”

Pavilion Central School students Christopher Doody and Evelyn Northrup show a social media stats page that they use for their student-run PR team used to promote district sports and other clubs and groups on campus. Photo by Howard Owens.