schools

City of Batavia firefighters gave Gretchen Weicher, a student at St. Paul Luthern School in Batavia, a ride to school in a fire truck as an award for winning the department's annual fire safety poster contest.

Oakfield-Alabama's open house on Thursday night was capped off by the music department's annual cabaret show, which featured some of the students' favorite show tunes.

Occasionally, a Batavia High School student completes their graduation requirements out of cycle with the rest of their class and receives their diploma at a Board of Education meeting. That was the case Tuesday night for Hezekia N. Burch.

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Press release:

While officials have declined to discuss thus far the specific nature of a threat made on Snapchat overnight that led to the closing of the schools in Le Roy today, Superintendent Merritt Holley did indicate during a press conference this morning that it was more than just the words used in the Snapchat post that caused concern.

"From my end of it right now, I think because we know what the threat was, we know who the person is, I think from that end, this is exactly -- I'm not going to use the word, there's nothing textbook when you get into these, but I think if you have a situation where we have finality to what we know -- I think that's exactly where you want to be, and I think if we could have gotten that, we think about the time frame of where we're trying to get that information and go," Holley said. "I think closing the school today looks very small in the big scheme of things."

A reporter at the press conference suggested that Holley was saying there was more context to the situation than just what was posted on Snapchat and Holley said, "you can interpret that."

Neither Holley nor Le Roy Police Sgt. Emily McNamara would discuss details about the content of the Snapchat post, nor why police and school officials determined the threat should be taken seriously and considered credible.

The school district was alerted at 5 a.m. by a service set up two years ago to field anonymous tips about safety threats at schools, and Holley said he immediately contacted Le Roy PD. By 8 a.m., the Junior-Senior High School student who made the post had been identified.

Holley said both the student and the student's family are cooperating with the police investigation.

The situation is resolved, both Holley and McNamara said, and school activities return to normal on Saturday.

"This was an isolated incident and I really want to emphasize to the community and to the students at the school that we don't believe that there's any cause for any further concerns or alarm," McNamara said.

She said this is still an open investigation and while charges are possible, it's too soon to say what those charges might be.

As a result of the Snapchat posting, both Wolcott School and Le Roy Junior-Senior HS were closed and all school activities, including tonight's football game in Avon, were canceled.

"This is far from a prank," Holley said. "I think with the investigation going on, I don't want to get specifically into what was said and what was put out, but 'credible' is the key term and with any threat in this day and age that we're in right now, any school district, not only here in Le Roy but across the state, across this country, it's our duty and responsibility to look into every possible situation, and we have to do our due diligence and I think we did that in this in this situation."

Photos and information provided by Sarah Gahagan:

As part of the ongoing kindness project at Batavia Middle School (hashtag #makeKINDNESSloud), Kim Argenta, owner of Art Ah La Carte, followed suit with a random act of kindness.

Argenta volunteered her time and passion for art to help produce a set of wings that will be used as a display in the sixth-grade hallway of BMS.

The BMS kindness group wanted to create a set of wings to remind students to "lift each other up."

The girls' next step is to find inspirational quotes that fit this theme to be used with the wings as a photo background for students/teachers/support staff who participate in random acts of kindness to be displayed in the building proudly.

The Batavia Middle School Kindness Project is an effort by fifth- through eighth-graders at the school, led by teacher Sarah Gahagan, to spread a bit of warmth and joy.

The students look for opportunities to be kind to each other. 

Friday, Gahagan's class sent letters to a fifth-grader in Tennesee who is battling leukemia. The letter-writing effort followed a schoolwide "circle up" meeting on the theme of perseverance.

Gahagan said students discussed different levels of problems we have in our lives and successful coping strategies.

For the first day of school at Elba Central School, high school seniors were welcomed with poster-sized photos of their faces planted in the front lawn.

Photo submitted by Sharon Cole.

First day of school at St. Joe's. Photos submitted by Nora O'Neill.

Principal Ashley John Grillo shared these photos from the first day of school this morning at Batavia Middle School.

If you have first-day-of-school photos to share, email them to howard@thebatavian.com.

It's a big step moving from fourth grade to fifth grade when Batavia students enter middle school and find they must now manage getting themselves to multiple classrooms and taking care of their books and belongings in a locker.

To help with the transition, Batavia Middle School hosts Connect Day on the day before classes officially begin, when teachers and eighth-graders help the new kids learn about their new school.

Jackson School in Batavia hosted two promotion ceremonies today. This video is from the 9 a.m. session.

Jeff Musial from Nickel City Reptiles and Exotics was at Jackson School on Thursday morning showing off some of the exotic live animals he keeps for educational purposes.

Press release:

     Amanda Cook

This week, John Kennedy Intermediate School was named a 2018-2019 Recognition School by the New York State Education Department (NYSED) for high marks in achievement and in progress.

The school will receive a Certificate of Recognition from Commissioner MaryEllen Elia.

“It’s gratifying – but not surprising – that John Kennedy earned this distinction,” says Batavia City School Dictrict Superintendent Christopher J. Dailey.

“Backed by a dedicated Board of Education, our administrators, teachers, and staff work tirelessly with students and their families to help children reach their potential.”

As NYSED aims for a more holistic approach to school and student achievement under New York’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Plan, 2018-19 Recognition Schools exemplify success in this mission with high academic achievement, student growth and graduation rate, and demonstrated progress during the 2017-18 school year.

The criteria used to determine the Recognition School status includes: student growth; met or exceeded either the school or state measures of interim progress for English language arts and mathematics; reduced rate of chronic absenteeism; and college-, career-, and civic-readiness; and met the federally required 95-percent participation rate in the English language arts and mathematics assessments.

Batavia’s Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction Molly Corey, noting that John Kennedy is one of only 562 in the state and one of only 328 at the elementary level to be regarded as a Recognition School, said “I commend the teachers at John Kennedy and their principal, Dr. Amanda Cook, for this accomplishment. Their hard work and dedication to all students is evident.”

Expanding on that, Cook added, “Our entire team is committed to engaging students and their families in activities that build excitement for learning in ways that help children want to come to school to be a part of making memories together. We focus on creating a school learning community.”

From Young Audiences of WNY:

Arts Partners for Learning (APL) is pleased to announce that Western New York schools are eligible to apply for APL creative learning programs, which will occur between September and June 2020.

Programs include performances, workshops, residencies, and field trips with cultural organizations that make use of the arts as a text to achieve Common Core State Standard benchmarks at any grade level.

Eligible schools must be located in one of the eight counties of Western New York, including Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans, and Wyoming.

Up to 90 percent of residency program costs will be covered for selected schools thanks to funding from Fund for the Arts.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis with priority given to early applicants.

Applications can be found here.

To learn more about APL, click here.

For Tim Adams, owner of Adams Welding and Manufacturing in Stafford, donating steel for a class project at Oakfield-Alabama High School is a chance to help students discover a possible career.

For the students, it's a chance to explore a trade and learn new skills.

For the Genesee County Fair, they'll receive new gate racks.

You might call it a win-win-win.

"Any chance kids have for an opportunity to learn a skill or an opportunity to if something is something they want to do in a future career, whether it be welding, electrical, plumbing, or carpentry, any kind of skilled trade, I don't see that as a bad thing," Adams said. "Perhaps they will fall in love with it and like it."

While not necessarily calling it a career just yet, Cierra Tiede said she went from being fearful of welding to really enjoying it.

"It was pretty cool," Tiede said. "I've done another welding projects before, but this was a bigger scale and it was cool to see it all come together in the end."

Instructor Todd Hofheins said it was a great project for the students to learn how to work together as a team, to divide up their labor, coordinate, and ensure all of the five racks are uniform in size and quality.

"The racks need to hold close to 2,000 pounds so they've got to be done properly," Hofheins said.

Without the donation of steel from Adams, the project wouldn't have been possible, Hofheins said.

Students at Batavia Middle School made their annual civil rights presentations today for fellow students, teachers and parents.