schools

A dozen city school students in second through fifth grade met at Jackson School today for a spelling bee to determine the top speller at each grade level.

Students represented Jackson, John Kennedy and Robert Morris.

Pictured here are fourth graders Jonathan Slezak (John Kennedy), Ellen Fulton (Robert Morris) and Caitline Kingston (Jackson).

Fulton won the fourth-grade round.

Also winning today were Brandon Bartz, second grade, John Kennedy; Madeline Taggart, third grade, John Kennedy; and, Carli Reynolds, fifth grade, Jackson.

Press release:

Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,I,C-Batavia) today called on Governor Andrew Cuomo to rescind inequitable cuts to education funding that unfairly burden Western New York’s children. In a letter to the governor, Assemblyman Hawley detailed the ways that the budget proposal favors downstate students at the expense of those Upstate.

“There should be no barrier when it comes to the education of our children,” said Hawley. “Upstate pupils are slated to receive substantially deeper cuts per pupil than those Downstate; an average of $800 more. I am sure you would agree that each and every child in New York State should receive an equal education.”

Full text of Hawley's letter after the jump:

Dear Governor Cuomo:

I would like to take this opportunity to share my constituents’ concerns over cuts to education in this year’s Executive Budget.

The proposed cuts to education show an inequity to rural and non-wealthy school districts which I represent. I believe each child should have the same opportunities regardless of their family’s geographic location. As you know, education is critical to the success for all children.

Please reconsider these unparalleled and inequitable education cuts per pupil. There should be no barrier when it comes to the education of our children. Upstate students are slated to receive substantially deeper cuts per pupil than those downstate, on average of $800 more. I am sure you would agree that each and every child in New York State should receive an equal education.

On behalf of all students who reside in Upstate New York, I urge you to reconsider the inequitable cuts to education and then, hopefully, rural students will not be penalized for the area in which they live.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to cap the annual salaries of school district superintendents and if his proposal goes through, one Genesee County superintendent could see a nearly $90,000 cut in pay.

Under the cap plan, all of the other county superintendents are earning less than what Gov. Cuomo's plan says they could earn.

Currently, the highest paid school superintendent in the county is Pembroke's Gary Mix. He earns $232,307 per year.

For a school district the size of Pembroke's, according to Cuomo, Mix's pay should be capped at $145,000.

WBTA's Geoff Redick spoke with Mix.

"I understand that the governor is politically ambitious," says Mix. "He's picked a group of people -- the 700 superintendents in New York -- that in many communities, particularly in small communities, they can often be among the more highly compensated people in the community."

Mix says he grew up the oldest of eight children. His father was a postal worker who also took many odd jobs to support his large family.

So, "I understand the feelings about other people's compensation and benefits," says Mix. "(But) education is crucial, it's important. I hope we truly value it."

On the other end of the spectrum, Elba's Jerome Piwko might want to ask for a raise. He's making only $81,120. While Elba's student population is a rather small 494, Cuomo's plan says Piwko could have his pay capped at $135,000. 

That puts Piwko's pay nearly $55,000 under Cuomo's proposed pay scale. That's the largest disparity between Cuomo's cap proposal and what a current Genesee county superintendent is earning.

For the rest of Geoff's story, click here.

Proposed cuts in state aid to school districts will hit rural districts harder, local educators told Sen. Mike Ranzenhofer and Assemblyman Steve Hawley at a well-attended gathering Wednesday night at John Kennedy School.

The hour-long session centered on school district leaders from throughout Genesee County expressing their concern and asking questions about the proposed cuts.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is proposing a $1.5 billion reduction in state aid to schools. But the funding formula currently in place would make the cuts inequitable, to the detriment of rural school districts, local education leaders say.

Some downstate districts will see funding drop about $700 per student, while rural districts will get $1,200 to $1,700 less.

"Our concern isn’t that we won’t make the cuts," said Mark Johnson (inset, left), a trustee in the Oakfield-Alabama School District. "We’ll do the same with less. The issue is we just want the cuts to be equitable."

Hawley said he will only support a 2-percent property tax cap if there is mandate relief.

"There has to be mandate relief," Hawley said. "These are costly, cumbersome and overburdening mandates by the state of New York on districts that know how to operate a business."

City Schools Superintendent Margaret Puzio said the meeting was fruitful, if for no other reason than to hear Ranzenhofer say there is a conversation going on in Albany about the inequality of the budget proposal.

"Our kids have to compete with kids from rich urban districts," Puzio said. "If they can’t get the same AP course, the same gifted and talented programs, the same chances in athletics, how can that be fair?"

Two Genesee County schools are among 10 finalists to receive $50,000 grants from Pepsi Co. following a competition among thousands of grant proposal submitted to the soft drink company.

Supporters of the projects were asked to express that support through online voting and text messages in the national competition.

"We couldn't have done it without the team effort of the entire community," said Robert Morris Principal Diane Bonarigo.

Robert Morris applied for a grant to fund construction of a new playground.

The Byron-Bergen Elementary School Playground Committee also finished in the top 10.

Next, Bonarigo said, Pepsi will review the grant applications again and make sure all of the paperwork is in order. She said she expects official confirmation of the grant in a couple of weeks.

"We are very excited to be finalists," said Bonarigo. "The students are excited."

She thanked the whole community for their support and the local media for promoting the competition.

Margeret Puzio, superintendent of Batavia City Schools is very worried about the coming year.

She's worried about possible cuts in state aide to schools and she's worried about Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed property tax cap.

Puzio spoke with WBTA today.

"It will be interesting to see, in the governor's budget, how state aid will be affected," Puzio continues.

"Frozen state aid is probably our best-case scenario. And with all of our costs going up, frozen state aid means we'll need to make significant cuts. But if there are cuts to state aid...that would be disastrous for us."

In the face of those probable cuts, Cuomo is also proposing a 2-percent property tax cap. If that goes through, Puzio sees dark days ahead.

"The tax cap is a rather extreme solution to the problem," she says. "This year the expenditures on the retirement systems go up significantly. So it's going to be difficult to maintain our educational program, and stay within a 2-percent tax cap.

"It might be impossible. And I'm not given to saying that things are impossible - but it just might be impossible."

Sam Lamont, a student in Elba, was selected to attended Gov. Andrew Cuomo's State of the State speech earlier this week.

He was one of 62 students selected from throughout New York. The Elba Central School District was asked by the governor's office to select one of its student.

Sam was selected because of his leadership qualities, involvement in the community and was a Boy's State representative last summer.

Above, Sam is pictured with his parents, Skip and Mari-Ellen Lamont.

Below is his report on attending the event.

Being chosen to attend the "State of the State Address" was an honor. This was my first trip to Albany and yes it was impressive. This was a moment in history.

Seeing Governor Andrew Cuomo outline his plan to bring New York forward and reduce spending was inspiring and rang true with those present.

He is an emotional speaker and today, in Albany, it didn't matter if you were a Republican or Democrat.

He does care about the future of our state. Rochester's own Robert Duffy, taller than I had expected, gained the respect of everyone in the room.

As I sat on the stage, I was immediately impressed by the number of black power suits and the presence of the press. Cameras were everywhere. It seemed everyone was making contacts and later being interviewed as to their opinion of the speech.

The receptions were filled with a cross section of New Yorkers looking forward to a canoli or cheesecake while discussing politics.

I came to the realization that Albany is a powerful place and those individuals in dark suits are many of our elected officials. They are powerful people and are decision makers in our future. Let them hear your viewpoint; vote, contact your representatives and be informed.

The third and final "Christmas in the Schools" video features students from Holy Family School (Le Roy), Batavia Middle School and St. Joseph School (I was going to go to Oakfield Elementary, but the weather prevented me -- St. Joe's was having the official holiday concert at the same time that evening, so I figured this would give me the chance to film those St. Joe's students who weren't caroling at the City Centre).

I have to warn you, the video quality is not quite as good as the other two installments.  I was having some unexpected camera troubles -- some of this was my fault, some of it the fault of circumstances. But I hope that the quality of the students' performances will make up for this.

Finally, I just need to correct a quick error in the first video: "Santa's Playlist" was written by John Jacobson and Roger (not Robert) Emerson; you will notice that these two wrote one of the songs appearing in this video.

Thank you to all of the schools for allowing me to see and showcase the students' hard work and talent, and congratulations to the kids on a job well done.

My second Christmas video features the talented students of John Kennedy, Robert Morris, Alexander elementary and Pembroke Intermediate schools.

Some quick background on Pembroke Intermediate: For several years, chorus teacher Andy Clark has made a yearly tradition of reserving a spot in Pembroke Choralier Christmas concerts for "Christmas Sing-alongs," during which former choraliers are invited to come up and sing with the group. You will be able to see them up on the stage, behind all of the current choraliers, during the sing-along segments.

Stay tuned for part 3!

If you missed part 1, click here.

I'm on another trip around the county, this time for footage of school Christmas concerts.

I decided to do three or four shorter videos this time, instead of one big video with all the school concerts packed together (see Spring concerts article). This way, I can include more of the performances from each school.

The first video includes concert footage from Notre Dame High School, Dorothy B. Dunce Elementary (Pavilion), Jackson and St. Joseph schools. Jackson and St. Joe's performed at "Christmas in the City" on Friday.

My apologies to Jackson for only including a few songs. This was a shorter concert.

More to come!

Middle-schoolers from all over the county came to Batavia Middle School on Tuesday for the "MST Explorer Camp" (see June 19 article for more information). The camp involved students in hands-on learning activities using math, science and technology.

A 13-year-old race car driver and Batavia Middle School student Val Stephens -- pictured center -- helps with a demonstration designed to give the kids a lesson in aerodynamics:

Kevin Raymond, a teacher in the Keshequa School District and a hot-air balloon enthusiast, talks to the kids about the type of energy that powers hot-air balloons. He shows them how they work, using an ultra-light balloon as an example (keep in mind that about 10 of these could fit into one of the larger ones):

(Inside the balloon)

Batavia Middle School technology teacher Frank Panepento shows them how to go about designing CO2 cars. 

The students designed their own cars, put them in a wind tunnel (in order to determine how much speed they could handle), weighed them and, when they finally had all the necessary data, raced them. The students whose cars fared poorly in the race were simply asked to modify their designs and see what effect their modifications had on the cars' efficiency. 

Digital signs are nothing new for area schools -- but Robert Morris Elementary, at 80 Union St. in Batavia, is the first school in the Genesee Valley to have a solar-powered digital sign, which was unveiled last month.

The new 3x8 sign, which shares important information with the school community, is fully powered by the sun's energy, collected and converted into electricity by solar panels on the school's roof.

This environmentally friendly and money-saving technology allows the sign to store energy and stay powered up even at night and in overcast weather. 

The sign is part of Robert Morris' "Going Green" project, which is being coordinated by the all-volunteer parent group FORM (Friends of Robert Morris).

The "green" project, in turn, is part of the school's committment to educating students and keeping them informed about renewable energy and environmentally responsible technology.

As the current school year drew to a close, Principal Diane Bonarigo went to each of the classrooms and explained the new solar sign to students -- including how it would turn the sun's energy into electricity, etc.

"Our students are very excited about learning how solar energy is powering this sign," Bonarigo said in a news release. "(It) will engage (them) for years to come."

FORM co-chair Roseann Quinn said that they would like to focus more intensely on "green" education in September. She mentioned the possibility of having professionals come in and speak to the kids about different renewable energy technologies, as well as basic education in the classrooms.

"Now with the solar sign, the kids have something they can see and touch (to go along with lessons)," Quinn said.

Quinn also said that FORM and Bonarigo would like to put the students in charge of the sign when the next school year starts. Right now, Bonarigo controls what words appear on the sign from her laptop computer; in September, they hope to give the kids more input into the way words appear and change.

At Robert Morris, going green also involves lots of landscape planting on school grounds. Here are some pictures of new trees and bushes that have been put in already: 

FORM chair Lorie Reinhart came up with the idea for this project early in the 2008-2009 school year after looking online and reading about an education grant offered by Lowe's.

"We wanted to do something different," Quinn said. "We wanted to actually try to do something that a lot of schools talk about but never get around to doing."

Reinhart and Quinn wrote the grant proposal along with co-secretary Michelle Turnbull. In response to FORM's request, Lowe's granted the school $5,000 for the solar sign.

The project also received funding from the New York State Power Authority -- which was unprecedented, since NYSPA does not, as a rule, give money to schools. But the NYSPA president was so intrigued by the idea that he contributed $5,000 to the project.

Seven or eight local businesses also donated money to the purchase of the sign. Quinn said that the total cost came to about $18,000.

In addition to being a valuable educational venture, Quinn sees the construction of the sign as a grassroots effort to promote renewable energy, which she calls "the way of the future."

FORM wanted to make this as locally focused an effort as possible. The sign was produced by LeRoy-based Unitech Applications, in collaboration with XPress Signs and Agile Displays.

If you would like more information on the solar-powered digital sign or the "Going Green" project, see the FORM webpage for contact information.

For a year-end project, I thought it would be cool to take some video and pictures of music- and arts-related activities -- respectively -- in the Genesee County schools.

The following video is 20 minutes long and divided into two parts (Youtube limits most users to about 10 minutes per video). It features concert footage from various schools in the county.

PART 1

PART 2

I have to make a quick apology for the poor video quality in a couple of instances. I had to be very careful to protect the identity of the kids (the ones photographed without parental approval), so I made sure none of the students' faces appeared too clearly on camera; plus, to be honest, the first camera I used turned out to be pretty awful when it came to taking video (even while taking decent pictures).

I also feel bad that I couldn't include every group I filmed in the video. My selections were based on a combination of different criteria, including:

•  making sure the best songs were included
•  making sure all of the schools I visited were included
•  arranging the selections in a way that flowed nicely

So there's the music part. Here are some pictures I was able to take of art work done by Elba and Leroy students:

ELBA ELEMENTARY ART

Kindergartener Cody Soules stands in front of his drawing of a tree branch (top right).

First-grader Taylor Augello stands with her rendition of Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" (right above her head).

ELBA HIGH SCHOOL ART

Both of the following pictures were submitted by Dan Carnevale. Sophomore Sydney Gallup (top photo) and two unidentified students stand with their drawings.

LEROY JUNIOR/SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL (art and artists)

Also, see the May 27 announcement on the winners of the Architectural Drawing contest for fourth-graders.

Congratulations all of the students for a job well done!

John Kennedy School held its annual awards assembly this morning and presented its first ever "Volunteer Businessman of the Year Award" to Paul Berardini, co-owner of Pauly's Pizza. Berardini was recognized for his many contributions to the school.

Students were also recognized for achievements in academics, the arts and school involvement.

Three more pictures after the jump:

First-graders from throughout Genesee County got to visit Lamb Farms in Oakfield today to meet cows, play in grain, climb on big farm equipment, see how milk is produced and learn some of the other facets of the dairy business. The annual event gives local school children a real hands-on experience with local agriculture.

Parents who have heard that the Oakfield-Alabama school is on lock down need not be concerned, according to a school official.

Leanne Brogan, business administrator, said the lock down is a pre-planned drill.

"The children are not in any danger," she said. "It's just routine."

According to the O-A district website, there is also an emergency evacuation drill scheduled for Thursday.

It was graduation day at Genesee Community College on Sunday, with more than 270 students receiving diplomas.

With more than 800 students completing studies in 2010, this is the largest graduating class in GCC history.

In her first commencement address as SUNY Chancellor, Nancy L. Zimpher, Ph.D,  gave the keynote speech to a capacity crowd at Anthony T. Zambito Gymnasium, as family members, faculty and trustees gathered to honor the graduates.

Zimpher highlighted the transformative power of SUNY and particularly the important role of community colleges. She recognized Genesee’s President Stuart Steiner, Ph.D, for his 35 years of presidential service at GCC, making him among the longest-reigning college presidents in the nation.

The chancellor then highlighted the six strategic goals for SUNY to become an economic engine to transform the economy of New York State. And finally, she quoted Thomas L. Friedman’s bestselling book “The World is Flat” encouraging graduates to “flourish in the flat world, be strategic optimists…imagine things can be better and act on those imaginations, everyday.”

On Thursday, we published a picture of the winners of GCASA's "drug free" poster contest. Laura Russell Ricci later sent along scans of the actual winning posters.

Above is a submission by Sarah Scott, and below, Nathan Moore.

More winning posters after the jump.

Stephanie Hoy

Gemma B.

Jacob Cryer

Caitlin Napper

Aidan Berne

Aiden Sisson

A 14-year-old girl who earlier today reportedly told Batavia School Superintendent Margaret Puzio that she had been abducted as she walked to school, made the whole thing up.

Batavia Police just announced that based on an extensive investigation, including assistance from the Child Advocacy Center and the Batavia City School District, they have concluded the girl fabricated the abduction story in order to alter facts regarding her whereabouts.

The investigation continues regarding the girl's actual whereabouts and her activities during that time.

Previously:

• Reports coming in of child abduction in Batavia School District
• Allegedly abducted girl safe, but police looking for suspect
• Whether girl was actually abducted remains in question