March Board of Education Meeting

This month’s Kenmore Town of Tonawanda School District’s Board of Education meeting happened on March 4th at 6:00 pm. It may very well stick out as one of the most interesting meetings of the 2024-2025 school year.

To kick off the night, the District honored Hoover Middle School by highlighting a few students and staff members and recognizing the community service the school has participated in. The list of services is long and includes:

• Participation in the Ken-Ton Closet

• Food donations, specifically for the Jerry Starr Sleepout

• Shoreline Cleanup

• Plentiful examples of student involvement and engagement

Nice job, Hoover Middle!

Next, Timothy Ames, Director of Buildings and Grounds, spoke to the Board about improvements being made to the District’s buildings. This includes better equipment being used (specifically for cleaning), a new roof for Kenmore East, upgrades to Hamilton Elementary, new windows in various buildings, the new SPOEs, security cameras, and turf fields.

Something interesting that was mentioned was the new Moon Tree. The Moon Tree is a newly planted sapling that has traveled farther than most. As a seed, the Moon Tree went to space, where it orbited the Moon, and came back 25 days later. The Moon Tree sapling is available to observe at Franklin Elementary/Middle School.

Next was the public session, where visitors are invited to speak directly to the Board for a few minutes each. There were 34 Kenmore West High School students in attendance at this BOE meeting, many teachers, and a few alumni. Overall, 19 of these attendees took to the podium to speak about the same issue: saving the IB Program.  At the February Board meeting, it was announced that Kenmore West’s International Baccalaureate Program would be discontinued. This surprised and upset many students at Ken West, mainly the class of 2027 (this year’s sophomores), who will be the first class to enter their Junior year without the program. Many 2027 sophomores were already allowed to make their IB schedules for next year, as well as participate in the IB Signing Day. (You can read an article about the IB signing day here.) A majority of the people who spoke were students, including:

• Maisy Fleming, Class of 2027

• Metta Sagurney, Class of 2027

• Ahren Pavel, Class of 2027

• Madelyn Viana, Class of 2027

• Copeland Baker, Class of 2027

• Megan Kiel, Class of 2029

• Isa Reinoso-Zegarra, Class of 2026

• Abby Spencer, Class of 2026

• Vincent Kaufmann, Class of 2028

Many of these students argued that they had planned their schedules specifically in preparation for IB, and that the unconventional design of the program allows for higher thinking, deeper connections with their peers, and more readiness for college and the working world. In addition to these students, two Kenmore West alumni, Hannah Kaderabeck and Lauren Kaufmann, and eight parents of prospective IB students also spoke. It was interesting to see so many students, both past and present, as well as families, come together to bring attention to something they care about.

Lastly, our district’s student representative, Kenmore West’s very own Charlotte Brach, highlighted some positives going on at West this month. Some include:

• DECA heading to States

• Girls Varsity Basketball going to the sectional semi-finals

• The end of a successful Unified Bowling season

• Isabella Teter won the Shakespeare Competition and is now heading to New York City for the National Competition.

• The Music Department had their mid-winter concerts.

• Kenmore West introduces the new “Student Olympics” that feature activities like pickleball and spikeball

• Mr. Tomasello’s “Choose” Assembly features his art and his anti-bullying message.

• Science Olympiad qualified for States.

This month’s Board of Education Meeting was very eventful, which is a reflection of the action-packed month March was! The next Board meeting is scheduled for April 8th at 6:00 pm, and everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend.

**AS OF MARCH 26th: After much consideration from the KenTon administration, they have decided to extend the IB program to the Class of 2027.