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Weekly Update

from the District Office - July 12, 2023

Weekly Update from the District Office - July 12, 2023

Did you know...? Our newsletter features different student artwork in the header every issue!

Giving Thanks

Big thanks going out to...


  • All those involved in a successful graduation ceremony at SUNY Fredonia's King Concert Hall. One last congrats to the Class of 2023!
  • All of our volunteers and students who have recently worked to enhance our signage with new landscaping and flowers
  • Our coaches, athletes, and parents who collaborated for a great end to our spring sports season
  • Our teachers, staff, and students working hard during summer school and extended school year services
  • Our custodial and maintenance staff who are moving furniture, polishing classrooms, and ensuring our grounds are looking great

A Message from Superintendent Zilliox

Hello Fredonia School Community,


I hope you are doing well and enjoying the start of your summer. Please take some of your time to relax with family and friends over the next month or so.


I also wanted to take another opportunity to share much gratitude and thanks for everyone across the district now that we have wrapped up last school year. Over the course of the past 10 months, there has been so much hard work and dedication to make the year the best it could possibly be. This includes everyone who is part of our students, faculty and staff, families, administration, Board of Education, and our larger school community as a whole. Please know that all your efforts are noticed and appreciated on multiple levels.


Please see some of the highlights below from the later part of our year:


  • Our community and taxpayers approved our school budget for next year. We fully appreciate the support for our residents, both this year and in the past.


  • Our building and grounds crews did a fantastic job with our athletic facilities this spring, as well as helping us manage both our air quality and water issues in June.


  • Our student athletes and coaches had an outstanding spring season, both in terms of team success and sportsmanship.


  • Our music concerts and art shows at the end of the year were amazing. Thanks to both departments for having our students prepared for every event with a high degree of quality and professionalism.


  • We also appreciate all the time and effort that went into the Quest backpacking events with our Grade 8 students, which had another year of successful outings.


  • Thanks to anyone and everyone who is involved with our end-of-year events at all of our schools. We appreciate the focus on acknowledging accomplishments and wishing our students the best as they move forward either from grade-to-grade or beyond.


  • Congrats to the Class of 2023 as they move on to their next steps. We appreciate everyone who organized and prepared for our graduation ceremony.


  • We are happy to have summer programming getting started across the district and look forward to continuing our good with all of our students and adults who are involved.


Please check out the additional information below in the remainder of our Smore Update.


Have a safe and enjoyable summer.


Respectfully,

Brad Zilliox

Congrats to the Class of 2023!

Financial Literacy Super Heroes

With the help of a grant from Northern Chautuaqua Community Foundation, the students in Mrs. DePue's Career and Financial Management Class were able to spread financial literacy awareness to students in 4th grade. April was Financial Literacy Month so our students created "super hero" capes that reflected a financial concept that they had learned in class. Then they were in groups to choose a book related to money to read to younger students and then create an activity that related to the lessons learned from the book.


Mrs. DePue's students were able to visit Mrs. McAfee's and Mrs. Alguire's class and read the books and then paint ceramic banks with them after discussing the importance of saving money. They were also able to buy a Money Savvy piggy bank for each student in Mrs McAfee's class. This bank is unique in that it has a separate section for Spending, Saving, Investing, and Donating. The students all had a great time. It was a great way for our older students to learn the value of mentoring, and for our younger students to build financial literacy skills. What a great collaboration!

Special Olympics

Several of our students recently participated in the first in-person Special Olympics since COVID, held at SUNY Fredonia. It was so exciting to be back in this awesome atmosphere. Thanks to our teachers and aides who ensured this event was a fun experience for our student athletes!

Gardening Gurus

With the beautiful weather recently, so many groups and individuals have taken time to spruce up the landscaping around our signage. Thanks to...Melissa Pietrkiewicz (Noah's mom!) and her students for cleaning up the beds at Wheelock. Thanks to our FMS Service Learning Club 5th grade members who weeded the flower bed under the school’s sign, and added mulch there & at the building’s entrance.

Community Connections

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We love when students initiate community connections! One of our PreK students, Ani Lim, invited his neighbor and friend Janey Wagner to Mrs. Snyder's room to share her love of music and movement with our PreK students. The students loved singing the songs with Janey. Just look at those smiles!

Unified Accolades

Congratulations to our Unified athletes Gabriella Domenico, Joshua Priolette, Tristan Tarbell, and Josephine Tomaszewski, who were recently awarded the Friends of Unified Scholarship, at $500 each.


We also finished 2nd in the Class B section 6 tournament. Julian Ocasio received the Section 6 Sportsmanship Award and Giacinte Laurito received the Character Athlete of the Game.

We are also SO proud to announce that Cassie Smoczynski has been awarded a very big accolade - the Female Character Athlete of the year! This award is from the organization Cross Training Athletics, which is a character-building program for school athletic teams. They cover schools and teams mostly in WNY.


Cassie was honored at a special luncheon at Ilio Dipaolo's recently. Her parents and Coach Zirkle were in attendance to celebrate this amazing honor!

On June 17, our Unified athletes participated in an exciting flag football fundraising event! The tourney was held at Highmark Stadium, and we raised an amazing $1500 for Special Olympics. Thanks to Ron Duliba for helping out this year!

Congratulations Olivia!

Olivia Wood is the Fredonia HS winner this year for the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce Scholarship. She will recieve a $500 award after completing her first semester at Jamestown Business College. Congratulations, Olivia!

Congrats to our Students of the Month for May!

Christine Slagle