Big thanks going out to...

• All the fathers and father figures out there supporting our students every day
• Air Force First Sergeant Joe Pagan for presenting our art students with a very special American flag flown in Iraq (more below)
• Our teachers, staff, and local partners for ensuring many exciting field trips happened for our kids this year
• The HS Science department for organizing the first annual Bio Bowl
• Spectrum News 1 Buffalo Meteorologist Dan Russell for his special visit to our 4th grade classes
• Our entire faculty & staff for their hard work ending the school year on a strong, positive note

FCSD wants to thank the following individuals who retired or are retiring at the end of this school year. These individuals have given a combined 268 YEARS to our district, and for their dedication we are extremely grateful. Please join us in thanking and celebrating the following, in no particular order:

Carol Kinney (26 years) - Teacher Aide

Leisa Hellwig (9) - School Nurse

Tina DiCarlantonio (32) - Kindergarten Teacher

Michael Mallory (31) - Music Teacher

Audrey Lancaster (30) - Career Preparation Teacher

Kim Powell (28) - Computer Teacher

Michael Pauly (28) - Career Preparation Teacher

Sharon Krzal (28) - Teacher Aide

John Elliot (13) - Cleaner

JoAnne Ryan (15) - Teacher Aide

Virginia Harper (6) - Teacher Aide

Stacy Conti (22) - Teacher Aide

We also want to thank the following individuals who are up for tenure recommendation at tonight's Board of Education meeting (see invite at the bottom of this newsletter). Earning tenure is a distinction not to be taken lightly, and we thank each of these individuals for choosing to be a part of our Fredonia Family.

Erin Guiffreda

Michelle Kuras

Jamie Radtke

Mackenzie Sheldon

Chandler Henningham

Mary Ivory

Ellen Kennelley

Kayla Wiskup

Ivy Krenzer

David Denz

Zachary Forys

Gina Davis

Katherine Beyer

Paula Troutman

Hello Fredonia School Community,

As we approach the end of our school year, I wanted to take a moment to offer thanks to all involved in making the last 40 weeks as productive and positive as possible. By working together as a team, we have been able to successfully fulfill our mission of creating an environment where individuals become their greatest selves. All of the time, energy, and concern that has gone into your collective efforts is truly noticed and appreciated. This includes our students, families, community members, faculty, staff, administration, and Board of Education.

We have been able to maintain our laser focus on our students and learning during circumstances that, in moments, attempted to distract us from this goal. I am thankful that we were not deterred from this priority and stayed honed in on providing innovative, dynamic, and global educational experiences for our students. Additionally, the manner in which we conducted ourselves throughout the year was true to our core beliefs.

I am proud to work with an outstanding school community in which input is gathered, humor is appreciated, camaraderie is apparent, and teamwork is valued. As we look ahead to planning for the next school year, we invite you to contact our offices with questions, concerns, or ideas.

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable summer as we look forward to next school year. Best wishes to all of our retirees and welcome to our new employees coming on board over the next few months. Be well and take care.

Respectfully,

Brad Zilliox

Superintendent

BRAVO to our building-wide art show participants. Our hallways were filled with beautiful artwork and we had a wonderful showing of parents, guardians, community members, and staff who enjoyed the displays.

In a special presentation, Air Force First Sergeant Joe Pagan presented our art department with a US Flag in a shadow box that was flown in Iraq and Syria. This was to return the favor to our art students and teachers for sending cards and artwork to our soldiers abroad. What a special gift! Thank you, Mr. Pagan!

Our HS Band and Orchestra students participated in their annual kickball game this year. Fun was had by all. Each group's President and VP shook hands at the end of the match as well. We love to see fun events like this to close out all the hard work from the year!

Mrs. Putnam's class enjoyed some fun campout activities this past week to celebrate reading! They enjoyed reading in hammocks, making salad from their garden and creating mini campfires. What a fun way to get excited about reading!

Mrs. Thie and Mrs. Haase's classes recently took a trip downtown to Barker Commons. The weather has been beautiful to explore our village!

Our HS Science department recently coordinated our first annual Biology Bowl with our Living Environment classes. This was a fun staff vs. student event. Each team competed in 10 "review" events, ultimately crowning one winner. Questions and answers were set up "Family Feud" style, complete with buzzers!

The staff members who participated were Mr. Bittinger, Mr. Donovan, Mr. Romans, Nr, Lauer, Mr. Paschke, Mrs. Troutman, Mrs. Richards, Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Brautigam and Mr. Drollinger. There were 10 events with 20 teams.

CONGRATS to winners Bio Bois, with 2nd place going to Mr. Lauer’s Fruit Salad, and Pink Fairy Armadillos coming in 3rd.

Thanks again to Andy Dykes, who spent time reading to our FES students in Mrs. Wells' room this past week. Talk about perseverance! He has worked so hard to learn to read, his hard work has paid off. Andy read "Dick and Jane" to a Mrs. Wells' fourth grade class.

Our fourth graders couldn't have had better weather for a recent trip to Niagara Falls to ride the Maid of the Mist!

The 8th grade went to Allegheny State Park recently and enjoyed a lovely day outdoors. They participated in team building activities, a nature hike, scavenger hunt, nature art, creek walking, and learned about hiking. It was a terrific trip!

For their final project of the year, the FCSD Symphonic Band produced a video featuring the Ukrainian and American National Anthems. Beautiful work.

Big thanks to Dan Russell from Spectrum News 1 Buffalo for spending time with our 4th grade today to discuss his meteorology career! Dan visited because 4th grader Danny Whitfield in Mrs. Kibler's class is a big fan, and told Dr. Z. they look alike!

Turns out - Dan Russell is a former student of Dr. Z.'s, and a metorology internship in his class set Dan on the path to his current career. Small world!

Thanks to Danny Whitfield for inspiring today's visit. Danny is also interested in being a meteorologist someday!

Congratulations to 8th grader Ray Dai who recently attended the US Geography Championships. He got #1 overall in 8th grade, and #1 for the written exam portion. He also tied for 1st in multiple choice. For his efforts, he received a trophy, medal and 2 plaques.

He was also a quarterfinalist in the National History Bee, and a finalist in the International Geography Bee. We are so proud of you, Ray!

Congratulations to Fredonia Senior Ashlyn Ambrose on signing her letter of intent to run cross country and indoor & outdoor track and field at Division 2 D'Youville University!

Congratulations to Fredonia Senior, Simon Davis on signing his commitment letter to play football at Washington and Jefferson College in the Fall. Simon plans to major in Economics.

Congratulations to our 4x400m relay team of Matt Linder, Ledreth Velez-Olmo, Alex Field, and Jayden Yerico on their 5th place finish at the NYS Track and Field Championships!

Congrats also to Ledreth on his 6th place finish in the division 2 public schools 400m at the NYSPHSAA track and field champioships! He ran a time of 51.16 seconds.

To close out the school year, we want to celebrate the good work the FTA Student Assistance Fund was able to do this year.

For the 2021-22 school year, the Fredonia Teachers Association Student Assistance Fund assembled a newly-created committee of FTA faculty and staff representatives from across the district to receive, vet requests and streamline the process for providing assistance to our students and families. Our committee worked closely with the FTA Executive Board to fundraise, develop procedures for giving, and respond quickly to requests for assistance.

The annual FTA Holiday Drive was a huge success - 47 families were provided gift cards to help brighten their holidays. With multiple children in each family, the total giving for the Holiday Drive came to $8,050.00 this year. Emily Klein and Chris Anderson work tirelessly to ensure this assistance is provided each year; the FTA SAF committee is excited to help continue this yearly tradition.

The FTA SAF Committee worked throughout the year to identify and provide assistance to students and families for a variety of reasons. In total, the Fund assisted 11 district families for a total of $1,479.98 spent. Types of assistance included purchasing gift cards to be used for fuel to far-away medical appointments, eye glasses, food during difficult times, and different student issues as the need presented.

Looking forward to next school year, the FTA SAF Committee is eager and enthusiastic to continue the important work of meeting student and family needs.

Congrats again to our Spectator staff on their many awards from the New York Press Association, including BEST HS Newspaper in NY State. Staff & advisors recently celebrated with a dinner at Shorewood.