Mains to Leave as Jamestown School Superintendent at the End of February

Jamestown Public Schools Superintendent Tim Mains

JAMESTOWN – Jamestown Public Schools will soon start looking for a new superintendent.

On Wednesday the school district announced that current superintendent Tim Mains will be leaving the district at the end of February to take a job at the Pine Bush Central School District, located in the lower Hudson region of the state, just to the west of Newburgh.

Mains final day at Jamestown will be Feb. 26.

Mains came to Jamestown from the Rochester City School District where, according to his website, he served as Director of Internal School Operations and previously as Elementary School Principal. He took over as Superintendent at Jamestown on August 1, 2013, replacing then-retiring superintendent Deke Kathman. At that time he signed on to a two-year contract, but that agreement was extended for an additional year in January 2015.

His total salary for this year, according to the website SeeThroughNY.net, is $171,286.

In a released statement, Jamestown School Board President Paul Abbott said that the board has been very pleased to have had the opportunity to work with Mains since 2013, adding that the district has accomplished a good number of goals it set out to achieve during his tenure.

Mains also said that it’s important to note that the district’s accomplishments over the past three and half years don’t belong to him, but to the staff, students, parents, and community members who have continued to work together to make Jamestown into a District of distinction.

As a result of his departure, the board will now work to find a new superintendent. In the meantime, Abbot said the board is confident that the district and administration will continue working to achieve all the important goals Mains and the board have set forth.

The Board will address questions regarding Mains’ departure at the regular Board of Education Meeting taking place tonight at 6 p.m. in the Jefferson Middle School auditorium.

MAINS’ IMPACT AS JAMESTOWN SCHOOLS’ TOP ADMIN

According to the Jamestown school district, Mains has made great strides and achieved a number of milestones during his 3.5 years in Jamestown.

Jamestown School Superintendent Tim Mains discusses the 2015-16 budget numbers with the school board during the March 12, 2015 board meeting.

In a media release sent out Wednesday night, the district laid out the numerous accomplishments, including:

• Creating the District’s first ever Strategic Plan involving 140 staff, students, parents, alumni and community members;
• Increasing graduation rates from 69% in 2012 to 77% in 2016;
• Increasing focus on curriculum and instruction in order to meet the new, more rigorous standards and introduction of a district-wide effort towards more differentiated instruction;
• Expanding professional development for staff and adding more coaches to expand teacher leadership and provide support to our classrooms;
• Taking four of the district’s nine schools off the “Focus School” list;
• Forming our own educational foundation – the Jamestown Schools PROMISE Fund, which raised $25,000 in its first 18 months;
• The completion and approval of 10 collective bargaining agreements;
• Revamping our suspension process/program; introduction of trauma-informed and restorative practices; expanding PBIS into our middle schools and high school; and focusing our approach to student behavior management on prevention;
• Complete renovation of four of our nine school buildings; introduction of secure vestibules as a new safety feature as we moved through our $68 million construction project.

But Mains’ time as superintendent has also been met with some criticism. During the 2014-15 school year, there were a number of incidents involving the district’s discipline policy, and Mains was criticized for supporting a policy that placed unruly students in the same environment as those with little to no behavior problems.

Some parents and teachers in the district were also disappointed that Mains was in support of the new common core teaching standards imposed by the state, rather than speaking out against them.