Allyson Smith
The Jamestown School Board has approved the appointment of a new principal for Jamestown High School.
Allyson Smith will begin in that role on Tuesday, January 16. Current building principal, Dana Williams, will continue in an advisory role over the course of the second semester.
JPS Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said in a press release about Allyson, “She really stood out throughout the process with each of our stakeholders groups. Her understanding of the challenges and strengths of Jamestown High School is quite deep and this understanding as well as the relationships that she has forged, will serve our high school staff and students well as we move into the next phase of leadership at JHS.”
Smith has served JHS since 2020, first as Dean of Students and currently as one of the building’s assistant principals. Prior to joining the staff at JHS, Smith served for seven years as a special education teacher at Persell Middle School. She began her career as a private kindergarten lead teacher at KinderCare Learning Center in Webster, New York.
Smith received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Nazareth College, and graduated from St. Bonaventure University’s School Building Leader Certification Program in December of 2019.
The School Board also has approved changes in leadership at Jefferson Middle School by appointing Jason Mank as Interim Principal through the end of the 2023-24 school year. The changes come following the transition of former Jefferson Middle School principal Leslie Melquist to K-12 principal at Sherman Central School District prior to the holiday break.
Mank has spent over a decade serving the district in instructional and administrative capacities. He spent 10 years teaching history and psychology at Jamestown High School before becoming the building’s dean of students in 2009.
Jason Mank
In 2014, he was appointed as the assistant principal at Cassadaga Valley Middle/High School, where he served for two years, before spending six years at Wellsville Secondary School as senior assistant principal. In 2022, he returned to JPS as a JHS Assistant Principal at the Raymond J. Fashano Technical Academy prior to becoming Jefferson’s assistant principal in September.
Mank received a bachelor’s and master’s degree from SUNY Fredonia and educational leadership degrees at Gannon University and St. Bonaventure University and possesses New York State certificates as both a district and building leader.
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