Newly elected board member Ronald Cook Jr. was sworn in by District Clerk Kathy Ferneza at the annual reorganizational meeting of the Gowanda Board of Education earlier this month.

GOWANDA — The annual reorganizational meeting of the Gowanda Board of Education marked the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year, which is off to a promising start with new leadership on the board, a strong summer school program and high kindergarten enrollment numbers.

The reorganization meeting began with the swearing in of new board member Ronald Cook, Jr., who was elected to the seat vacated by Dan York, whose term expired at the end of June. Board member Lynn Guzzetta was also sworn in, as she was re-elected to another term on the board. District Clerk Kathy Ferneza accepted nominations for board president. Janet Vogtli nominated Mark Nephew, and Barbara Weston nominated Lynn Guzzetta; Nephew was elected president by a 5-2 vote. Dana Szalay-Delaney, nominated by Vogtli, was the sole nomination for vice president, and the board voted unanimously to appoint her to the position.

During the regular board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Robert Anderson congratulated the class of 2019 and the newly elected board members. He also recognized the efforts of Skyler Capozzi, the 2018-2019 student representative on the board, who graduated in June. “It was great having Skyler on the board, and we appreciate his thoughts and views,” said Anderson. “He did a fine job representing the students, and we will be conducting interviews for a new student rep in the fall.”

Elementary Principal Carrie Dzierba announced the successful start of summer school on July 8. She explained that her school has multiple groups of students (38 in all) participating in the four-week program: incoming kindergarten students, current kindergarten through fourth grade students and special education students.

“Our incoming kindergarten students are those whose kindergarten screening showed they aren’t quite kindergarten ready,” Dzierba explained. “This is to give them a head start into transitioning into school. For a lot of them, this is their first exposure to school because some aren’t coming from a headstart, preschool or even day care program.”

Nephew inquired about the status of kindergarten registration for the upcoming school year. “It’s great — we already have high numbers,” she replied. “We’re at almost 90 already, and we’re anticipating 90 to 95 with the ones we’ll get over the summer. We have five sections this year, same as last year. We’ve stayed very consistent over the last three years with those numbers.”

High School Principal Rebekah Moraites thanked the board for their participation in graduation, which was Moraites’ first graduation at the district. She also recognized the custodial, maintenance and technology departments for all of their hard work in preparing for the outdoor ceremony at Hillis Field.

She reported that there are 66 students enrolled in the high school summer school program, which is a full-day program in which students can enroll in up to two sessions to recoup credit or prepare to re-take Regents exams in August.

“Mr. Miklas (middle school principal) and I are partnering on the drug and alcohol forum,” Moraites explained of the mandatory session for parents/guardians of incoming middle and high school students. Instead of scheduling the forums for two different evenings, Moraites said the plan is to combine the forums, which will take place on Aug. 27 following freshmen orientation. Ninth grade students are planning to have food trucks on campus that day, and arrangements are being made to screen a movie in the cafeteria for students while their parents are attending the forum.

Nephew recommended that new board members attend the drug and alcohol forum at least once to become familiar with the informational meeting that parents of incoming fifth and ninth grade students are required to attend during the last week of summer vacation.

On Wednesday, Aug. 7 at 6:30 p.m. in the middle school library, the board is holding a public hearing to discuss the district-wide school safety plan and Panther Drive bridge design, part of the capital project. The regular board of education meeting will immediately follow the public hearing in the middle school library.