Albany, NY -- In an unprecedented sweep, the Jamestown City School District, students from Persell Middle School, and three Jamestown teachers have been selected by the Board of Regents and the State Archives to receive three statewide awards. Jamestown City School District will receive the Archives Award for Excellence in the Educational Use of Local Government Records by a Local Government; Persell students will receive the Laura and Robert Chodos Award for Excellence in Student Research Using Historical Records, Grades 6-8; and teachers Rick Walters, Jeff Kresge and Grace Johnson will receive the Bruce W. Dearstyne Archives Award for Excellence in the Educational Use of Local Government Records by an Educator.
All of these awards will be presented to the recipients at a luncheon ceremony at the State Education Building in Albany on October 20, 2008.
The Archives Award for Excellence in the Educational Use of Local Government Records by a Local Government is presented to a local government that has demonstrated outstanding initiative, leadership, and creativity in encouraging and promoting the use of local government historical records for elementary and secondary education.
The award recognizes the Jamestown City School District for its participation in an innovative 11th grade distance learning program that taught students from three school districts how to create and maintain a school archives. It also recognizes the school district for its outstanding work with middle school students and teachers to produce the award-winning website, The Lost Neighborhood, which is based on the community’s historical records. Records Management Coordinator Pamela Brown and Records Management Officer Karen Briner-Peterson will accept the award.
The 2008 Laura and Robert Chodos Award for Excellence in Student Research Using Historical Records, Grades 6-8, will be presented to Persell Middle School students Mark Brombacher, Jennie Gross, Taylor Estrada, Michelle Ferry, Alex Hoagland, Justin Hodges, Holly Johnson, Nick Myers, Jacob Perkins, Marisa Pope, Lucas Raak, Lindsey Rensel, Olivia Sinatra, Johnna Vanstrom, and Ben Whitney for the The Lost Neighborhood Project.
Using historical records from the Fenton History Center, Jamestown City School District Archives and many private collections, the students created a website, the purpose of which is to preserve the memory of a neighborhood lost through urban renewal. One reviewer called it “excellent archival work on an original topic.” In addition to many maps, photos and family documents, the website includes a blog section in which the students documented their project experience.
The Student Research Awards, named for Regent Emerita Laura Chodos and her husband Dr. Robert Chodos, who created an endowment to encourage the educational uses of historical records in the classroom, are presented annually to a student or group of students in New York State who have made outstanding use of historical records in their research. They recognize student work for demonstrating excellence based on specific criteria: using a variety of historical records, drawing on information from those records, and interpreting and integrating that information with creativity and imagination.
This year's Bruce W. Dearstyne Archives Award for Excellence in the Educational Use of Local Government Records by an Educator will be presented to Rick Walters, Jeff Kresge, and Grace Johnson. The award recognizes the three educators for using historical records to encourage student and teacher interest in local history. It further recognizes collaborative efforts with the records management staff at the Jamestown City School District to develop an innovative 11th grade history curriculum that, in turn, inspired the outstanding eighth grade project on Jamestown’s Lost Neighborhood. The successful integration of the community’s historical records into classroom instruction is an example for other educators across the state to follow, according the award letter.
The annual Archives Awards program recognizes outstanding efforts in archives and records management work in New York State by a broad range of individuals and organizations. A complete list of this year’s award recipients follows:
Excellence in Research Using the Holdings of the State Archives
Dr. Michael R. Fein, Johnson & Wales University
Program Excellence in a Historical Records Repository
Essex County Historical Society/Adirondack History Center Museum, Elizabethtown, New York
William H. Kelly Award for Excellence in Local Government Archival Program Development
Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation
Cheryl Steinbach Award for Excellence in Local Government Records Management
Ulster County
Excellence in State Agency Records Management
New York State Consumer Protection Board
Excellence in the Educational Use of Local Government Records by a Local Government
Jamestown City School District
Bruce W. Dearstyne Award for Excellence in the Educational Use of Local Government Records
Rick Walters, Jeff Kresge, Grace Johnson, Jamestown City School District
Laura and Robert Chodos Award for Excellence in Student Research Using Historical Records, Grades 4–5
Walden Elementary History Club, Walden Elementary School, Valley Central School District
Nancy Phelps, Educator
Laura and Robert Chodos Award for Excellence in Student Research Using Historical Records, Grades 6–8
Students from Persell Middle School, Jamestown City School District
Jeff Kresge and Grace Johnson, Educators
Laura and Robert Chodos Award for Excellence in Student Research Using Historical Records, Grades 9–12
Alexandra Rheinhardt, Cooperstown Central High School, Cooperstown Central School District
Glen Noto, Educator