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Office of the Superintendent

Superintendent Anthony Panella

Welcome to the Superintendent's Office 

Anthony J. Panella
Superintendent

Debbie Custodi
Secretary to the Superintendent and District Clerk


January 2025

Classes resume on Jan. 2 and while I am anticipating many great things in 2025 for our students and staff, I’d like to pause and share some exciting things that happened in December in our schools. 

A very special guest speaker assembly was held for our seventh graders right before our winter break. Fidele Dahn, whom some of our students have met because he works as a bus driver transporting our students, shared some of his story of having to flee his village in South Sudan when he was nine years old when it was attacked by government troops. He became one of The Lost Boys of Sudan, which ties into a book seventh graders are studying. His fascinating journey led him to Buffalo. Several years ago he began a medical clinic in his village; the South Sudan Villages Clinic. With two fundraisers, Amherst Middle School raised over $1,500 to donate to the clinic. He told the staff and students that the donation would fund several months of medicine for patients at the clinic.

At the high school, a brave team of students and staff waded into the freezing waters of Lake Erie to support the Amherst Unified Tigers team in the Special Olympics Polar Plunge. With the snow and chilly conditions in early December, it was a very challenging dip into some icy waters. With generous support from the community, the ACHS Polar Plunge team raised $5,411 for Special Olympic athletes all over New York. Special Olympics helps support our Amherst Unified basketball and bowling sports teams. 

Several academic accolades were presented at the high school recently. Six ACHS seniors will receive scholarships of $500 or $1,500 from the New York State Scholarship for Academic Excellence program. The awards are based on student grades on certain Regent exams and students are nominated by school administrators. Congratulations to Alice Johnson, Erin Sheridan, Fiona Robshaw, Jack Powers, William McIntyre, and Luca Strangis.

Students who attend a career and technical program can qualify for academic honors by maintaining an 85% average in their classes at ACHS and a 90% average in their CTE classes. Six students met these requirements and were inducted into the National Technical Honor Society for their rigorous academic work in their Erie 1 BOCES career and technical education program. Congratulations to Madison Connolly, Health Careers; Declan Goldhawk, Digital Media; Ryan Koteras, Web Tech & Apps; Isabella Mayer, Culinary; Amira Saleh, New Visions Health Careers; and Sienna Tripp, Digital Media.

As we look into January, here’s a reminder that on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025, Amherst Schools will be closed for the Asian Lunar New Year holiday. This is the first time the holiday has fallen on a weekday after Gov. Hochul signed legislation in September 2023 to declare Asian Lunar New Year a public school holiday across New York State. The holiday fell on a Saturday in February 2024. 

I wish our Amherst School community a Happy New Year.