Wendi Pencille has been on the BOE for 5 years

Photos by Tom Rivers – Wendi Pencille was elected the new president of the Medina Board of Education during an organizational meeting on Wednesday.

MEDINA – The Board of Education has a new leader after Wendi Pencille was elected president on Wednesday.

Pencille has served five years on the board. She has been active in the community for many years, volunteering for three decades as a wildlife rehabilitator and leading the recent fight by Citizens for Shelby Preservation against a new quarry in Shelby near the Wildlife Refuge.

Pencille has two children in the school district and she said Medina has provided many opportunities for her sons, Noah, 15; and Jaden, 12.

The board picked her as its leader. She replaced Chris Keller, who served in the role the past 1 ½ years. Keller is a teacher at Albion and the newly elected union president for Albion teachers. He said he didn’t have the time to serve as both union and BOE presidents.

The Medina BOE is in good hands with Pencille serving as president, Keller said.

“She is Cornell educated and very personable,” Keller said. “She’ll be outstanding.”

Keller said it was an honor to serve as board president. He is especially grateful for the chance to hand his son Chris his high school diploma at last Friday’s commencement.

Wendi Pencille, owner and handler of Humphrey, poses with the trained therapy dog at the Medina school administration office in this file photo from March 2013. Humphrey, a 125-pound Landseer Newfoundland, has visited Medina classrooms. It’s another way Pencille has volunteered with the school district.

Pencille came on the Board of Education during a stressful time for the district. State aid cuts forced the board to eliminate about 30 positions and some programs her first year on the board.

The district is in a stronger financial position now, and has been making gains academically.

“I want to keep going in the direction where we’re going,” she said. “We’re really doing good things here and I’m proud of what Medina graduates are doing.”

Pencille works as a market development specialist for IBM in Williamsville.

The board re-elected David Sevenski as vice president and welcomed Brian Koch as a new board member. Koch works for Hewlett-Packard in sales. He has two kids in the school district.

Koch and Pencille both work out of the site owned by Ingram Micro in Williamsville, where several technology companies are based.

Pencille’s family attended Wednesday’s swearing in. Her mother, Janet Vullo, was the president of the Board of Education in Starpoint.

The board voted to change its monthly meeting schedule. Instead of meeting the second and fourth Tuesdays, the board will meet the first Tuesday and last Tuesday each month. That will allow Pencille to attend Shelby Town Board meetings on the second Tuesday each month.

The board on Wednesday also accepted the resignation of Tim Ames as director of facilities. He oversaw recent building and campus upgrades.

District Superintendent Jeff Evoy said Ames will be missed.

“I’d like to thank Tim for his many years of service to the Medina School District,” Evoy said.

Photos courtesy of Chris Busch – These Medina graduates pose for a photo at commencement on Friday. The trio includes, from left: Jacob Roeseler, Brian Bogan and Samuel Busch.

MEDINA – The 115 members of the Class of 2015 will begin the next stage of their lives with accomplishment.

Jeff Evoy, the district superintendent, noted that 63 percent of the class earned Regents diplomas with 29 percent at Advanced Regents (Honors).

“In the fall, our graduates will leave us with a strong foundation built here in Medina,” Evoy said at commencement on Friday.

Nearly two thirds or 65 percent of the class will attend either two- or four-year colleges, about 10 percent will be off to trade schools, 5 percent have joined the military and 20 percent will search for employment opportunities, Evoy said.

The superintendent highlighted five students who joined the military: Victoria Carter, Air Force Reserves; John Derting, Air Force; Nick Erway, Army; Brett Pecoraro, Marine Corps; and Jacob Covert, Marine Corps.

Students will be pursuing degrees ranging from neurosciences to cyber security. Evoy said Medina’s Class of 2015 is heading to Canisius College, Clarkson University, Pace University, Wells College, Houghton College, RIT, Nazareth College, Hamilton College, Kent State University, George Mason University, the University of Buffalo, Buffalo State College, Elmira College, Case Western Reserve, SUNY Oneonta, Rensealear Poly Technical Institute, SUNY Geneseo, SUNY Fredonia, SUNY Oswego, Niagara University, Ithaca College, University of North Carolina, Hilbert College, Roberts Wesleyan College. A number of students will attend the following community colleges: Alfred State, NCCC, GCC, ECC, Sandy Hills CC, Canton and Bryant and Stratton.

The Class of 2015 includes 115 graduates, who received their diplomas on Friday at the Medina High School Auditorium.

In his message to graduates, Evoy focused on the importance of persistence and hard work.

“If you get knocked down you must rise again and come back twice as hard,” Evoy told graduates.

He shared the example of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, whose life was featured in the movie, Rudy. Ruettiger dreamed of playing football for Notre Dame. After high school, he worked for his father in a steel mill. Rudy was undersized and suffered from dyslexia. He decided to attend Holy Cross by Notre Dame to boost his grades. It took four tries before Notre Dame accepted him as a student.

With the help of dedicated teachers and tutors and his commitment to his school work, Rudy got the job done, Evoy said. Rudy played on Notre Dame’s scout team and appeared in a game, sacking the quarterback to end the contest.

“Think about how his life may have turned out had he not believed in himself,” Evoy said. “I can guarantee that you will have many struggles in life, but it is how you react to adversity that will determine success or failure. Work through these struggles and learn from them. The difference between success and failure, more often than not, is a little extra effort. When you face adversity battle it with tenacity and always believe in yourself.”

Medina juniors carry the 54-foot-long Daisy Chain into the auditorium for commencement. The Daisy Chain is a lot of hard work. It takes about two days to build it. It’s a Medina tradition going back about a century.

Earlier this month at the Top 10 dinner for the graduates from four Orleans County school districts, Aaron Knights addressed the group. Knights grew up on a farm in Medina. Today he is an attorney in Washington, D.C.

Knights discussed the importance of hard work with the Top 10 graduates.

“He told the audience that he knew coming from a farming family that he would never be outworked,” Evoy said. “He applied this hard work ethic to his chosen profession, law.”

Medina graduates are joining thousands in the region and millions around the country in accepting diplomas and starting a new phase of their lives.

“Nothing will be given to you and your work ethic may be the one thing that separates you from the crowd,” Evoy said. “Simply put, there is no substitute for hard work.”

Photo by Tom Rivers – Western New York Energy wants to add 800,000 bushels of grain capacity to the plant at the corner of Route 31A and Bates Road.

ALBION – The Orleans County Planning Board backed a plan to boost the grain storage capacity for the ethanol plant in Medina by 800,000 bushels.

Western New York Energy submitted a site plan for a 105-foot wide by 142-foot high steel silo. A conveyor system at the top of the bin would increase the height to 155 feet.

The added space would increase grain reserves from 17 days to 30 days, providing greater capacity when deliveries could be impeded by inclement winter weather, county planners said.

The project will cost about $2 million, Michael Sawyer, WNY Energy chief executive officer, told the Orleans Hub during a previous interview.

Construction for the project is expected to run from July through September. It will be on existing developed land that is south of the current corn silos that have 1 million bushels of storage space with two 500,000-bushel grain bins.

In other action last Thursday, the Planning Board:

Approved the site plan for James Lustumbo of Medina to build a 49-unit storage facility on West Avenue, bordering Maple Ridge Road.

Lustumbo wants to build the units in two phases, with 25 in phase one and 24 in phase two. The units would be 150 and 200 square feet. He plans to call the business, Lakewood Storage Facility.

Recommended the Town of Albion approve the site plan, permit request and setback variances for Michael Donnelly to operate a motor vehicle repair shop at his home at 3406 Eagle Harbor Rd.

Donnelly plans to use an attached garage to operate the business, including snowmobile, ATV and small engine repair.

Donnelly needs a 0.5 foot variance from the 15-foot minimum residential setback, a 14.2 foot variance from the minimum 50-foot canal right of way setback and a 19-foot variance from the 20-foot minimum for a driveway setback.

Planners said there is no practical remedy for reducing the variances short of abandoning the project.