As a longtime athletic director and coach, Dr. Jonathan Jefferson has seen the impact a coach can make on a student.
“You see student-athletes grow exponentially through athletics,” he said. “It’s not just their performance on the playing field, but socially, emotionally, how they engage with adults in the community, how they engage with administrators and teachers in the school, how they get along with their peers. Just seeing students grow through athletics and how they mature and carry themselves in the school community, that’s what I enjoy most about athletics.”
Jefferson was named the Poughkeepsie City School District’s Executive Director of Physical Education, Health Services, Athletics and Recreation Sept. 3. Since then, he’s been familiarizing himself with the school and district, getting to know the students and staff, and beginning to implement his vision for what the athletics and physical education departments needs. 
For example, this week he launched new social media channels on Facebook, Instagram and Threads for updating the community on the latest Pioneers athletics news. 
Increasing involvement is one of Jefferson’s main objectives. That not only includes engaging with the community, but encouraging greater participation among students and even staff.
“Not only can we bring more teachers in as program assistants, but also events staff, equipment managers and things of that nature, so this department can run efficiently,” he said. “Right now, we have very few doing quite a bit – kudos to them – however, you can only be expert at one or two things at a time. When you try to go beyond that, something falls by the wayside.”
Jefferson fills the role Peter Bianco occupied for four years. A graduate of the York College of the City University of New York, who earned his doctorate in Education Leadership, Management and Policy from Seton Hall, Jefferson first served as an athletic director in 1999 for Yorktown. He has worked in several school districts as a teacher, administrator and building leader – including as an assistant principal at Poughkeepsie High School. Most notably, he was the Director of Health, Physical Education and Athletics for Uniondale Public Schools for nearly 12 years.
That, he said, has given him “considerable experience” dealing with school populations across the economic and racial spectrums.
“I’ve got to experience it all from different angles,” he said. “The one thing that’s constant is athletics and its impact on kids and how kids engage, and how coaches engage with kids. That hasn’t changed, it doesn’t matter what your setting is and it doesn’t matter how many years have passed. That piece of it is the same.”
In examining the department, Jefferson praised the district’s use of program assistants – “that’s a collegiate-level type of position” – who support all levels of a sport’s program, as well as its academic monitoring to decide a student’s eligibility to participate and provide assistance.
“Having a faculty manager just for that is not unique, but the quality and depth they go into to follow students, qualify students… that I found to be exceptional,” Jefferson said.
However, he noted the district faces “challenges,” including with relatively low participation for their competition level.
He also noted some teams exist on the varsity level without the infrastructure at younger levels needed to succeed and must be “rebuilt from the ground up.”
Jefferson said he plans to go to community events, along with translators, to talk to parents about why they should encourage participation. He also aims to establish a strong booster club that goes beyond parents and alumni and includes local businesses.
The job, as the official title suggest, of course goes beyond taking care of Pioneers athletics. Jefferson noted a district priority is also establishing an extensive wellness policy.
“Everyone thinks primarily of nutrition when they think of wellness,” he said. “That includes personal safety, safe and healthy environment, mental health awareness, social/emotional health, nutrition and physical fitness.”