BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — Buffalo Public School students are about to embark on a new school year. Friday the leader of city schools delivered a State of the Schools address at City Hall in downtown Buffalo.
The district is still dealing with lingering issues from last year, but the superintendent is promising changes ahead.
“This is our year of action and accountability,” declared Dr. Tonja Williams, Superintendent, Buffalo Public School District.
Dr. Williams held her second State of the Schools address and fired off several recent successes for the district.
“You should know that in 2022, we graduate 79 percent of our children for the first time in a very long time,” noted Dr. Williams.
The superintendent says improving the reading rates of younger students is a major goal. By 2025, the district wants all third graders to be at proficiency levels.
But Dr. Williams says young students are already improving in June at the end of the past school year.
“48 percent were reading proficient,” Dr. Williams commented. “That means that almost half of our first graders, at the end of the year, were ready proficiently.
The district also experienced an improvement in math, proficiently levels jumped from 19 percent to 28 percent.
The superintendent says there is still more work to do, but data is going in the right direction.
And there’s so much the district is working to improve.
"Place a high premium on safety and wellness, including anti-bullying,” Dr. Williams stated.
The district is facing a lawsuit from the family of a 12-year-old boy who died by suicide in May. The family claims he faced relentless bullying.
But now the school board has approved a plan to collect data on bullying from each school. I asked the superintendent about the changes.
“We’ve been training. We've got work to do with our families to make sure, for all of us, if we see something, say we something and there have to some interventions that are provided immediately,” Williams replied.
“The challenges will the schools reported properly. That's where the challenge is going to be,” replied Edward Speidel, president, District Parent Coordinating Council.
Speidel tells me there's more parents can do as well.
“You also can report it online, so if you report it online, you're going to super vent the school and everybody's going to know right away and there's no secret,” Speidel replied.
The superintendent also addressed the long-standing issue of suspension rates in city schools, with some reports saying they're the highest in the nation. She says that's not true and that the narrative must change.
“We’ve got to start looking at our data and telling the truth now we've got work to do, but we're not going to stand back anymore and take statistics that are thrown out that are not true,” described Williams.
When students return next week, they will follow new arrival and dismissal times under a three-tier bell system to deal with school bus driver shortages.
“Are you worried that that's going to be a big confusion — where kids aren't going to be ready for that bus and knowing what time they start school?” Buckley questioned. “No, I’m not. We've sent something out to all of our families. I will begin my slew of ROBO calls every single day next week. I will be encouraging principals to reach out to their specific school community so that the parents know exactly what times, so I believe that parents will have adequate notification," answered Dr. Williams.
Buffalo students return for their first day Friday, September 8.
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