Tagged: buffalo schools

Some local children will be taking part in a new initiative designed to promote healthy living.

The U.S. Soccer Foundation has awarded a grant to the Independent Health Foundation to bring the national "Soccer For Success" program to ten Buffalo Public elementary schools. 

The youth development program uses soccer as a tool to combat childhood obesity. Independent Health President and CEO Dr. Michael Cropp said the epidemic of obesity and diabetes is driving the crisis in healthcare today.  

Johns Hopkins University will not be coming this fall to help turnaround two of Buffalo's low-achieving schools.

The Baltimore university announced their decision yesterday after the school district failed to produce a state-approved teacher evaluation plan.

Johns Hopkins officials told the Buffalo News the issue would inhibit their ability to properly prepare for the start of the coming school year at Lafayette and East high schools. The university has left the door opened to helping Buffalo schools in the future.

The New York State Board of Regents today followed a recommendation to close Pinnacle Charter School in June at the end of the current school year.

The Education Department recommended the school closing because of persistent sub-par scores on state tests. There is no appeal process, although school officials were meeting with legal counsel Tuesday about a possible lawsuit to block the closing.

Parents, teachers, and students have been rallying in recent days to keep the school open.

Saying they just aren't worth the trouble, Buffalo schools want to do away with those "half-days," half-days of class and half-days of professional development for teachers.

The district has seven of them this year and wants none next year, although that depends on what Albany does about Regents tests during the year.

"There's limited benefit to the teachers and I'm sure it's very frustrating for the parents as well," said school board member John Licata.

So, district administrators argue they have to go.

Buffalo school officials and teachers union leaders have met a deadline by sending to Albany, at the 11th hour, a memorandum of understanding concerning teacher evaluations.

Student absenteeism has been a major bone of contention in talks between the two sides.  Buffalo can secure several million additional state education dollars, but the district and the union must agree on a rigorous teacher evaluation system whether or not students show up for class. 

In a major financial setback for the Buffalo Public Schools District, a State Supreme Court judge today ordered the district to pay a Town of Tonawanda charter school $6.8 million dollars for improperly ending its contracted bus service for students who live in the City of Buffalo.  

The Charter School for Applied Technologies had sued the district for $9.5 million, alleging the district’s transportation policy, instituted in 2009, eliminated bus service for more than 1,000 students in grades K-thru-8. 

An emergency meeting in Common Council Chambers over the possible loss of funding for Buffalo's neediest schools drew more than a hundred people last night.

Unless the school district reaches a deal with its unions on a teacher evaluation plan that Albany will accept by next week, $9 million will be lost.

The deadline for having a teacher evaluation system in place is coming up next week.

Along with the millions at stake, Buffalo could also lose out on an additional $50 million in aid next year unless there's an agreement.

The hunt for a permanent Buffalo schools superintendent is bubbling along below the surface, with one of the people in charge of putting some guidance before the board saying last night's meeting in Southside Elementary was the 43rd meeting, some even with students.

After some packed meetings earlier, this sixth public meeting was thinly attended.

Bennett High junior Ryan Montgomery was there to push for the permanent choice of Interim Schools Superintendent Amber Dixon, saying she's doing well.

The Buffalo School Board could be voting soon on laying off dozens of employees after leaders of the teacher's union approved keeping an attendance clause in the district's teacher evaluation agreement.

Albany insists chronically absent students must count.  The dispute is holding up $9 million in funding for six of Buffalo's low-achieving schools. 

The pressure appears to be mounting on the Buffalo Teachers Federation as the Buffalo school district scrambles to save $9 million in state funding.

At a special meeting at noon Tuesday, the Buffalo School Board is expected to formally request that the Buffalo Teachers Federation drop its request that any new teacher evaluation system account for the district's dismal student attendance record.

The search for a new Buffalo schools superintendent is heating up with public meetings to let citizens talk about the qualities of who should eventually sit in the City Hall office.

Mike Desmond was at a meeting last night in Hamlin Park School 74.

The school board hopes to have a superintendent in place by summer and has Cascade Consulting Group doing the search.

That Seattle-based firm is promising 60-meetings in the process, including talking to students about the superintendent's job.

 Governor Andrew Cuomo struck a deal on a new teacher evaluation system that he says will be a national model.

 The agreement reached Thursday between the state and its largest teachers' union creates a statewide standard for evaluating teachers.

Interim Buffalo Schools superintendent Amber Dixon is responding to the Governor's evaluations plan.   

Interim Buffalo Schools Superintendent Amber Dixon says it is time for her to say yes to apply for the possible as a permanent superintendent. 

It was a question Dixon would not answer after taking over four months ago when James Williams retired. 

But now Dixon wants to be considered as a candidate. 

"And I think it is time to say yes. I think we have moved this district in the right direction," said Dixon.

Dixon recently  reached agreement with the school board on the seven models for the schools improvement grants. 

New York State Education Commissioner John King, Jr. has suspended School Improvement Grant (SIG) funding for all 10 SIG school districts in the state.  That includes Buffalo.  

The leader of the Buffalo School District says an agreement has been reached with two district employee unions, making the district eligible for $10-million in federal education funding.

Districts across the state received a stern warning this week from state Education Commissioner John King, who said millions of dollars in education funding are in jeopardy because many districts are not meeting the requirements.  The deadline is this Saturday.  

The Buffalo Board of Education approved turn-around models Wednesday night for six low-achieving schools.  Futures Academy and the Charles Drew Science Magnet will both see half of their staffs replaced.  The other four schools will operate under an Educational Partnership Organization.  Known as an E-P-O, it is a restart model that -- if approved by the State -- would see outside organizations run the schools.   

The State Education Department  issued its list of schools that need to improve state-wide.    More than 1,300  elementary, middle and high schools are on the list  -- an unprecedented number of schools statewide.   WBFO'S Eileen Buckley says in Buffalo 16-schools have been identified as "Schools in Need of Improvement.

"The impact of changing the cut scores on the 3rd through 8th ELA and Math would result in something like this. So no we weren't surprised by this. This is exactly what we understood would happen," said interim Buffalo Schools Superintendent Amber Dixon.

 If you're a parent of a Buffalo Public School student, you're receiving a "robo-call" this week that could affect how millions of dollars are spent within the school system.  And some believe the answers parents give could give their children a leg-up on education that's been missing in Buffalo for decades.

  The issue is whether children should be bused to schools outside their neighborhoods, or if the system should be revamped to keep most children in their community schools.

  WBFO's Sharon Osorio has the story.