WBFO Education Desk

Teachers and community leaders gathered Wednesday afternoon at Broderick Park to discuss the best way educators could help achieve racial and social justice. Their solution? They want to form a caucus inside the Buffalo Teachers Federation.

Parent leaders and the Buffalo Teachers Federation are criticizing Buffalo Public Schools for a lack of transparency and community feedback in the district’s process of developing reopening plans for this fall. The district posted a “working draft” plan on its website Friday night and has said “it’s not done until it’s done.”

Many families are struggling financially after losing work during the pandemic, including some recently-resettled refugees. A back-to-school supply and food drive taking place now hopes to benefit their children.

School board members in New York are concerned they might not be able to successfully fully or partially reopen schools without an infusion of cash from the state or federal governments.

School districts across New York are supposed to send Albany their plans for starting school in the time of COVID-19 by Friday, but Buffalo Teachers Federation President Phil Rumore says that is way too soon.

Daniel Robertson and Jeremy Besch share similar philosophies on educating today’s youth despite coming from vastly different backgrounds.

“I grew up with an absent father,” said Robertson, Program Manager for Say Yes Buffalo’s Boys and Young Men of Color initiative. “I pretty much grew up around individuals that looked like me. I had friends who were in the streets and sold drugs and went to jail. I had friends who I grew up with who are no longer here now because of gun violence.”

Two local high school graduates received a little extra help for college Tuesday. Amaya Walker and Eric Kegler received $500 scholarships in the 11th annual Romeo Doyle Muhammad scholarship awards from Eva Doyle.

Every college and university in the United States has to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and the issues it brings to each campus and classroom. Niagara University not only is dealing with the issues in Lewiston, but on its campus in Vaughan, near Toronto, where the border closure affects planning.

Buffalo Public Schools students have had a bad school year: COVID-19, school closings and trying to learn on a computer screen. Even so, Schools Superintendent Kriner Cash told the school board Wednesday that the students did really, really well.

The Trump administration agreed to rescind new visa rules for international college students it announced last week during court proceedings on Tuesday. New York was one of at least 17 states that filed lawsuits over the policy change, which was widely criticized.

New York State has decided to reopen schools this fall and will issue full guidance Wednesday. School districts now have until the end of the month to submit their plans outlining how students and staff will be allowed back in the classroom.

Many questions remain outstanding about the fall semester of school: When will classes start? How many students will be allowed in each classroom? Will face masks be required? However, the biggest problem might be getting students to school in those big, yellow buses.

There is a petition drive expected soon aimed at getting armed and uniformed Buffalo Police officers out of city schools.

Earlier this spring, Amherst Central High School decided not to offer a longtime elective class called “Race in America” during the coming school year. Then came the police killing of George Floyd, nationwide protests over systemic racism, and a group of students that wasn’t having it.

A group of Niagara University students recently presented the administration a list of demands aimed at creating a more inclusive environment.

Educators from across Western New York gathered yesterday on the steps of Buffalo City Hall for the second time as an act of solidarity to combat systemic racism in the education system.

The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Monday against the state education department over the new security system in Lockport schools, which recognizes two things: guns and faces. WBFO’s Kyle Mackie reports on how the system works and how the same technology used by Scotland Yard and INTERPOL ended up in a school district in Niagara County.

The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Monday against the state Education Department over its approval of the Lockport City School District’s facial recognition security system, which was activated in January.

The school year is ending, but many Buffalo families continue to struggle with the varied impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. That’s the message several parent leaders expressed to the Buffalo Board of Education during its regular meeting Wednesday night.