Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Superintendent of Buffalo Public Schools , Dr. Tonja Williams, announced several key strategic plans that she would like to see implemented over the next three years during her tenure as well as some "game changing" announcements.
The district's teachers, Board of Education, Mayor Byron Brown and Say Yes Buffalo were all in attendance Friday at City Honors School to hear the superintendent's State of the Schools address and her Five By 25! (2025) goals, which focus on school safety, accessibility to teaching resources and championing for career readiness oppurtunities.
The superintendent opened her address by announcing that the district is in it's final stages of purchasing Fosdick Field outside City Honors School in hopes to restore it. Currently, it's an empty grass lot.
"This is a true game changer. What this purchase does is that it will allow us, all of us, to restore a beautiful resource to this school, and to this beautiful historic neighborhood, a resource that was taken away from the community in 1977. But one of the things that's especially special and remarkable about this is that the idea organically began with this school's community and with this neighborhood, I cannot wait," said Dr. Williams.
The first of the five main goals of the superintendent is eliminating opportunity and achievement gaps so that every student can reach their full academic and social-emotional potential.
Secondly, the access to educational excellence like accelerated learning, "We will be welcoming, we will provide a safe learning environment for our children, and there will be high quality teaching and learning taking place, which will allow students opportunities to accelerate their learning," said Dr. Williams.
"Number three, we will prioritize safety, security and wellness for all of our students and our staff. Buffalo Public Schools will be implementing best-in-class, evidence-based safety and security measures across all of our schools," said Dr. Williams.
This is an important goal for the superintendent, "Last February, we had a very unfortunate incident that happened right outside on one of our school grounds, where a student conflict led to the stabbing of one of our dear students who I know we are all continuing to uplift. The shooting of one of our beloved school security officers who is very close to me, personally, awful. During my 32 years of working in this district, never have I ever known us to experience such a dreadful and frightening situation, one that we must and we will do everything within our power to never experience in our district ever, again," said the superintendent. "
The fourth goal is continuing to partner with parents and caregivers and continue to "cultivate trust" with the community. The superintendent has already gone on a listening tour and says she will now be doing a "community sense tour."
Lastly, the superintendent would like to continue to activate partnerships so students can expand learning beyond the classroom.
The Superintendent mentioned the difficulties of having to constantly adapt schooling strategies due to the pandemic has been challenging, coupled with the problems that Buffalo faces today, such as the supermarket shooting that took place on May 14th.
"Our schools became a hub in our communities, where families could go and receive vaccines and testing supplies during school hours, after school hours and even on weekends. In addition, we worked with our Say Yes Buffalo partners to ensure that every single school had viable mental health clinics operating in them with highly-trained, licensed social workers, who complemented our own social work guidance counselor, and school psychologist staff to provide the much needed trauma informed, culturally relevant counseling that our children needed."
The Superintendent and the board are continuing to look at all options and resources to combat the labor shortage issue in the school, such as the national bus driver shortage problem.
To listen to the full address, see the player below: