Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Starting in September, high school students of the Buffalo Academy of Science Charter School, also known as BuffSci, will now report to classes at the the former Medaille University campus at 24 Agassiz Circle. The charter school officially unveiled parts and plans of their new "BuffSci at Medaille" campus on Wednesday.
"For the last eight years we were looking for a new campus because our downtown campus is small and is not meeting the needs of our growing student population," explained Dr. Joseph Polat, Executive Director of BuffSci.
"This campus offers a lot of opportunities, especially athletic centers, a large cafeteria, auditorium, and also large open space with lots and lots of green areas for kids to have after school program after school activities."
Polat notes that the best thing about utilizing this particular space for the students is that the space has the true college campus feel to it, whether that be doing work in the labs, creating in the tech centers or playing on the soccer fields.
"This provides a college like environment to our kids. We are a college-bound school," explains Polat.
"We like all our students to go to college. We have 100% college acceptance. We're trying to get scholarships for our all our students and we encourage all our students to finish college. This campus is going to help us to provide college-like environment to better prepare students for college."
This move from BuffSci also comes with a plan to purchase the campus as it is currently being leased to the school by the Charter Schools Development Corporation, a Maryland-based non-for-profit who bought the 14-acre campus for $9.9 million.
Janine Tramont, Director of Development and Capital Campaign at BuffSci announced the quiet phase of a $14 million capital campaign project to fund renovations of the campus and the purchase.
"This campaign is more than fundraising; it's a commitment to our community and the enduring legacy of education."
Renovations are currently underway now, BuffSci's partnership with the National Charter School Growth Fund provided $2.5 million toward renovating the campus.
Polat mentions that their Franklin Street building will be put up for sale in the near future, he marks this transition as a "significant milestone" for Buffalo youth education. He mentions that there is still space for students to apply to BuffSci for next year, but it is limited.
