The Buffalo School Board has entered the home stretch of its 16 listening sessions. These are meetings in which pairs of board members gather with different groups to identify student academic goals.
Audiences at earlier stops have been focused – rallying the faith community, parent leaders and employers for their own sessions – but three of the remaining stops are open to the public.
Board Member Larry Scott will lead all three discussions, which are a key part of a new strategy overseen by district partner Council of the Great City Schools that streamlines the board’s efforts, captures the community’s vision and values, and focuses the School Board’s actions on student achievement.
- 9 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday at North Park Community School (780 Parkside Ave.). This converges with one of the district’s Saturday Academies, which are open to the community as well.
- 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. April 22 at Lafayette International School (370 Lafayette Ave.).
- 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. April 23 at South Park High School (150 Southside Parkway).
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“The Board is embarking on a new way of governing with a strategic focus on student outcomes,” said Scott, an at-large board member, in a statement. “The community listening sessions are an opportunity for the Board to better represent the vision and values of the community in long-term goals and planning.”
The intention of the open meetings is not to engage in back-and-forth discussion with board members, but instead for the public to share more specific learning goals, dubbed “student outcomes.”
Standard questions include: Looking into the future, how would you like to describe a graduate of Buffalo Public Schools? What do you think Buffalo Schools students should know or be able to do in order to be successful by the end of elementary, middle and/or high school? What should Buffalo Public Schools stop or avoid doing that’s getting in the way of these academic achievements?
The Board is encouraging the community’s in-person participation to ensure they clearly understand the perspectives, but a Google Form is also available at buffaloschools.org to supply feedback for those who cannot attend. Listening sessions with students and teachers are also scheduled.
Board members will collect the community’s responses and send them to the Council of the Great City Schools, which will organize the data and identify trends in the community demands. The common themes will then be used this summer to determine the goals for Superintendent Tonja M. Williams for next school year.
Ben Tsujimoto can be reached at [email protected], at (716) 849-6927 or on Twitter at @Tsuj10.
