BUFFALO, N.Y. — When Buffalo Public Schools appointed its new superintendent in July 2022, Dr. Tonja Williams Knight laid out her Five by 2025 plan that detailed five major goals she wished to achieve in the role.
Two years later, 2 On Your Side’s Pete Gallivan sat down with Dr. Williams Knight to check in on her progress.
2 On Your Side's Gallivan: Last year, first full year at the helm. What did you learn last year that you're taking into this year?
Knight: Last year was a whirlwind. It really was a whirlwind. We were experiencing bussing issues. If you remember that was a big part of our conversation. We implemented a three-tier bell schedule which was really innovative. It was really out of the box and what I'm most excited about is that we can implement our afterschool programs again for all children. So that's exciting for me.
It's almost like there's always a tale of two cities because last year we also had a $90 million deficit that we had to deal with due to the ending of the ARP/ESSER funds. That was a challenge, that was quite something.
The way that we handled it is that we got ahead of it, and we wanted to let everyone know early on what we were facing. We engaged again, the community, and I even went out and did a little student tour, because that is a group nobody ever asks. What do you think? What's really important in your schools that you need to keep? You ask the question and the kids have answers.
2 On Your Side's Gallivan: Really? Kids have answers? Kids will talk? (jokingly)
Knight: Kids will talk if we listen. We were able to do that prioritizing some of the things I’ve said since day one would be priorities for me like security. We didn't lose any of our security staff. We didn't lose any of our student support staff, because we know that our children need people to talk to in schools. So that was another little bit of a challenge.
I'm just trying to think of some of the things that we experienced last year. The board entered an agreement with a group called the Council of Great City Schools and they set these goals for districts for ELA and for math. I've been pretty transparent that I want all of our third graders leaving third grade reading on grade level. It's really important because up to third grade, you are really learning to read, but after that you are reading to learn, so you got to be able to read. I know that down the line it is going to help us with graduation rates and all of those things, so that is really an important grade.