The members of the minority bloc of the Board of Education are mobilizing the community to demand a national search for the permanent Superintendent. Interim Superintendent Donald Ogilvie has announced his intention to leave the district at the end of June. The search for a Deputy Superintendent is currently underway; ten candidates applied, three are current administrators with the district.
The board’s majority voting bloc intends to hire a Deputy Superintendent with the intention of promoting that person to Superintendent in July — likely to be Will Keresztes, the Chief of Student Support Services. They do not want to pursue a national search because they prefer a local candidate who has an existing network of relationships in the city with knowledge of the district.
The district’s longtime Chief Financial Officer (who has also held the title of Chief Operations Officer since Dr. Pamela Brown expanded her role) announced she will be leaving the district at the end of the year. Linda Simmons, the Chief Academic Officer, has also announced her intention to retire.
“We will not sit by idly and allow a haphazard process play out and place Buffalo Public School children in further peril,” declared Dr. Theresa Harris Tigg.
The minority voting bloc is planning four community forums on the issue of a national search for Superintendent. The first will be held on April 14th at School 81 at 6:00 pm. The second will be April 16th at School 99 at 6:00 pm.
Some activists have suggested that the board brings back Dr. Pamela Brown, the former Superintendent who increased graduation rates by over 6 percentage points in her short time with the district, and who many feel was unfairly pushed out by an unapologetically racist Carl Paladino.
This girls club needs to be removed from the board. They are left overs from the last superintendent. who could not even submit required paper work correctly to the state. Even when they were offered help. Under their management the school system has deteriorated even more. They need to be replaced.