By Staff Reporter
BUFFALO, N.Y. — In five days, the Buffalo Board of Education is scheduled to decide whether to close eight schools, merge two of the district’s best-known high schools and cut more than 100 jobs. The interim superintendent who wrote the plan says she believes in it. Some of the students most affected want something simpler: a building of their own.
Interim Superintendent Dr. Ebony Prophet-Bullock spent Thursday evening at Renovation Church on Hertel Avenue at the district’s first in-person hearing on the proposal. Only students were allowed to ask questions. The board is expected to take up the plan on Wednesday, Oct. 21, though some members have pushed to delay a vote until November or later, WBEN reported.
What is on the table
Under the version presented to the board on Wednesday, eight schools would close starting in the 2027-28 school year, according to Spectrum News: PS 59 Dr. Charles R. Drew Science, PS 131 Academy School @ 8, PS 366 Research Laboratory High School, PS 33 Bilingual Center, PS 82 Ronald Peoples School of Scholars, PS 208 Riverside Academy, PS 309 East High School and PS 90 Early Childhood Center.
The plan would eliminate 108 full-time jobs next year and another 74 through 2030, Spectrum reported. District officials have said the closures and mergers would save about $24 million a year. Without them, they have warned, the district’s deficit could reach $100 million next year.
Dr. Prophet-Bullock has tied the proposal to an enrollment drop of more than 3,000 students, a need for more pre-K special education seats, building and lease problems, and chronic bus delays, Buffalo Toronto Public Media reported. The board had asked for one closure in each of its six districts.
“The success of this proposal will not be measured by only one number of buildings changed; it will be measured by whether students enter stronger, sustainable educational settings and whether the district is better positioned to invest in teaching, learning and support over the long term,” Dr. Prophet-Bullock said, according to Spectrum.
The tweaks
After a week of feedback, the district revised parts of the plan. Leonardo da Vinci High School and Research Laboratory High School would now merge at East Community High School on Northampton Street, rather than at Riverside Academy, WKBW reported. Riverside would instead house Buffalo Rising Academy and the Career Collegiate Institute, which serve students seeking alternative education, equivalency diplomas and vocational training.
Families at PS 33 Bilingual Center on the West Side were given more transfer options. Schools 3, 30 and 76 remain under consideration, and PS 64 and PS 156 were added.
“The feedback has informed several adjustments, or tweaks, as I would like to call them, to our original recommendations,” Dr. Prophet-Bullock said, according to WKBW. She also cautioned that the district still has to verify building capacity, staffing, student services and transportation before it knows whether the new placements work.
Da Vinci’s objection
Da Vinci, a criteria-based school, now operates out of School 8 on East Utica Street, a building that lacks a gym and an auditorium, WBEN reported. An earlier idea to move it to the Buffalo State campus was dropped under former Superintendent Dr. Pascal Mubenga over costs that may have approached $60 million. Research Laboratory High School is currently in the Tri-Main Building on Main Street.
The interim superintendent has pitched East as an upgrade. “I want them to have a gym,” she told WBEN. “I want them to have a place where they could hold a dance.”
Many da Vinci students were not persuaded. “We want a building to ourselves,” Maj Miraz, a junior, told WBEN. “It bothers us.”
At Thursday’s forum, one student asked whether the two programs could at least stay separate under one roof. “Research is research; a Da Vinci is Da Vinci,” the student said, according to BTPM. “Because once you try to merge and add other kids, you take away that Da Vinci is a criteria school that kids work hard to get into.”
“There is a way that we can maintain the Da Vinci criteria, and that children who go into the Da Vinci program will have to meet that criteria,” Dr. Prophet-Bullock replied, according to BTPM.
The bilingual question
At PS 33, the worry is less about buildings than about access. Tim Monreal, who has three daughters at the school, told WKBW that bilingual education would remain available on paper but shrink in practice.
“Although access to bilingual education in theory will still be there, it would actually result in a decrease in bilingual education,” he said.
The questions before Wednesday
The numbers deserve scrutiny. If the district’s projections hold, $24 million in annual savings would cover roughly a quarter of a deficit that officials say could reach $100 million. The board has not yet said publicly how it would close the rest.
The timing also raises questions. By the superintendent’s own account, capacity, staffing and transportation for the revised placements have not been fully verified, yet a vote could come within days. Families will want to know whether the board will see those findings before it votes, and whether the job cuts would land mostly on classroom teachers or on central office.
Dr. Prophet-Bullock has acknowledged the stakes. “Next week we have a tough choice to make,” she said Thursday, according to BTPM. “I’m not going to make everyone happy.”
The board has posted notice of an Oct. 21 session at 6 p.m. Its meetings are streamed and recorded on the district’s YouTube channel.
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