By Nora Kowalczyk
BUFFALO — Nearly two weeks after it pulled a vote on closing and merging schools, the Buffalo Board of Education still has not set a new date to decide the plan. District leaders now say the plan will probably change before it comes back.
“I think it’s fair to say there will be some modifications,” interim Superintendent Ebony Prophet-Bullock told 7 News WKBW at the district’s fourth community listening session, held Oct. 26 at West Hertel Academy, P.S. 94.
As of that session, the board had not announced when it would vote, WKBW reported. Prophet-Bullock told WBEN that a final vote may come in the next few weeks so the district can begin a coordinated transition plan.
What the plan would do
The proposal that was pulled on Oct. 21 would close six schools and move four programs into two buildings for the 2027–28 school year, WGRZ reported.
Under that version, Riverside Academy would close, and Leonardo da Vinci High School and Research Laboratory High School would move into Riverside’s building as a combined program. Buffalo Rising Academy and Career Collegiate Institute would move into East Community High School, which would then close. Drew Science Magnet School, the P.S. 33 Bilingual Center, Academy School at 86 and P.S. 17 would also close. P.S. 90 Early Childhood Center would become a pre-K special education center.
The plan has changed several times since early October. Earlier versions proposed eight closures, and WBEN has described the plan as affecting as many as 10 schools when mergers are counted.
The money behind it
The district says the closures would save about $24 million against a projected $61 million deficit in its $1.2 billion budget, according to WBEN. Chief Financial Officer Jim Barnes warned that the gap would grow to $91 million if no schools close.
Barnes said that could mean dropping some athletic programs, cutting summer school and facing tighter state oversight. “This is, unfortunately, the best available option,” he said.
WBEN reported that the plan could also eliminate 73 teaching jobs, plus some administrative positions. The Chronicle reported Oct. 22 on the district’s financial filings and the deficit behind the plan.
“It’s not fair and it doesn’t feel good,” Prophet-Bullock said at the Oct. 26 session. “None of it feels good.”
Students and teachers push back
Students from schools on the list again asked the board to slow down.
“We, the students, are the ones who are being hurt,” Kaci Dunn, a student at East Community, said, according to WBEN. “We are not numbers. We are students.”
Riverside would lose its building to the combined da Vinci and Research Lab program, and its roughly 350 students would need a new high school. Riverside social studies teacher Mark Bruno said, “It’s like they are being thrown out with the trash.” Prophet-Bullock said that is not the case and that alternative locations are being worked out for Riverside students, WBEN reported.
At the Oct. 21 meeting, Buffalo Teachers Federation President Rich Nigro urged the board to wait. “This is not ripping off a Band-Aid; it’s pulling out stitches, stitches that are holding communities together,” he said, according to Buffalo Toronto Public Media.
The board’s view
Board member Stephon Wright asked residents to read the plan and bring alternatives instead of only opposition. “I know you’re going to tell us, ‘Don’t close your school,’ but give us some thoughts and suggestions and ideas so that we can be together in this decision making,” he told WBEN.
Prophet-Bullock has said the plan can be adjusted, but she cautioned that each round of changes has its own cost. “The more we tweak, the more we change, the more confusion comes,” she said.
What comes next
The district is taking comments through its school closure proposal page, WKBW reported.
Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes and Common Council members Joseph Golembek Jr., David Rivera and Leah Halton-Pope attended the Oct. 26 session, WBEN reported. All nine board members were also there.
The Buffalo Chronicle has asked the district when the board expects to vote and what changes are under consideration.
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