By Walter Pryce
This is an opinion column. It reflects the views of the writer.
Buffalo’s Board of Education pulled its vote on closing and merging schools on Oct. 21. More than two weeks later, it still has not said when it will vote, and the plan it will vote on still has not been put in writing in its final form.
That has to end this month. The board should publish its final, amended plan by the end of next week and take a recorded vote at its regular meeting on Nov. 18. Families deserve a decision they can plan around, and the district’s budget can’t wait for a better moment that isn’t coming.
The numbers are not getting better
At the board’s Nov. 4 work session, the district’s chief financial officer said the current proposal, which would close or reconfigure eight schools, could save $18 million a year, WIVB reported. Without closures next school year, the district projects a deficit of $90 million to $100 million. The cuts it laid out for that scenario total $70 million, including nearly 200 staff positions and significant reductions to athletics, summer school and after-school programs.
Those figures have moved before. In October, the district put the closure savings at about $24 million against a projected $61 million deficit, according to WBEN, and earlier versions of the plan listed different schools. The Chronicle reported Nov. 3 that the plan has changed several times since early October and that the interim superintendent expected more changes.
Interim Superintendent Ebony Prophet-Bullock has been plain about what the district needs. “We do need an answer,” she told WBEN on Nov. 3.
The case for waiting, and why it falls short
The strongest argument against a fast vote comes from the people who would live with the result. Students, parents and teachers have filled four listening sessions. At the last one, speakers pressed the district on special education and bilingual services, WIVB reported. Riverside’s roughly 350 students would need a new high school under the October version, according to WBEN.
Buffalo Teachers Federation President Rich Nigro has argued the process itself is the problem. He told WIVB on Friday that “this is a very, very difficult thing to do to be sure; the problem is, it is a very, very unsteady process, and it keeps shifting.”
He is right that the process keeps shifting. But that is an argument for locking the plan down, not for more open-ended delay. Every week without a decision shortens the time the district has to place students, reassign teachers and arrange buses for next fall. The families at Riverside, P.S. 33 and the other affected schools are not better served by learning their fate in February instead of November.
Board member Erik Bohen said it bluntly at the last listening session: “Schools have to close. There’s no way around it, schools have to close. What that plan is? We will vote on,” he told WIVB. He also said he expected a vote within two weeks. That window has passed.
The board has shown it can make a hard call
This past week brought a small but useful sign. After questions about sending board members to a WozEd conference in Arizona, Board President Kathy Evans-Brown pulled all board members from the trip. “With the district facing a significant budget deficit, potential school closure/reconfigurations, staffing cuts and difficult decisions ahead, I believe it is important that we demonstrate fiscal responsibility and sensitivity to the concerns of our community,” she said in a statement reported by WIVB.
That was the right instinct. The same instinct should now be applied to the decision that actually drives the deficit.
What the board should do
First, put the final plan on paper. The board should post the amended proposal at least a week before it votes, with a school-by-school list, one current savings figure and the assumptions behind it. If the savings estimate has fallen from $24 million to $18 million, the public should be told why.
Second, write the transition promises into the resolution itself. That means where each affected student is assigned, how special education and bilingual services move with students, and how transportation will work. Those are the questions parents raised most often, and they should not be left to a later memo.
Third, vote on Nov. 18, in public, by name. If the board wants a different plan, it should amend this one on the record rather than send it back for another month of revisions.
If the board can’t do that, others will step in. Assemblyman Jon Rivera has said he will introduce legislation in January to have the state Education Department appoint a monitor to work alongside the district. “Buffalo’s students and families cannot afford more uncertainty,” he said, according to WIVB. A monitor would be a fair response to a board that can’t decide. The board can make it unnecessary by deciding.
The call to action
The Board of Education’s next regular meeting is Nov. 18 at P.S. 94, West Hertel Academy. A special meeting needs only 48 hours’ notice. Parents, teachers and taxpayers should contact their district board member and Board President Kathy Evans-Brown this week and ask two questions: When will the final plan be posted, and will you vote on it Nov. 18? The Chronicle’s earlier reporting on the deficit and the delayed vote is a good place to start.
A hard decision made in public, with the details in writing, is better for Buffalo’s children than another month of drift.
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