By Mark Scott
Buffalo, NY – Buffalo's City Honors is the top ranked high school and middle school in a Business First ranking of individual schools. Harris Hill Elementary in Clarence is the number one elementary school.
While the Buffalo School District as a whole ranks at the bottom of the Business First ranking of 97 school districts in Western New York, City Honors ranked number one in both the high school and middle school lists. Principal Catherine Battaglia says City Honors continues to excel despite the district's budget problems.
"Everyone in the city -- all my colleagues -- are doing much more, with much less," Battaglia said. "I believe that any school in the city that is meeting or exceeding their school improvement benchmarks and goals deserves recognition. We're all working harder and doing more with less."
In the high school ranking, City Honors was followed by Williamsville East, Clarence, Orchard Park and Williamsville North. Among middle schools, City Honors returned to the top spot, followed by last year's number one, Transit Middle, and the three other middle schools in the Williamsville district. Battaglia says this year's comeback was sparked by a strong performance on eighth grade English exams.
"We were happy to see our colleagues in Williamsville at Transit Middle School worked very, very hard to meet and exceed the high standards we set for the rest of the area," Battaglia said. "Our writing program has been something we've been emphasizing at City Honors for the four years that I've been here."
In the elementary school rankings, Harris Hill Elementary in Clarence was number one followed by Charlotte Avenue School in Hamburg, South Davis Elementary in Orchard Park, Forest in Williamsville and Smallwood Drive School in Amherst.