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Interim Superintendent Tonja Williams on leading with integrity and more

Buffalo Public Schools Interim Superintendent Tonja Williams, in a polka-dot dress with pearls. Smiling and with glasses atop her head.
Buffalo Public Schools
Buffalo Public Schools Interim Superintendent Tonja Williams

Tonja Williams became interim superintendent of the Buffalo Public Schools district in March of this year. Williams, a Buffalo native has over 30 years experience as an educator. She started off as a counselor and worked her way up through the ranks. She spoke with WBFO about the new leadership role and how her connection to the Buffalo community makes her the right person for the job.

“Am I surprised that I am a woman who is leading the second largest district in New York State? I guess I’m a little surprised, but I’m also confident in my skills and I know that when I leave this position it will be better," she said. "The job will be done. It will be done well, because I’m a person who leads with integrity, which for me, allows me to sleep at night.”

As an elementary school principal, Williams would take the eighth graders to different historically black colleges and universities. Williams says she wanted students to be able to get out of the community and see college students who looked like them attending classes. Helping students prepare for their futures is just one of the rewarding aspects of her career.

“Knowing absolutely knowing without a shadow of a doubt that I have helped to make a change in the lives of others, with graduating from school, with being exposed to college, helping them to access college," Williams said. "My last years as a school counselor, I was at City Honors High School. I think in the leadership roles that I’ve had, having the ability to hire, just creating opportunities for success, all of those things let me know that the work that I’m doing and the work that I’ve been engaged in has really made a difference.”

On her journey, Williams experienced her share of obstacles. Williams was a pre-teen when her parents separated and it was during the desegregation movement that would be the first time she would have to take a bus to school in a neighborhood she wasn’t familiar with.

“When I was 12, my parents separated," she said. "That was kind of a big deal because life changed at that point. It was my first time engaging with busing and so here I was, a little brown girl who had never taken the bus, living with just my mother.”

She also remembers a time in high school when students were busy filling out college applications and getting ready to take the SAT, but she was overlooked.

“When I became a senior I was not solicited to take the SAT or engage in any kind of college preparation," she said. "I can remember we were spending the weekend with my dad and he asked me what was happening as far as college was concerned and I said, 'Well, I don’t know. My counselor hasn’t called me down. He’s been calling down other students, but he had not called me down.' So long story short, my father who graduated from East High School, hadn’t gone to college, but knew he wanted his daughters to go to college and met with my counselor. After the meetings what he said to me was that your counselor made a huge error. He looked at some demographics. He looked at the fact that you were a little girl of color, he looked at the fact that you lived in a zip code that’s not affluent, looked at the fact that he thought that because you have everything listed with your mother, he thought she was a single parent, but I’m very much apart of your life. He looked at the fact that you qualify for a free lunch and he made assumptions that you weren’t going to college.”

But she did go to college.

“I did end up starting my college career at Fredonia," Williams said. "So I certainly have had my share of things that could have knocked me down, but my faith, who I am at my core, who I’ve been raised to be, the work that I’m doing I believe in so strongly that I just look at them as assets they have made me stronger.”

A lifelong resident of the city of Buffalo as well as being educated in the Buffalo school system, Williams believes that’s what sets her apart from her predecessors.

“I am from this community," she said. "I do have family members that attend the Buffalo Public Schools, that work in the Buffalo Public Schools. I go to the hair salon in Buffalo. I shop, everything that I do is here and so the work that I’m doing is personal for me. This is not business as usual. I’m not doing this as a stepping stone, I am doing this because I believe that I was assigned to do this. I think that’s one of things that sets me apart. I’m a hometown person, I know our families, I know our children, but for a few years between us our children are me.”