When the new Buffalo schools superintendent is selected, they can expected to receive a book authored by community stakeholders.
As part of the Say Yes to Education program, a special project is being launched by a long-time, local education expert. It is called “Letters to the Superintendent”.
Anyone who has a vested interest in the Buffalo's public schools. parents. grandparents, teachers and community leaders, all are invited to write a letter to the new superintendent.
"People don't write letters anymore, and yet they have a lot to say when you ask them to write a letter they begin to talk to you and you want to stop them and say okay, say write that down," said Peggy Brooks-Bertram represents the Jehudi Educational Services in Buffalo. She created the initiative.
Brooks-Bertram presented her idea to Say Yes to Education and they agreed, allowing her to collect the letters and compile the book called Letters to the Superintendent, Buffalo Public Schools in the Twenty First Century.
The invitation to write the letters is extended to immigrant and refugee families as well, part of Buffalo's growing population. If they don't speak English their letters will be translated for the book.
"And one of the things that I found that interacting with them is they have a lot of concerns about the public education system but they don't have the facility, in terms of language, to express it," said Brooks-Bertram.
It’s a similar book that Brooks-Bertram co-wrote a few years ago that was advise to the First Lady, Michele Obama, Called “Go – Tell Michele.”
Brooks-Bertram Plans to complete the book by mid-July.
The letters will allow stakeholders to express hopes and dreams of what public education should look like.
Letters should be submitted by June 15th. Anyone who wants to draft a letter, but needs help in writing or uploading, can attend two workshops planned for June 7th or 9th at the Merriweather Library on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo.
You can write you letter by logging on to this site http://peggybrooksbertram.sequent-tech.com/.
Brooks-Bertram plans to complete the new book by mid-July.