Buffalo Public Schools are restarting some of the panoply of after-school programs beginning April 4, programs that have been stalled all year by the district and national problems getting enough school bus drivers.
The after-school programs have provided students with an array of offerings, particularly extra help in a community filled with families barely getting by in one of the poorest cities in the nation.
"Everything that we can do to provide additional support to our students is important, which is why we run after-school programs, which is why we have summer programming, which is why we do intervention during the school day," said Chief Academic Officer Anne Botticelli. "So every avenue we can take will be important."
Last fall, then-Schools Superintendent Kriner Cash told an angry School Board the programs couldn't start because of the bus problems. Some high school programs have been running, but they use Metro Bus.
Now, 17 schools in the 21st Century grant program will open for kids who can walk or get a ride.
Botticelli said schools know how each individual student is doing in math and literature.
"We actually have tests that we administer to the students during the regular school day," she said. "So we have their results and we would know how to target the students' needs."
Any day, students will arrive home with a message in their backpacks about the plans. Botticelli said the messages will be in languages appropriate for each student, although all instruction will be in English.
She said each teacher in the after-schools programs will have testing information for each student, to individualize learning.
"It'll be similar to what we traditionally do," Botticelli said. "They would have access to the student data. They would have access to our resources. They would group the students appropriately so they can support them.
When Interim Superintendent Tonja Williams announced the plans to the board last Wednesday, Board Member Sharon Belton Cottman protested it was inequitable because it was only some.
Botticelli said the bus situation means it's the best the school system can do, with summer school another way to help the kids recover from the COVID years.
