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BPS parent centers to help with immediate student, parent needs

WBFO News file photo

They are part of Buffalo Public Schools' community schools program: parent centers, aimed at helping both parents and students, will be featured when the new school year opens in September.

Community schools are a very different approach to education, longer hours a day, more days a week and much more connection with the surrounding community. Four of the high schools involved in the program around the city will each have a parent center, with a full-time staff member to help students and families, the parent engagement liaison.

Associate Superintendent for Student Support Eric Rosser said this will be real assistance.

"We want to make sure that if a parent steps into one of our parent resource centers that we want to be able to address that parent's need," said Rosser. "On-site support will also address the immediate, critical needs that parents may present, such as, if a parent comes to us and says, 'Hey, we just got an eviction notice. I need some assistance.'"

Rosser and Superintendent Kriner Cash said there will be checks, the metrics of seeing if the program and other pieces of the community schools program actually add to student achievement. That includes items like making sure more and more parents sign up for Infinite Campus, a computer program that connects parents and the school system databases of information about how their kids are doing.

Mike Desmond is one of Western New York’s most experienced reporters, having spent nearly a half-century covering the region for newspapers, television stations and public radio. He has been with WBFO and its predecessor, WNED-AM, since 1988. As a reporter for WBFO, he has covered literally thousands of stories involving education, science, business, the environment and many other issues. Mike has been a long-time theater reviewer for a variety of publications and was formerly a part-time reporter for The New York Times.