Interim Buffalo Public Schools Superintendent Tonja Williams began her listening tour Monday at North Park Community School by inviting parents, students and others to share their concerns with her and her staff.
The series of "conversation and coffee" sessions to talk with the community about the Buffalo Public Schools was held ostensibly to share what the district is doing in the wake of a violent Feb. 9 incident at McKinley High School. However, none of the approximately one dozen speakers at the event raised those concerns, and Williams, who has held the interim post since the beginning of the month, said she was not surprised by the turn of events.
"We just asked open-ended questions to see what the community was feeling. So I'm not at all that surprised that I did not hear that there were big concerns about safety tonight," Williams said after the meeting, which lasted less than two hours.
People are also reading…
Tonja Williams' office is promoting the "listening sessions" as part of her efforts to get community input as she builds on a plan to address safety concerns.
About 40 parents and other district residents who attended were asked by Williams and three of her top administrators what they thought was going well in the district, what they thought would be the best way for the district to communicate with parents, and what obstacles they thought were facing the district that could be overcome by working together as a community.
"One of my big intentions is to work collectively with our families, and with the community," Williams said.
"Gone are the days where we can just sit in our offices and beg them to come to us. We're taking it to the community and I think we got some great feedback today, and we will definitely be considering everything that we heard," she added.
At Monday's meeting, Kilissa Cissoko, a music teacher in the district, mother of a former student in the district and a Riverside neighborhood resident, said the district needs to step up its public relations game.
"There's a lot of negativity that I think would be beautiful to turn around, and I think the kids feel it, too. That's what they're hearing and maybe they think that's what they should be when that's not what they are at all," said Cissoko.
Williams said the district had plans to do just that.
"So one of the things we're starting to do – I think it's going to start around April 4 – is telling our own narrative," said Williams. "You know, we have so many good things."
Various parents and grandparents brought up a variety of concerns, from busing issues to students being informed too late in the school year about whether they had been accepted into one of the district's magnet schools.
Zaheera Hemphill, who has nephews attending school in the district and a sister who teaches in the district, asked about provisions being made for Muslim students during the month of Ramadan, which starts Friday, and requires adherents of the faith to fast and pray.
Hemphill, along with Monica Stephens, who has a 5-year-old son attending Olmsted School 64, agreed that there was value in the forum.
"It was good to hear from them and to articulate our positions as parents," said Stephens.
