By Oliver Colbert and Kimberly Hylton
Bengal News West reporters
West Buffalo Charter School has adopted the Common Core standards for learning and added more than 100 second- and third-grade students to its building on Lafayette Avenue.
Third grade teacher Rachel Banas under the Common Core, student are not just solving problems, they're thinking them through and making connections.
“It’s challenging but you see their
thinking has changed,” Banas said.
WBCS has small classes with a
total of 24 students, a teacher and teacher’s assistant. In addition to the
assistant.
A smaller classroom leaves room for teachers to help students more
affectively. Teachers at WBCS can figure out what level each student is at and
help them grow. Principal Andrea Todoro says smaller classes also make
it easier to enforce the Common Core curriculum.
The support doesn’t stop with just
teachers and students. Parents are also supporters of the new curriculum at
WBCS. Todoro said that the school hosted parent nights where the differences between thenew curriculum and the old were compared and explained . Parents
have also been invited in to see Common Core being taught.
“I think once you empower them with
knowledge they understand what it is and they can see it coming home in their
child’s book bag and then they respond positively,” said Principal
Todoro said.
Along with the new curriculum WBCS
has recently
added a class of
second graders and three third grade classes of third grade. The additional grades brought more than 100 students to
the school. Todoro said the biggest impacts of the new
students are space and budget.
“There are more bodies in the school
so traffic flow, use of the lunchroom and scheduling is all impacted by the
additional students,” Todoro said.
Todoro said
planning for the extra classrooms, purchasing the furniture and the technology,
and staffing has impacted the budget.
WBSC’s had originally planned to
expand out of the building creating a new wing, four floors total, and a new
gymnasium. Those plans have been
put on hold. Instead the school will add fourth grade classes and renovate the first floor. The
original plans were denied by the State of Education because the charter school is too new, Todoro said . The
cost of the original expansion would have been $2 million. WBSC has
worked out a new plan to renovate the first floor where the cafeteria is located
along with a long corridor hall. The new project will add three new classrooms
for the incoming fourth graders this May. The project will cost WBCS
$400,000 including furniture and technology.
“We’ve made use of every inch of the
building now that we’ve been in here for a couple of years. We know what spaces
we’re utilizing and what spaces we’re not…so we’re reworking the interior,” said
finance and operations officer, Elizabeth Sterns.
Although school leaders were disappointed that the school couldn’t expand the
way they intended, they
are still excited to be renovating.
“I’m really excited about it, it’s
an opportunity for us to take what we already have and make it better. I think
it’s more fiscally conservative to do it the way we’re doing it. It’s kind of
like staying in your starter home longer than you would have normally,” Sterns said.
Sterns also mentioned that other
successful charters have taken the same route. The original project wasn’t a
complete fail. Sterns says the school not has the opportunity to save money and tackle the expansion
outside the building in a better financial footing.
Video:
VERY
GOOD JOB ON THE VIDEO. INFORMATION IS ADDED TO THE STORY, RULE OF THIRDS NICELY APPLIED, TODOR IS
SOLDLY IN THE LEFT VERTICAL, HEADROOM AND LEADROOM ARE PERFECT. AUDIO IS CLEAR.
B-ROLL CORRESPONDS WITH AUDIO.
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