Articles for Layne Dowdall

Feb 24

2022

Study links Tonawanda Coke to toxins

Soil contamination near Tonawanda Coke most likely comes from the now-shuttered plant, a just-released study has found. A previous phase of the study of soil samples taken from the town and city of Tonawanda, Grand Island and Buffalo found elevated levels of toxins. The second phase of the study, released Thursday at a virtual meeting, evaluated 95 soil samples. An unspecified, but small number of those samples contained elevated levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which are carcinogenic chemical compounds produced as a byproduct of burning coal and other fossil fuels. Researchers determined with 85 percent confidence that Tonawanda[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Feb 8

2022

School attendance continues to slide

Attendance in Buffalo schools has gone from bad to worse this school year. Last year, when instruction was mostly remote, 34 percent of students attended class at what the state considered a satisfactory rate. So far this school year, that number has dropped to 18 percent. Conversely, the share of students with “severe” attendance problems – that is, they miss school at least one day a week, if not more – has jumped from 34 to 40 percent. District officials said there are many reasons for the increase: Ongoing transportation issues, inclement weather and, especially, an increase in COVID-19 cases[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jan 21

2022

Eye-catching public pensions

Working for a public school system in New York State tends to pay well. So does being retired from one. Teachers and administrators who retired last year left with an average pension of $73,552 annually. That was up about $2,500 from the previous year. The figures reflect teachers and administrators who put in at least 30 years and worked outside of New York City. Retirees from Western New York averaged $63,060. That placed WNY in the middle of the pack of nine regions around the state. Tops was Long Island, with an average pension of $94,108 per year. Pensions for[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Jan 11

2022

Buffalo schools failing the test

So what does a school district do when many of its underachieving students miss a year’s worth of instruction due to the pandemic? If you’re Buffalo schools, you promote almost all of them to the next grade. In doing so, the district pledged programming to help students catch up. But halfway through the school year, that effort is hamstrung, mostly by problems related to the pandemic. As parent leader Sam Radford told us: “Our children who are already the furthest behind … they’re falling further behind.”

Posted 3 years ago

Jan 10

2022

Buffalo schools struggle to catch up

Most students attending Buffalo public schools had fallen behind academically before the pandemic struck. Only a quarter of elementary and middle school students received proficient scores on their state standardized tests for reading, writing and math. The learning gap got worse when instruction went remote in March 2020 and continued through most of last school year, when only one-third of students attended class regularly. Yet, the district only held back 546 of its 29,918 students for the school year that started in September. Most of them were high schoolers. Only 43 pupils in the elementary grades were held back.[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Sep 22

2021

Brown’s tepid support of Buffalo schools

Editor’s note: This is a second in a series of stories assessing the state of the city, 15 years after Bryon Brown took office. Our first story dealt with City Hall’s enforcement of its fair housing laws. Today; Buffalo public schools. Buffalo schools were plagued by poor attendance and low student achievement when Byron Brown took office 15 years ago. Not much has changed since then. The mayor is not directly responsible for the school district. That falls on the nine members of its elected Board of Education and the superintendent they supervise. But many big-city mayors have used the[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Sep 2

2021

Buffalo schools open with laptop shortage

Some 31,000 Buffalo students are preparing to go back to school next week, but the district’s IT department isn’t quite ready for them. Fewer than half of the 15,000 laptops the district issued to students last year have been returned to the district to be serviced and made compatible with system updates. As a result, only a fraction of students will be fully equipped to jump into the school year. The rest may have to wait until October for functional devices. At the end of the school year the district asked families to return student devices like iPads, laptops and[...]

Posted 3 years ago

Aug 11

2021

Buffalo’s absent schools superintendent

Updated: 4:52 p.m. Where does the superintendent of Buffalo schools live? Kriner Cash’s employment contract requires him to live in the city. But he’s told the state of Massachusetts that his primary domicile is his million-dollar home on Martha’s Vineyard. That’s where he votes, holds his driver’s license and registers his cars. Investigative Post looked into his residence in the face of persistent rumors Cash spends a good deal of time away from Buffalo in Martha’s Vineyard, including long stretches during the pandemic. Cash, through the district’s spokesperson, refused interview requests from Investigative Post. His only comment, when asked about his[...]

Posted 3 years ago