Buffalo Rising Online

This is a great outcome for the school. This building already comes with almost all the designed space a school needs. Are there any plans to update the classrooms' interiors or to rehab some space into an auditorium or offices? Any plans for facade changes? It would be nice if this building lost its 1950's IBM punch card look.

perfect reuse for that building.

Yes! I LOVE the idea of elementary school kids coming downtown! It means a whole generation of kids and their parents will get used to coming downtown every day. Just you watch all the exaggerated crime stereotypes evaporate, at least among that one population.

It was insult added to injury when the reuse of the AM&A's building for a charter school was so blatantly thwarted by (rumor has it) M&T Bank executives.

My education, though I grew up in another Upstate city, has been entirely at public schools. My junior high was within a mile of the downtown core and my high school was in downtown proper. I was really lucky to have had this experience.

To "Another big mouth" - since when are grades 7-12 considered elementary?

A but does the school have a pool or gymnastics or athletics of any kind which kids need ...

Im glad that their moving into the city but I think kids need a well rounded education in technology, math, science but also athletics, music and art. Especially boys! Its a proven fact that boys need 2-4x as many breaks involving some form of physical activity to learn. Perhaps if we valued physical activity for boys we would be pumping them full of drugs and labelling them with ADD/ADHD because they dont sit still like girls.

Its a good building....Im glad your downtown...now dont forget about the special needs of boys that you are teaching.

the article said there is a basketball court and a pool in the building, which makes sense since it was a YWCA and perfect for a school. If the students need more than that they can always take the train to the ECC buildings downtown. But I doubt they will. As long you have a court of some kinds there are plenty of reasons to run around.

I considered everything until high school elementary / grammer school. Only my suburban friends ever had a Middle School. A concept that confused my for many years. So it could be a generational name thing.

I don't want to start a huge debate about charter schools, but I have a question. Where did the $650,000 to buy this building come from? Even in the universe of education funding in the City of Buffalo that has to be a moderatly significant sum. Did public dollars contribute to the purchase of the building? Who/what will actually own it? Could those dollars have been better used within the education system?

Charter school are owned by private investors. The investors and donations are where the money for the building comes from.

I've always thought that downtown and allentown need more educational institutions. I went to school with my cousin for a day in greenwich village, and a lot of the kids would go get a slice of pizza nearby for lunch or after school (unless i'm mistaken, Prima Pizza Pasta is less than 2 blocks away) and went to other cafes and cornerstores nearby. It made me realize how much of an impact even a small school can make on its neighborhood. People want to live nearby, and the students and parents support nearby businesses. Now if only UB or some other college, in addition to ECC, would establish some kind of presence downtown or in allentown, one can imagine the impact it would have.

sbrof, then that is truly a unique building that is well suited for a conversion to a school. Well it looks like those new buyers for the Statler residential portion, Main Street and West Village will have a choice between HutchTech and the Buffalo Academy of Science which is wonderful.

Now with all that Science, Match and Technology one has to wonder if anyone from either school or anyone from downtowns BYTE corridor will have the intelligence and foresight to create an intern program. There are plenty of HS kids looking for part time jobs and not all of them want to work at Starbucks....some want actual experience doing something that interests them. Believe it or not, there are companies in downtown Buffalo that can offer that....whether they have enough civic responsibility to do so is another question.

I'm sure that this school is not and will never be in the same league as Hutch. It will be closed before that ever happens. As for folks moving into the Statler, if it ever comes to fruition, those with children will never send their children to a public school.

Knows Buffalo, your post doesnt make sense. First you say this Charter School will never be in the same league as HutchTech, then you say Statler buyers will never send their kids to public school. Ist HutchTech a Public School?

There are good and bad public schools There are good and bad charter schools though for the most part I most private and parochial schools are good to excellent, especially since they can teach discipline, values and morals that teachers unions consider beyond the scope of their job.

The building offers a Charter School a great potential so we should give them a chance to see how they perform in their new environment ...after that its the parents choice (which is what I support wholeheartedly school vouchers and school choice)

This a great Duane Lyman modernist building -- traditional materials, warm tones and a sweeping horizontal band of sash glazing. A 1950s jewel! It is a delight to know that its future is certain in a demo-hungry city.

It even looks like a school, already

This school is a farce. There has not been much University connection whatsoever. They have not delivered yet. Their Science Scores went down from last year and they continue to let great teachers go and are hiring first year teachers to replace their teachers with many years behind them. The mission looks good on paper, but it is not being accomplished. For the person that wrote above about el ed students coming downtown...look again...it is a middle and high shcool that will be in the building. I am all for regentrification, but am not for a school that will not live beyond it's charter. The kids are going to suffer in the long run and teachers will be out of a job. THIS SCHOOL WILL NOT MAKE IT.

This school will be closed. They have been cheating the public far too long.

I am a former teacher at the BASCS. I hope this building will better service the needs of the students. The school has a great mission, but has yet to deliver. Maybe this will get them there. As far as University connections?...I never saw them as a teacher at BASCS, but hope that there will be more for the students next year. If you call new TVs and computers that all of the students do not have access to Technology than sobeit. I just hope this buidling will answer the prayers and wishes of the Turks that opened it. I also hope that all of the teachers that have little years of teaching behind them will build strong relationships with the students as they are a special group of learners who deserve the best, but are not getting it.