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Buffalo City School District outlines Contract for Excellence set-aside as foundation aid rises
Summary
District presenters explained that the Contract for Excellence (C4E) is a state-required set-aside of foundation aid (not new funding), described allowable program categories, and said school-level flexible allocations will fund staff and non-staff activities aligned to school improvement plans.
Unidentified Speaker, presenting on behalf of the district, told listeners that the Contract for Excellence (C4E) was established by state legislation in 2007–2008 and is a restriction placed on a portion of foundation aid rather than new or additional funding. The presenter said the law requires districts to direct at least 75 percent of C4E funds to students with the greatest educational needs, including students with disabilities, students with limited English proficiency, and students with low academic performance and high poverty concentrations.
The presenter listed six categories the law allows: class-size reduction; increased instructional time; teacher and principal quality initiatives; middle- and high-school restructuring; full-day kindergarten and prekindergarten; and model programs for English language learners. The district described two allocation methods: centrally allocated programs and school-based flexible funds. Central programs named in the presentation include reduced class size at School 45, School 79 and School 80, multilingual staff and model ELL programs, elementary art and music, and district-run accelerated credit-recovery and regents-completion transportation (about 100 students served annually).
For the 2024–25 budget year, the presenter said the state foundation-aid formula was fully funded and that the C4E set-aside will increase and be phased in over five years; the presenter read year-by-year set-aside figures as part of slides shown to the audience. The presenter also said schools elected to use flexible C4E funds in 2024–25 to fund 118 full-time equivalent positions (teachers, aides and guidance counselors) and roughly $275,000 for non-staff activities tied to school improvement plans. The district provided a web link and an email (contractforexcellentatbuffaloschools.org) for public review and comment and stated that comments received by the stated deadline would be included in what the district sends to the state.
The presentation concluded with instructions for submitting questions and comments; no formal vote or action was recorded during the presentation.
