Candidates at Buffalo Board interviews focus on literacy, safety, attendance and fiscal oversight

A series of public interviews held by the Buffalo Board of Education gave candidates for the vacant North District seat a chance to outline priorities for the district. Across interviews the themes were consistent: improve early-literacy outcomes, expand vocational pathways, increase community and parent engagement and address long-standing fiscal and attendance challenges.

Dinora Santos Banks, introduced by the board as a candidate, described how early-intervention speech services shaped her recovery from a speech and hearing challenge and stressed reading as foundational: "I love reading... I also want to see, more on vocational training... Our teachers should be prepared on what... AI is gonna affect their students," she said when asked about priorities and technology.

Several candidates raised concern about student health and environment as factors that affect learning. One candidate warned that local lead-poisoning rates are severely elevated and told the panel, "We've got 4 times worse lead poisoning rates than Flint, Michigan. That affects our kids. They're gonna have behavioral issues as a result of that." The candidate framed that as a structural challenge that the district must respond to by directing families to appropriate resources where possible.

Fiscal and operational challenges were emphasized by others. Jonathan Robbins Anderson, citing district data he had reviewed, pointed to chronic absenteeism and a large operating deficit and urged task forces and clearer, school-level performance reporting: "You need execution. You need plans. You need programs. You need task force[s]... to supervise those task force[s]," he said as he described turnaround options.

Multiple candidates urged visible, accountable board members who will listen to constituents, visit schools and make data-driven decisions. There was agreement that improvements will take time: candidates repeatedly said higher proficiency scores are a multi-year objective and recommended short-term measurable goals that can be tracked.

The interviews provided a snapshot of priorities likely to shape the board's agenda once the North District vacancy is filled: literacy and early intervention, safety and health-related barriers to learning, attendance and targeted fiscal oversight.

What was not resolved in the public session: numeric claims cited by candidates (for example, lead rates and absenteeism percentages) were not accompanied by source citations on the record; those figures should be verified with district or public-health data before being reported as fact.