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Parent group seeks role on Buffalo School Board

Mike Desmond/wbfo news

A student representative currently occupies a spot on the Buffalo School Board. The District Parent Coordinating Council seeks a similar non-voting role for a parent.

The board is on its third non-voting student representing the interests of students, the president of the Inter-High Student Council.

The DPCC met Wednesday night calling for a parental equivalent. In the past, there have often been regular board members who have children in the school and grandparents or other relatives. There's only one board member currently with a child in a publicly-financed school.

DPCC President Sam Radford says there are big developments on the way for the schools.
            
"Especially at this critical point. If you heard what the governor said, what the Regents have said, the chancellor said. It's a critical time in the future of Buffalo public schools," Radford said.

"We want to make sure a parent voice is included in that and we currently only have one parent who currently has children in the Buffalo public schools on the board."

Radford says there are a lot of people running around pronouncing solutions for district problems but few are parents and the issues are too important for others to set the framework of debate.
 

Mike Desmond is one of Western New York’s most experienced reporters, having spent nearly a half-century covering the region for newspapers, television stations and public radio. He has been with WBFO and its predecessor, WNED-AM, since 1988. As a reporter for WBFO, he has covered literally thousands of stories involving education, science, business, the environment and many other issues. Mike has been a long-time theater reviewer for a variety of publications and was formerly a part-time reporter for The New York Times.