Prospects are encouraging for one of the most successful public schools in Buffalo, but less rosy for two others, as deadlines for three building projects in Buffalo Public Schools rapidly approach as the new school year begins.

Leonardo da Vinci High School is on track to open Sept. 8. at the former School 8 at Masten Avenue and East Utica Street in time for the first bell, Chief Operating Officer David Hills confirmed Thursday.

A suitable temporary location for Da Vinci, a college-prep school bound for SUNY Buffalo State University’s Buckham Hall in 2025, would be a positive conclusion to a saga that began with an emergency declaration in March by Buffalo Schools Superintendent Tonja M. Williams.

The plan to move Middle Early College High School out of a shared Main Street building with Lewis J. Bennett School of Innovative Technology, however, has been delayed until January, Hills said. He cited instructional, information technology and safety systems that need to be installed before students and staff can move into Middle Early’s temporary location at 45 Jewett Ave.

School Board members also learned at their meeting Wednesday night that improvements at Academy School 131, the district’s “alternative” or transfer program, will still need substantial work after students return for the school year.

During the meeting, Buffalo School Board North District representative Cindi McEachon criticized the physical condition of the school. She also shared equity concerns about the district’s efforts to provide welcoming surroundings and its efforts to accommodate a school that harbors students with significant needs.

“It’s terrible, the state at this moment,” McEachon said of the former School 86. “I am concerned for the students coming on.”

Da Vinci’s progress

The Da Vinci effort – led by CannonDesign and Hayes Construction Services – is vital because there was no fallback option for the 400 students after D’Youville University and the school district could not agree to a temporary lease extension to remain in Madonna Hall, Da Vinci’s home for about four decades.

“It was a great collaborative process” with the contractors, Hills said of the fast-moving process.

Da Vinci’s roller-coaster situation saw the superintendent permit district administrators to pay up to $12 million to rehabilitate the building at 167 E. Utica St., which has not been used as a school since 2010. Hills called the four months of moving out of D’Youville, as well as chemical abatement and construction work on East Utica, the “largest-scale emergency designation” in the district’s recent history.

Da Vinci will be able to use about two-thirds of the school in September, Hills said, emphasizing that an emergency project differs from a capital project in its timeline, procedure and usually its scope of work.

“It’s bare bones – it’s the work we need to do to get a certificate of occupancy,” he said.

Original plans to move Da Vinci, the only Buffalo school to earn a 100% graduation rate in 2021-22, from D’Youville to Buffalo State did not include a temporary location, but the cost and time required to bring Buckham Hall up to code spurred the delay. The roughly $25 million project at Buffalo State is eligible for state building aid, while emergency projects are not.

Middle Early delay

Unlike Da Vinci, Middle Early College had a fallback option if its temporary site was not ready in time. Contrary to plans earlier this summer, Middle Early will now start the 2023-24 school year in the same building it finished last year: the four-floor space at 2885 Main St., which it has shared with Lewis J. Bennett School since 2015.

Split of Middle Early College, Lewis J. Bennett to ease unrest, spark growth The mammoth building at 2885 Main St. has become too small to hold both Middle Early College and Lewis J. Bennett School of Innovative Technology.

The Bennett Alumni Association and a Bennett student leader at a spring board meeting described a less-than-harmonious environment last school year in the shared building. Two different class schedules – Middle Early College’s model is different than Bennett’s traditional high school setup – created awkward overlaps between the two populations that the speakers feared would lead to safety concerns.

The temporary school at 45 Jewett Ave., home to the now-closed Buffalo Collegiate Charter School until July 31, required work to reach “21st-century connectivity” to suit a specialized school such as Middle Early, Hills said, as well as security devices and a public address system. Hills said completing these tasks with students in the building would be “disruptive” if the move occurred in September.

“There’s no good choice here,” Hills said.

Middle Early is expected to move out of Main Street onto Jewett in late December, he said.

Academy School concerns

McEachon and Buffalo School Board President Sharon Belton-Cottman expressed worries about the state of Academy School for the approaching school year after they recently visited to check on its progress at 756 St. Lawrence Ave., the site where the Academy School finished last year after the roughly 120 students where shuttled from two other spaces.

“It’s actually worse than what was already bad in May,” McEachon said.

McEachon said she did not see any indication that Montante Construction had used the $1.5 million to create a suitable environment for a school that enrolls 95% minority students, 20% of whom are listed as homeless.

“We provide equitable opportunities for all students, regardless of which school they go to,” McEachon said.

Hills said interior work would be done by the start of school, while exterior work would continue into late September.

Funding sources, unexpected construction needs, changes in the scope of work and city permitting caused work on the emergency project to cease on June 30 and required board approval of additional money to continue in August, he said. Hills said the building hasn’t undergone renovations since 1972.

McEachon and Belton-Cottman were the only board members to vote against approving $500,718 for Montante Construction to complete an emergency project that will cost about $3 million in total.

“These kids deserve better than an emergency project – that’s all they’ve ever gotten,” Hills said, agreeing with McEachon. Hills said a capital project, which could be reimbursed by the state, could follow the emergency project.

Although Academy School is expected to accommodate students for the start of the school year, Hills understood the brushback from students and staff.

“When they feel like they’re not valued, when that happens,” he said, “it’s devastating.”