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Sixthin a series

Milton Sheehan,top, wearing his“tactical mathvest,” helpsstudents solveRegents practiceexam problems.At bottom left,Jaquoine Foganand Lisa Vidaltake notes; atright, JanaiMurray takespart in dailyquiet reading.

M

ilton Sheehan holds up a lime green beach ball covered with numbers.

¶ Sheehan is a math teacher at Tapestry Charter School in Buffalo. His

short, spiked hair, olive-colored dress shirt and beige tie are secondary de-

tails to his key accessory: a black tactical vest with reflective, fluorescent

yellow trim. He resembles a well-dressed crossing guard. ¶ Sheehan tosses the beach ball

to each of his algebra and trigonometry students. Whatever number a student’s right thumb

lands on when the ball is caught is the question that student must answer from the Regents

practice exam booklet. ¶ “Who needs help?” Sheehan asks during the last week of school be-

fore the Regents exams. ¶ Whatever help his students need, there is a good chance Sheehan

carriesa solution, either inhisbrainor in one of the 15pocketsandholders onhis cheap,black

vest. ¶ For a model of how to educate impoverished inner-city students, few schools beat

Tapestry. The 13-year-old charter school’s

EMPOWERING STUDENTSAT TAPESTRY CHARTER

B Y S A N D R A TA N / N E W S S T A F F R E P O R T E R

Principal, teachers develop winning formula for bringing up to speed – and

sending on to college – teens from impoverished inner-city homes

| S E E S C H O O L S O N P A G E A 6

By Vic Carucci

N E WS SPORTS R EPORT ER

Do you really need anything more thanthe New England Patriots in town andfirst place in the AFC East on the line tocauseRalphWilsonStadiumtoshakewithenough force to generate seismic activitytoday?

Probably not, but the Buffalo Bills willhave something else to create even moreexcitement for a sellout crowd of nearly70,000: new ownership.

Today will mark the first game withTerry and Kim Pegula as the Bills’ owners.They’re expected to be introduced on thefield before kickoff. And they undoubted-ly will receive a rousing ovation, primar-ily for putting to rest uncertainty aboutthe franchise’s future inWesternNewYorksince the passing of its founder, Ralph C.Wilson Jr., last March.

“I’m excited for the people, the fans, theorganization, the region,” Bills coach DougMarrone said. “I’ve never looked at ourfans as needing something to be electric,even as far as when I’ve been an opponentin this stadium. But to say it’s going up anotch, obviously, I have to recognize that.

“I’ve always thought the fans have al-ways been a big part of our success whenwe play at home. They can make a dif-ference, and they did in” the 29-10 home-opening victory against Miami, only daysafter the Pegulas’ agreement to purchasethe Bills for $1.4 billion became public.

The Bills and Patriots share 3-2 records,giving the Bills rare equal footing with a

The dawn

of a new day

for the Bills

Ownership change kicksexcitement level up a notch

Photos by Derek Gee/Buffalo News

By Thomas J. Prohaska

N E WS N I AGA R A R EPORT ER

LOCKPORT – A state investigationconcludes that two inmates died four daysapart in the Niagara County Jail in 2012,victims of “grossly inadequate” medicalcare and “patient abandonment.”

Both inmates died two weeks after aMiami-based medical company took overmedical care at the jail. The Niagara Coun-ty Legislature hired Armor CorrectionalHealth Services in hopes of saving money.

Daniel Pantera’s death on Christmasmorning 2012 was preventable, the stateCommission of Correction’s Medical Re-view Board concluded, citing “grossly in-adequatemedicalandmentalhealthcare,”

Inmate deaths

tied to private

medical firm

State cites new hireby Niagara County

Is the Patriots’

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Reports of New England’sfall from dominance may bea bit premature. Page B1

See Deathson Page A2

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A6 The Buffalo News/Sunday, October 12, 2014 A7



student population mirrors the cityschools: three of every of four studentspoor enough to qualify for a free or re-duced-price lunch, the majority start-ing high school with reading skills belowgrade level.

Yet Tapestry graduates 93 percent ofits students on time, and 80 percent ofgraduates go on to college in the fall.

The secret to Tapestry’s success startswith the flexibility it has as a charterschool, free from school system bureau-cracy and many state and local regula-tions. It canadjust its schedule tomeet theneeds of students, teachers and parents.The administration can select and hirestaff who embrace Tapestry’s mission andmodel of teaching.

The teaching model is nontraditional.Students are pushed to regularly reflecton their own achievements and face theirshortcomings with honesty. They meetdaily with a “crew” of classmates whostick together for all four years, facing theups and downs of life as an in-house fami-ly forkidswhodon’t alwayshave thatkindof support at home. The faculty immersesstudents in projects that give their learn-ing a purpose and instill kids with the be-lief that they have the power through edu-cation to shape their world.

And Tapestry students read. It’s builtinto the daily schedule. Students may notalways like itorbegoodat it,but theycometo school knowing just how good or poor areader they are, and challenge themselvesto become more literate every day.

For two decades, charter schools likeTapestry have been a political divider, pit-ting accountability-minded conservativesagainst more liberal-minded championsof traditional public schools.

But in recent years, those lines haveblurred. Charter school successes haveshifted the discussion from principled po-litical philosophy to practical parent pref-erence. Since 1999, the number of char-ter schools nationwide has grown from1,500 to 6,000. The number of children at-tending charter schools has grown from300,000 to more than 2 million.

It’s easy to see why. When ranking thehighestperformingschools inBuffaloandNew York State – particularly those serv-ing high percentages of poor students– charter schools claim many top spots.

Eliminate public schools that have ad-missions requirements to filter out low-achievers, and high-performing charterschools stand almost unrivaled.

Not all charter schools work. Somedo worse than traditional public schools.Charters like Tapestry also have a leg upbecause they enroll fewer special-educa-tion students and English language learn-ers than the district average. Some crit-ics also argue that charter school parentstend to be more proactive and invested intheir children’s academic success.

But parents are voting with their feet.High-performing charter schools likeTapestry are flooded with student appli-cations. In the high school alone, Tapestrytypically wait-lists 200 students a year.

“All parents are looking for quality op-tions for their children,” said PrincipalLynn Seagren Bass, “and when they hearof options that are working well for theirneighbors and friends, they want theirkids to be there. I have a lot of faith in thejudgment of parents.”

Expectations and reflections

T apestry Charter School began asa conversation in 1999 among fivesynagogue friends whose ownchildren were attending Buffalo PublicSchools. As educators and activists,including one who ran a preschool, theydreamed of building a school focused onarts, community and social responsibility.

Tapestry opened as an elementaryschool two years later. It expanded intothe high school grades in 2006, againspurred by strong parent demand. Theschool now serves children in kindergar-ten through 12th grade in a building be-hind the North Buffalo Marshalls plaza ina space once occupied by a grocery storeand call center.

The school received a $14 millionmakeover in 2010 to hide its drab origins.It’s a packed place, with storage spacesconverted to offices and a music room rel-

egated to a large trailer in the backyard.Alongside student artwork and exhib-

its, images of the Tapestry Compass popup everywhere. That compass is a starwith four long points, each compass tippointing to a quality needed for a suc-cessful future: Perseverance, integrity, re-sponsibility and respect.

Tapestry’s values tend to squeeze outdeception. Students typically know exact-ly how they are doing in school, how farthey have to go, and why.

In Sarah Dolloff’s English class, thewalls explode with words both printedand handwritten. The wispy ninth-gradeteacher, who has built her career at Tap-estry, seizes on this last day of class be-fore Regents exams to drive home how fareach student has come since the fall.

She passes out light blue paper to everystudent and tells the class to look over allthework theyhavedone forclass thisyear,reflect on what they learned, then write aletter to their past selves – “the one juststarting out ninth grade” – and tell thatperson what to expect.

Many essay responses are remarkablyhonest.

“Dear Me,” writes Malcolm Powell athis binder-cluttered desk. “This year wasjust like last year. It wasn’t hard, you justnever did your homework.”

The serious-minded 14-year-old goeson to tell himself that he is writing more,focusing on his grammar and thinkingabout poetry. After he’s done, Malcolmleans back in his seat. He talks about hispoetry.

“Before, I wrote the bare minimum,”he says.

This kind of self-reflection isn’t a class-room whim. It’s built into the workings ofthe school and into the school calendar.

Instead of parent-teacher conferencesat every grade level, the school reservestwo full days for “student-directed” con-ferences where kids spend an hour shar-ing specific examples of their work withtheirparents. If it’spoorwork, it’s obvious,and there’s nothing left to do but explain.A teacher sits in to promote honesty.

Climbing the ladder to graduation isno mystery. Grading formulas are clear.And students aren’t just graded for theiracademic knowledge. They receive aseparate “habits of work” grade for con-scientiousness, participation and effort.Students with good work habits get firstchoice of fun school activities, field trips

and other perks.Students who fall behind in their

schoolwork – particularly freshmen –have built-in time to meet with teachersand catch up. One former freshman de-scribed the experience as being “hunteddown” by the staff.

Rites of passage are common. All soph-omores must assemble and present a “pas-sageportfolio” toapanelofadults– includ-ing their parents and professionals fromthe community – defending their right tomove to the higher grade. Seniors mustwrite letters of advice to the freshmen andpresent an “apologia” to an adult panel,reflecting on their high school experienceand why they deserve to graduate.

“Have you ever felt hopeless, trulyhopeless?” saysOscarWilson,anemotion-ally fragile senior whose voice rings withtear-inducing sincerity. “As if you havetried every possible solution and all hasfailed? You’re waiting for an open door,but nothing is happening … That is howmy life has felt.”

Dressed in a deep-blue shirt buttonedall the way up, he reads his apologia, us-ing the metaphor of driving a car downdark roads, negotiating traffic, and deal-ing with shiftless passengers and back-seat drivers. He talks about how he nearlyfailed freshmanyear,howhestraightenedup sophomore year, how he reached a newlow point in his senior year but managedto find the strength to recover.

“I have stuck to the road that I am on,”he says, “and I refuse to turn back.”

OscarnowattendsSUNYFredoniaState.

Crew is family

T he administrators and teachers atTapestry don’t assume that theirstudentshavestrongfamilysupportat home. Instead, Tapestry makes sureeveryhighschool studenthasasupportive

family at school – a “crew” of 12.Those 12 freshmen will stick togeth-

er and meet daily for their entire highschool careers. This is possible at Tapes-try because even though the school yearisn’t any longer than at traditional publicschools, Tapestry’s school day is roughlyan hour longer.

Daily crew meetings are led by a teach-er who also serves as the main contact forthese students’ parents. But students domost of the talking. What they learn increw has nothing to do with grades andeverything to do with life.

In one 10th grade crew meeting, theday before prom, students sit in a circleand pass around Bobo, a stuffed elephant,and talk about drinking.

Melanie Norris, who was struggling atBuffaloAcademyoftheSacredHeartbeforeshe transferred to Tapestry, recounts howa girlfriend got drunk at a dance at St. Jo-seph’s Collegiate Institute, threw up in thebathroomandgot thrownoutof school.

Another crew member in a Lincoln-like top hat recalls a drunken friend whofoolishly challenged another group ofkids at 2 a.m.

“He got jumped and broke his arm,” he

says, “andhelosteverythinghehadonhim.”In an 11th grade crew led by math

teacher Sheehan, Alexandria Johnson andKayla Wood spring to their feet, bending,stepping and gesturing wildly to the “Fri-day chicken dance song” that Sheehancallsuponhis laptop.Earlier intheyear,hehad called up a YouTube video to show hisstudents an example of the stupid thingspeople do when they’re drunk. Alex andKayla were so amazed by the drunk guy’sdancethattheystudiedhiseverymoveandre-create the dance each Friday.

As the period winds down, Sheehantakes a last look at his crew.

“Be safe at prom,” he tells them.

Tapestry’s advantage

P rincipal Bass sits in a lived-in officefilled with posters and paper piles.Accountability reports, math plan-ning folders, bookshelves and plasticcrates of documents cover almost everyflat surface. Images of the Dalai Lama,Albert Einstein and W.E.B. Du Bois hangoverhead,alongwithawatercolorofabird

her daughter painted at age 5.Near the door hangs a graduation pho-

to of her son, the reason Bass got involvedin Tapestry. Her son enjoyed his earlyyears at Buffalo’s Olmsted School 64 untilthird grade.

After her son’s miserable, tear-filledexperience with his third-grade teacher,Bass took a chance on Tapestry becauseshe knew the founder of the school, JoyPepper. Back then, Tapestry was not ahigh-demand school with a long waitinglist. It was a new elementary school re-cruiting families.

Bass,aschoolpsychologistwhoworkedfor 10 years in the Buffalo Public Schools,was one of the people who pushed for theschool’s expansion and wound up leadingthe high school.

With short, straight, blondish-brownhairandunassumingglasses,Bassexudesboth interest and warmth. But get herstarted on the “unfair” advantages Tap-estry has over traditional public schools,and all that changes to hard conviction.

“It’s a mistake to assume we just takekids who are easy,” she says, “because wedon’t.”

People who say that haven’t seen herpick up the phone and call Child Protec-tive Services, she says.

Only 30 percent of Tapestry’s highschool students come from Tapestry’s el-ementary school (though that percentageincreased this fall). The rest are chosen bylottery, and the majority enter at least ayear behind in school academically.

“It’s the game of taking what just is,and making it work,” Bass says. “Just be-cause people have a bad circumstancedoesn’t mean they can’t learn.”

She notes that even though Tapestryenrolls 13 percent of students with dis-abilities – compared with 17 percent in theBuffalo Public Schools – those studentsstill graduate at a decent rate – 22 percent

STUDENTS KNOW HOW FAR THEY HAVE TO GO, AND WHYSCHOOLS • from A1

Photos by Derek Gee/Buffalo News

All Tapestry high school students meet daily with a “crew” of 12 classmates who become their in-school family. Hillary Kelkenberg’s 10th-grade crew trades stories about student drinking.

English teacher Sara Dolloff asks her exiting ninth-graders to write a letter tothemselves reflecting on what they’ve learned during the school year.

Kayla Wood, right, cuts loose with a classmate to re-enact the “Friday chickendance” each week in Milton Sheehan’s 11th-grade crew.

Che Brown, 14, and all other Tapestry Charter High School students, ceaseregular school wook and read for personal enjoyment for 20 minutes every day aspart an effort to raise student literacy.

By the numbers / Tapestry Charter High School and Buffalo district high schools4-year Asian/ English

Graduation 2013 Pacific Students with language EconomicallyHigh School rate Enrollment White Black Hispanic Islander Multiracial disabilities learners disadvantagedTapestry Charter High School 93% 327 23% 61% 9% 2% 5% 13% 5% 75%

Buffalo Public Schools (high schools) 56% 8,804 23% 51% 16% 8% 1% 17% 12% 65%

Source: 2013-14 demographic data from Tapestry Charter School, Buffalo Public Schools and New York State Education Department. Graduation rates are for August 2013.

About the series

How to Fix Buffalo’s Schools is an occasional series highlightingurban schools across the country that have made outsized progresson some of the seemingly intractable problems plaguing inner-cityschools. The successful schools were selected through statistical analy-sis of data on academic performance and demographics. The schoolschosen are some of the best examples of successfully educating studentswith backgrounds similar to those in the Buffalo Public Schools.

To read the first five parts of this series and for online-only features,go to BuffaloNews.com/FixingSchools.

June22:In the Bronx, a school for at-risk boys succeeds.July13: In Brooklyn, a model for teaching immigrants.July14: Buffalo’s Lafayette High School struggles to teach immigrants.Aug. 17: Newark’s jobs training is a model for urban schools.Oct.5: CSAT Charter School graduates most students in county.

On the Web:News reporters hosta live chat aboutcharter schools atnoon Tuesday atBuffaloNews.com.

Andrela Wilson, 15, works with classmates in science class. She stands a betterchance of passing the Regents exam now that her reading scores have gone up.

Anna Burton works on a project in English class. Students are told their Lexilescores, measuring reading comprehension, and encouraged to improve them.

College-bound Tapestry students

Percentage of Tapestry high school graduates from the Class of 2013who enrolled in college the fall immediately following graduation2-year college 34.7%4-year college 45.3%Total: 80.0%Source: Tapestry Charter School and National Student Clearinghouse

See Schoolson Page A8

A8 The Buffalo News/Sunday, October 12, 2014



earned a Regents diploma and 56 percentearned local diploma in 2013.

Tapestry may have some advantageover other schools because of its char-ter status, she says, but the school’s char-ter status isn’t the entire explanation forwhy her students succeed.

Bass spent 10 years processing stu-dents with special needs in the BuffaloPublic Schools. Too often, she recalls, sheran into students and parents who weretreated with pity, condescension and lowexpectations.

Shereferred to theschooldistrict’s re-cent history of graduating only a quar-ter of its black, male students (the figureis 45 percent now). Would anyone havethe gall to suggest that the parents of thefailing 75 percent just didn’t care abouttheir kids’ education? she asks.

“Don’t make excuses for your gradu-ation rate by just saying you’ve got thewrong kids,” Bass said. “How disrespect-ful to parents.”

Tapestry prides itself on getting morethan 90 percent of its parents to attendstudent-led conferences and completesurveys. Most parents gush about theschool culture and staff, though a fewsay students here get way more secondchances than exist in the real world.

Bass doesn’t apologize for that. Shesays it speaks to the school’s message ofperseverance: “You’re going to get better.Don’t ever give up.”

Promoting literacy

Y ou may not know what a Lexilescore is. But every high schoolstudent at Tapestry does.A Lexile score is a three- or four-digit

number designed to help teachers assess astudent’s reading comprehension. At Tap-estry, teachers share those numbers withtheir kids and throw down the challenge:Thisisyourscore.Let’sseeifyoucanraiseit.

Without strong reading skills, thelikelihood of a student graduating fromhigh school is low. That’s why Tapestryteachers try to develop a love of readingamong their students.

One approach is sharing Lexile scoreslike video-game rankings.

The school also schedules 20 minutesof quiet reading time across the build-ing every day, a feat made possible by thecharter school’s longer school day.

At 10:14 a.m., all classrooms fall still.Some teachers dim the lights as studentspull out their latest favorite book and readat their desks. This isn’t homework catch-up time. It is intended as a time when allkids readwhat theywant– for fun.

Some students, though, are not readyfor that independence.

Andrela Wilson isn’t with the otherkids in her class. The quiet, 14-year-oldfreshman with dark-framed glasses par-ticipates inabookclub for thosewhodon’twant to, or aren’t ready to, read alone.She’s into “Catching Fire” from the Hun-ger Games series. Asked if she likes read-ing,sheresponds“yeah,”beforesheepishlyshakingherheadamoment later.

“Itrytoread,”sheexplains.“Igetbored.”When Andrela left the city’s Martin

Luther King Multicultural Institute andenrolled in Tapestry as a ninth graderlast fall, her Lexile score was 832. To beconsidered reading at grade level, highschool students should have a score ofroughly 1,000 or greater.

Bass noted that students are almostguaranteed to fail the Regents LivingEnvironment science exam without aLexile score of at least 900.

Of all students entering ninth gradein the fall, 60 percent arrived read-ing below grade level, according to theschools’ 2012-13 assessments. That fig-ure dropped to 43 percent by the spring.

Shortly before the school day ends,

Andrela learns her Lexile score nowstands at 1,002. A proud grin creasesboth corners of her mouth as she says it,as if she wants to smile bigger but self-consciousness won’t let her.

Expeditions and engagement

A long one Tapestry hallwaystands an image of ninth-graderswrapped in blue-and-yellow lifejackets as they sail the Spirit of Buffalo.

“We are crew, not passengers” readsthe motto beneath the ship.

Tapestry isn’t the only school to havethis motto. So do a number of othertraditional public schools and charterschools who subscribe to the “expedi-tionary learning” model.

The motto emphasizes the idea thatstudents participate in their own learn-ing and are not simply recipients of infor-mation. To promote this, teachers createthemedprojectsor “expeditions” that stu-dents dive into across all major subjects.

It might mean a “Here I Stand” expe-dition that focuses on ways students caninspire reform in their community.

Three ninth-graders eagerly walkalong a long display of seven case stud-ies associated with this expedition overthe past several months. They talk aboutstudying medical ethics and consent byreading about the infamous Tuskegeesyphilis experiment and the HenriettaLacks immortal cell line in English class.

They talk about researching cancerand conducting experiments, compar-ing healthy and cancerous cells under amicroscope in Roswell Park Cancer Cen-ter’s Pathology Department, as well asabout dissecting a pig in science class.

“It was disgusting,” says ninth-grad-er Kim Bostic, wrinkling her nose. “Myeyes burned.”

They tracked the spread of disease inmath class, and talked about the birth ofthe Protestant Reformation, the print-ing press and the spread of informationin global studies. In the end, all studentshad to develop cancer communicationscampaigns and present them to six staff-ers from Roswell Park.

Because these themed expeditionsare interwoven among the students’ sub-jects, Tapestry doesn’t offer AdvancedPlacement classes. That’s a trade-off ev-eryone lives with for the sake of keep-ing all students engaged and growing as“whole” people, Principal Bass says.

The message to students: “Be goodcitizens. Create a world that’s going to bebetter.”

Teacher support

T apestry’s teachers face constantpressure to keep classes engag-ing and make sure no one falls farbehind. To balance this, teachers receivea lot of autonomy and peer support. Thistranslates into a staff more willing to staylateanddo“whatever it takes” tograduatestudents on time.

This requires two things that comeeasier to charter schools: Hiring staffwho believe in the charter school’s mis-sion and work ethic, and creating aschedule that allows built-in time forteacher training and peer support.

Back in Sheehan’s algebra and trig-onometry class, the lime green beachball is making the rounds. One by one,students catch the ball, pick up their

Regents review book, then head to thewhiteboards that covermostof theverti-cal space in Sheehan’s room.

“Who needs help?” Sheehan asks.He quickly gets a taker and reaches

into his vest pocket for a red marker be-fore approaching the board where one ofthe students has written out her equa-tion. As others complete their equationassignments, Sheehan reaches into a dif-ferent vest pocket for a stamp to marktheir sheets before he tosses out thebeach ball again for the next student.

Some mock Sheehan’s “math geekvest.” He calls it his best idea ever. In pastyears, he was forced to make repeatedtrips back to his desk because studentsweren’tpreparedwithbasics likepencils.

“I finally decided I wasn’t going to letthem distract me any more,” he said.

Sheehan went to Amazon.com andbought his math geek vest for $30. Hisvest holds: a ruler, pencils (he started outwith500andnowhaszero),astar-shapedholepunch,apencil sharpener,Wite-Out,a stapler, acamera (tosnapphotosofnap-pingkids),dry-erasemarkers,aniPadsty-lus, tissues, Band-Aids and a clipped-onscientific calculator holster.

But he’s not blind to the difficulty ofhis work. Like his colleagues, Sheehanoften stays at school until dinnertime,working to get his students up to speed.

If he were teaching in the suburbs, hesaid, that effort would be rewarded withexceptional results. But here, he strug-gles to get students who are below gradelevel up to speed. When he sees manystudents’ trigonometry scoresare “belowmediocre,” frustration washes over him.

“I’ve put hundreds and hundreds ofhours into getting them where they needto be,” he said. “So that’s what’s tough.”

Although the school day at Tapestrymost days starts at 8:30 a.m. and ends at3:36 p.m., students do not come to schooluntil 10:20a.m.onMondays.From8a.m.to 10 a.m. on Mondays, teachers get to-gether to meet, plan and learn.

Teachers, not administrators, deter-mine what additional professional train-ing they need. They also limit class sizesto 21 students or fewer in all major aca-demic subjects.

Tapestry teachers aren’t unionized,though some other charter schools are. In-stead,theschoolhasanInstructionalLead-ership Council, representing teacher lead-ersofeachgradelevelanddepartment.

Dolloff, the ninth-grade Englishteacher, remembers when she was in herfourth year at Tapestry Charter HighSchool inanoldbuildingnearDaysPark.The building was packed, and the stu-dents seemed exceptionally difficult.

“There were times when we werethinking, ‘I don’t know if I can do this,’”she recalls.

As a result, all the teachers took a stepback and worked with administrators tochange the schedule, regroup the kids.They reorganized the entire ninth-gradeprogramandcreatedaspecial supportpe-riodat theendof theday. Ithelped.

English teacher Geoff Schutte re-calls teaching eighth-graders at Fred-erick Douglass Prep, a low-performingRochester public school on the verge ofclosure seven years ago. The first year hewas there, he worked tirelessly.

By his second year, he could feel theeroding of his commitment to stay lateand push, despite administrator admo-nitions to “get scores up.” The lanky,once-enthusiastic teacher felt moreburned out in Rochester despite doingless work there than he does here.

“I’ve been given incredible profes-sional autonomy,” he says of his sevenyears at Tapestry. “That’s why I love it.”

Bass says she doesn’t require any ofher staff to stay late. But as a charterschool principal, Bass does have controlover who joins her school’s staff.

“I can’t order them to stay,” she says.“I want to hire people who want to stay.”

email: [email protected]

‘TAKING WHAT IS, AND MAKING IT WORK’SCHOOLS • from A7

Spending per student: a comparison

Spending per student, 2013-14Tapestry Charter School $13,332

Buffalo Public Schools $22,977

Note: The per-student expenditure figure for Buffalo Public Schools students excludes enrollmentand spending for charter school students.

Sources: Calculations based on expenditure and enrollment information from Tapestry Charter Schooland the Buffalo Public Schools

Why Tapestry was chosen

In selecting the highest-performing local charter schools, The Buffalo News reviewedthree years of graduation rates for Buffalo’s district schools and charter high schools thatdraw the majority of their students from Buffalo.

The News then reviewed state and district attrition data to eliminate charter schools withhigh percentages of students leaving and returning to district public schools. This was done toensure that the charters’ high graduation rates were not the result of the school counseling outor expelling difficult or low-achieving students.

Finally, The News looked at the demographics of students enrolled in the charter schools toidentify schools whose student populations resemble the district’s enrollment in terms of raceand poverty. Based on that analysis, both Tapestry Charter High School and the Charter HighSchool for Applied Technologies clearly ranked at the top of the list. The Charter High Schoolfor Applied Technologies was profiled last week.

Derek Gee/Buffalo News

Tapestry Charter High School Principal Lynn Seagren Bass says Tapestry isabout community. “The magic of all this is just relationships,” she says.

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