BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Buffalo's District Parent Coordinating Council hosted hundreds of parents and community members Friday at McKinley High School. Parent workshops at the event included topics on immigrant families, summer school and special education.
"Parent assemblies allows us all to come together to have a showcase of the things we did throughout the school year but we also come togther to talk about our parent agenda," said Sam Radford III, District Parent Coordinating Council President.
Radford says making sure Buffalo students receive a quality education is the group's top priority and that parents should have educational choice.
Guest speaker Dr. Steve Perry, who is widely known for improving graduation rates for disadvantaged students in public charter schools, says parents must demand results from the district.
"It's the parents' responsibility to hold the board accountable," Perry said. "The board has been charged with the expectation that they will prepare children for science, math, social studies.
"It's not parents who teach calculus, it's teachers who teach calculus. It's not parents who teach Spanish, it's teachers who teach Spanish. We pay people to teach these things and they're not learning. They're not learning it because they're not being taught. It's not because the children aren't learning it, it's because they simply haven't been taught."
Parents who volunteer on the District Parent Coordinating Council were recognized for their service during the summit.
State Sen. Tim Kennedy, Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes and Deputy Secretary of Education Dr. Jere Hochman also participated on the panel.