Bennett Beacon – Winter 2023

BY CARLOS ALVAREZ, JR

News From Our Principal

February 17, 2023
By Carlos Alvarez, Jr.

As we approach the end of the first semester, it is amazing how fast this school year is passing. Data driven instructional decision making, as well as providing students with timely, relevant, and impactful feedback continues to be at the forefront of our instructional model. Our tremendous teaching staff continues to incorporate strategies that identify learning gaps and develop plans of actions, with a laser-like focus, to address their students’ needs.

We have worked tirelessly with this year’s graduating class, and the fruits of our labor are beginning to show. We are truly excited about the current and future successes of our senior class. Students in grade 12 are beginning to receive their college acceptance letters at a feverish pace – sharing their acceptance letters on a daily basis, which are in turn posted in the hallway, as we acknowledge their academic successes. Along with their college acceptance letters, we have posted a “Scholarship Goal Thermometer” that demonstrates a goal of 1.5 million scholarship dollars. As of January 2023, our seniors have earned $978,000. We truly believe that we will surpass that goal, as we are still in the early stages of college acceptances.

The Lewis J Bennett school community celebrated our student successes during the first semester by hosting our quarterly Academic Achievement Celebration. Each student that earned Merit Roll, Honor Roll, and High
Honor Roll academic successes was invited to the Academic Achievement Celebration. Our Bennett football team had an unbelievable season. Our Tigers won the New York State Class AA high school football championship! Our Bennett Tigers are the first Buffalo Public School to win a Class AA football championship.

Along the way to our championship, our Bennett Tigers overcame every obstacle put in front of them. The largest obstacle was when Section VI deemed one student ineligible due to a clerical error. This led to our Bennett Tigers having to forfeit the first six games of the season and jeopardized the team making the playoffs. The team rallied to win their final two regular season games to make the playoffs and brought home the championship!

We held a championship parade, from Bennett High School to City Hall, for the team on December 22, 2022. The team was honored by having December 4th, 2022 titled “Bennett High School Football Day”. Our Tigers finished the year ranked #1 in New York State Class AA and #5 in all of New York State high school football!

On behalf of our faculty, staff, and students, I would like to thank the Bennett Alumni Association for their continued support!

“Optima Futura- The Best is Yet to Be”