A New Chapter: Becoming a Centaur

I guess it’s official: next year, I’ll be a Centaur.

I’ll be joining the STARS program at City Honors School as a science special education teacher, working primarily with students with autism. Depending on the needs of the student body, I may also work with students in a resource room or consultant teacher setting. After spending the last seven years at McKinley High School, this is an exciting new way to begin my 14th year in the classroom.

I’m excited to become a Centaur and am looking forward to the change. While I have many fond memories of McKinley and have worked with incredible students, teachers, and staff over the years, it is no secret that the school has faced significant challenges. As I wrote earlier in The Five Stages of Grief: Budget Cut Edition, the future at McKinley became increasingly uncertain. The reality is that staying was no longer an option.

What many people outside Buffalo Public Schools may not realize is that teachers generally don’t get to simply choose where they want to work. Most vacancies throughout the district are filled through the teacher transfer process, a system that combines seniority and timing. You submit your preferences, wait for your number to come up, and hope that one of the positions you want is still available when it does. There can be excellent openings throughout the district, but there is never any guarantee that they’ll still be there when your turn arrives.

What makes the process even more complicated is that not every tenure area works the same way. Some certification areas have relatively few teachers, and the transfer list can be exhausted quickly. Others, particularly larger tenure areas like Special Education, can have so many teachers seeking transfers that the district never makes it through the entire list. In those cases, teachers can spend years waiting for an opportunity that never comes. Once the transfer process ends, any remaining vacancies are often filled by temporary employees or new hires, while teachers already in the system remain where they are. It’s one of those quirks of the process that can be frustrating if you’re hoping to make a move and don’t happen to be near the top of the list.

This year there were several science positions that interested me, including opportunities at schools like Hutch Tech and School 81. But there was no guarantee those positions would still be available when the transfer process reached my seniority level. That left me with a choice: wait for the possibility of a perfect position, or pursue the opportunity that was right in front of me.

I chose the opportunity in front of me over the possibility of something else.

When the opening at City Honors became available, I applied. It wasn’t because I was desperate to leave science or because I had stopped believing in the work being done at McKinley. It was because I wanted some control over my future. Rather than waiting and hoping that a particular position would still exist later in the process, I chose to pursue an opportunity that I knew would be available and that aligned with both my experience and my interests.

In some ways, it came down to choosing a guaranteed opportunity over a possibility. Hutch Tech might have worked out. Another science vacancy somewhere else in the district might have been available. Or they might not have been. City Honors was a real opportunity in front of me, and after meeting the team and learning more about the program, it felt like the right fit.

There were other factors as well. City Honors has earned a reputation as one of the premier public schools in Western New York and is consistently ranked among the top schools in the region. More importantly to me, it is a school known for stability. Teachers rarely leave, students rarely transfer out, and the school has benefited from consistent leadership for more than two decades. After several years of uncertainty, budget challenges, and constant change, the opportunity to join a school with a strong culture, a clear vision, and long-term stability was incredibly appealing.

As I enter my 14th year in education, I have come to appreciate that stability matters. It allows teachers to focus on teaching, students to focus on learning, and programs to grow thoughtfully over time. City Honors offers that kind of environment, and I am excited to become part of it.

I’m especially excited about returning to my special education roots. Before becoming a science teacher, I worked in special education, and many of the skills I developed there have shaped my teaching philosophy ever since. The chance to combine science instruction with specialized support for students with autism is something I find both professionally rewarding and personally meaningful.

There is still a lot to learn about the specifics of my role, but that’s part of what makes this opportunity exciting. I’m grateful for everything McKinley has given me over the years, and I’m looking forward to seeing what this next chapter brings.

McKinley will always be part of who I am as an educator. Once a Mack, always a Mack. But next year, I’m excited to become a Centaur.