Build Community School, Buffalo NY

Original Research by School Decision on Build Community School

Build Community School is a public school serving pre-K through grade 8 in Buffalo's East Side neighborhood. The school enrolls students in grades K-8, with a small pre-K program. Enrollment is relatively stable and small for its grade span, distributed fairly evenly across grades.

The school's student body is predominantly Black and Asian, with smaller shares of Latino and white students. The vast majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the school's location in a low-income Buffalo neighborhood. Data on special education enrollment and English learner population were not available.

Academic performance across state testing shows consistent struggles in proficiency. In math, performance declines sharply with grade level, starting at roughly a quarter of third-graders meeting standards, then dropping through the elementary grades to near zero by eighth grade. English language arts follows a similar downward slope. In science, fifth graders showed proficiency below one in ten, and in grade eight no students met standards on the science assessment. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, as these gaps compound as students move through the building.

The school participates in the state's universal school meals program launched in the 2025-26 school year, providing free breakfast and lunch to all students with no application required. This removes a direct family cost.

The broader Buffalo City School District is in a period of structural financial stress. Facing deficits projected over several years, the district pursued a closure plan but reversed that decision in January 2026 and instead adopted an alternative budget path while retaining a consultant to study future closures. The district has also made a significant commitment to phonics-based reading instruction, rolling out Orton-Gillingham training across early grades as part of a science-of-reading literacy approach. This represents a deliberate instructional shift affecting how kindergarten and first-grade reading is taught across all Buffalo schools.

Housing in the surrounding 14211 zip code is affordable relative to state and national benchmarks, with median home values in the low range and rents correspondingly modest. The neighborhood is part of Buffalo's mixed-use urban fabric, with residential blocks backed by commercial avenue strips. The area has walkable access to services and transit, including Buffalo's Metro Rail and bus system, though the school building itself is located on a residential street rather than at an intersection of major corridors.

State testing results place the school at the bottom quartile of proficiency among Erie County districts. No graduation rate is reported because the school does not serve high school grades. Chronic absenteeism data were not available. Build Community School's academic trajectory and composition fit families seeking neighborhood-based early-to-middle education in an economically under-resourced, urban setting with acknowledgment that proficiency levels are significantly below state averages and require close attention and potential outside support from families.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

New York Regents Exams

2 courses reported · 2024-25

End-of-course exams required for a New York Regents diploma. Each row shows the cohort size and the share of students scoring at the proficient level or higher.

Course	Students tested	% proficient
Science	25	4.0%
Math	10	80.0%

Math

Grade 344%

School 44% · District 34% · ▲ 10 pts above district

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 6 pts below county median

Grade 421%

School 21% · District 26% · ▼ 5 pts below district

▼ 38 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Grade 511%

School 11% · District 23% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 40 pts below state median · ▼ 30 pts below county median

Grade 618%

School 18% · District 25% · ▼ 7 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 15 pts below county median

Grade 721%

School 21% · District 24% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 16 pts below county median

Grade 84%

School 4% · District 18% · ▼ 15 pts below district

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 334%

School 34% · District 32% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 421%

School 21% · District 23% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 32 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 523%

School 23% · District 26% · ▼ 3 pts below district

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Grade 627%

School 27% · District 27%

▼ 19 pts below state median · ▼ 8 pts below county median

Grade 710%

School 10% · District 26% · ▼ 16 pts below district

▼ 37 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Grade 810%

School 10% · District 31% · ▼ 20 pts below district

▼ 38 pts below state median · ▼ 24 pts below county median

Science

Grade 511%

School 11% · District 20% · ▼ 9 pts below district

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 21 pts below county median

Grade 80%

School 0% · District 17% · ▼ 17 pts below district

▼ 33 pts below state median · ▼ 30 pts below county median

This schoolBUFFALO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.