FOCUS: EARLY GRADUATION
Academic feat for 2 Burgard students is a rare junior achievement
Buffalo 16-year-olds need just three years to finish high school with Regents diploma
For Kiara Taggart, graduating from high school in just three years represents the achievement of a longtime goal.
In contrast, Michael Conrath was entirely surprised — and nearly speechless— when he learned that he will do the same.
Kiara and Michael, both 16, are scheduled to graduate from Buffalo’s Burgard High School in June, at the end of what normally would be their junior year.
That’s a rare accomplishment in Western New York and the rest of the state.
“We don’t have much of it,” said Jean Kovach, superintendent of the West Seneca Central School District. “We don’t see it that often.”
In fact, the state Education Department, which collects detailed data on four-and five-year graduation rates, doesn’t keep track of students who receive their diplomas more quickly.
But earning a Regents diploma in just three years makes perfect sense to Kiara, who plans to be a pediatrician. She is considering the University at Buffalo and Arizona State as possible college choices.
“I can go to college and be closer to pursuing my career,” she said. “I proved to myself that I can do anything I set my mind to.”
Kiara’s inspiration is her mother, Tonya Kohlman-Hargrove, who graduated from Riverside High School in three years. Kiara enrolled at Burgard having already earned high school credit in math, English and Spanish at the Dr. Lydia T. Wright School of Excellence, her elementary school.
But Michael, who plans to pursue a career in zoology, was taken by surprise when Brian Woods, a counselor at Burgard, recently told him he was on target to graduate in June.
“I was kind of amazed, to tell you the truth,” said Michael, who is considering UB, Michigan State, Penn State and the University of Miami. “Actually, I was speechless. All I could say was: ‘Thank you.’ ”
Although graduating in three years is highly unusual, it is hardly unprecedented.
About one or two students graduate early most years at Kenmore East High School, and many students there complete their junior years just 2.5 credits short of the graduation requirements, said LuAnn Ostanski, the principal.
A few students a year graduate early from Williamsville’s three high schools, and many more could do so if they planned for it, said Rita M. Wolff, the district’s director of communications.
But like other suburban high schools, Kenmore East and the Williamsville schools encourage most students to stay for four years to take advantage of Advanced Placement courses, electives, partnerships with local colleges, internships and career exploration programs.
Sports, music, drama and instruction in art, technical fields and business are other draws, Wolff said. So are proms, senior days and class trips.
“Some students are accelerated to such a level that it makes sense to move forward to the next academic challenge,” said Karen Stelley, a guidance counselor at Williamsville North High School. “We give the pros and cons for the decision to graduate early based on the student’s individual circumstances. Most of the time, it makes better sense to stay in high school for a fourth year.”
Ostanski said the extra year can help students mature, explore subject areas they otherwise wouldn’t be exposed to and enjoy themselves before the pressures of college and careers.
“Senior year is so much fun, and you never get that back,” Ostanski said.
But both Kiara and Michael — whose two-year averages are in the 80s — are eager to tackle college and their careers.
They see their accomplishments as a plus for Burgard, a career and technical school at 400 Kensington Ave. that has long lacked the favorable public image of other Buffalo technical schools such as McKinley or Hutchinson-Central Technical High School.
“It’s harder for us to get recognized sometimes because we go to Burgard,” Kiara said. “A lot of people think we don’t work as hard as kids at other schools. I beg to differ.”
Michael put himself in position to graduate early by taking eight classes a day as a freshman, nine as a sophomore and eight more this school year.
He is proud of establishing a new standard for his family, since his mother dropped out of high school to care for him as an infant, and an uncle also failed to earn a diploma.
Many educators urge students to be cautious about graduating early, questioning whether they have the maturity and experience to handle college or work.
“That does concern me a little because I am so young,” Kiara said. “I have to just work hard and stay focused.”
Both she and Michael have the support and confidence of Florence Krieter, the Burgard principal.
“In the case of these two young people, we believe they’re ready to go to college,” she said. “They have maximized the opportunities available at Burgard. They’re prepared.”
Buffalo School Superintendent James A. Williams said he is less concerned with how long students attend high school than he is with their opportunities to progress at their own pace. Some students avoid school not because they can’t handle the work, but because they are bored, he said.
The experiences of Kiara and Michael also reflect the determination of city school officials to improve the district’s 46 percent four-year graduation rate.
As a school under state registration review because of academic deficiencies, Burgard used extra funding to extend the school day not only for remediation, but to give students time to tackle three newly established AP courses and other electives.
Krieter also eliminated study halls so that students are in class nine periods a day, and established a chorus along with chess, dance and other clubs. Mandatory school uniforms were introduced last year.
When Burgard’s $40 million reconstruction project is completed prior to the start of next school year, it will be Buffalo’s flagship career and technical education program, Williams said.
An even broader range of advanced courses will be added to make a fourth year more attractive to Burgard’s most conscientious students, Krieter said.
“Those opportunities weren’t there before,” she said. “Now they are. The expectation is that students take advantage of those opportunities and don’t get by with the bare minimum any more.”
That message resonated with Michael and Kiara, who are expediting their college searches in anticipation of graduating a year ahead of their classmates.
“That’s a great accomplishment,” said Ostanski, the Kenmore East principal. “It takes a lot of focus.”
