Frontier Central School District

Before the formation of the district, students in the hamlets and communities throughout the town of Hamburg were served by smaller school districts dating to the late 19th century. high school campus and a new elementary school were approved for construction in 1953. Both the high school and Pinehurst in Lake View opened in 1955. With stable enrollments, the approval of a $17.6 million ($ in ) capital program in 1990 led to the renovations and expansions of the existing schools. In addition, a new primary school adjacent to the high school, Big Tree Elementary, was constructed in 1993. The district's former community center, the Frontier Community Learning Center, was constructed along Southwestern Boulevard in 2002. The Frontier Community Learning Center featured classrooms, offered seasonal courses, and later, a gymnasium. The district sold the community center in 2015 to the town of Hamburg, which now operates it as a senior services center. The district shifted away from overhead projectors to SMART Boards around the 2007–2008 school year. In 2019, Frontier secured funding from then-State Senator Chris Jacobs for a turf field replacement and scoreboard installation behind the high school, which was completed in 2020. As with other school districts across the United States, Frontier took measures to implement distance learning at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent the spread of the virus. Initially, students attended school remotely in March 2020. In the fall of 2020, the district opened the year with a transition to a hybrid in-person and virtual learning model. == Location and area ==

The Frontier Central School District covers about of land in the town of Hamburg, from the village of Blasdell in the north to the hamlet of Lake View in the southwest. Portions of the town of Hamburg not covered by the school district include areas adjacent to the village and other neighboring towns; the Hamburg, West Seneca, and Orchard Park central school districts serve these areas. == Instruction ==

In 2020, Buffalo Business First ranked Frontier as the fifteenth-best performing school district in the Western New York region. The district employed 363 teachers for the 2019–2020 school year, Students are administered yearly math and English Language Arts (ELA) assessments by the New York State Education Department from grades three through eight. In grades four and eight, students take a science-based exam which includes a lab component. At the middle and high school levels, ten counselors offer guidance to students throughout the school year. Students take their Regents Exams, which are required to receive a diploma, in high school. 91% of 345 students graduated from Frontier High School in 2020, with 64% receiving an Advanced Regents Diploma. Frontier supplies students with Chromebook laptops and iPads, transitioning from the iMac computers previously in use. In addition, the district uses Google Apps for Education for student email and document storage and SchoolTool for student record-keeping. == Budget and administration ==

The Frontier Educational Center (FEC) is on Orchard Avenue in the hamlet of Wanakah, where it serves as the administrative and business head of the district. The FEC was previously home to the Wanakah School, which admitted first- and second-grade students until it was shuttered in 1993. Seven members serve four-year terms on the school board. The board began holding virtual meetings in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The school district's current superintendent is Christopher J. Swiatek. Frontier spends an average of $16,749 per pupil; its student–teacher ratio is 13:1 (the national averages in 2020 were $12,654 and 16:1 respectively), and , the district's budget was $89,486,591. == Demographics ==

In the 2019–20 school year, the Frontier Central School District enrolled approximately 4,612 students; of which 1,470 (32%) were considered economically disadvantaged or eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is 51% male and 49% female. 17% of students have reported disabilities. == Schools ==

Big Tree Elementary School Big Tree Elementary School is on Bayview Road, adjacent to Frontier High School. The school serves students in the town roughly between the areas of Blasdell and Wanakah, where Cloverbank Elementary is located. Two wings support classrooms for students from kindergarten through fifth grade. Before the construction of the present elementary school, several schools were constructed in the Big Tree area, beginning with a small schoolhouse in 1850. At least three additional schoolhouses were built, expanded or moved for the Big Tree district between 1870 and 1961, later reduced to a sole building on South Park Avenue after consolidation into the Frontier district. during which it earned a Blue Ribbon Award in 2009. When the school surpassed a parent teacher association (PTA) goal by reading over 2.5 million minutes in 2006, Saniewski read a book from a hot-air balloon to the school's students. Blasdell Elementary School Blasdell Elementary School, on South Park Avenue, serves students in the village of Blasdell and the surrounding area, including the hamlet of Woodlawn. The school traces its history back to 1843, when the first schoolhouse was built near present-day Mile Strip Road. Population shifts slightly to the north saw Blasdell High School open in 1894, and other schools open in Woodlawn to the west. Functioning as a primary and secondary school throughout its time, the opening of the high school and continued district growth lead to the construction of the current school. the previous school became the Blasdell Annex. District reorganization and school closures over the subsequent decades saw the annex close and the current school expand to a K-5 grade structure. The school houses students from kindergarten through fifth grade. Pinehurst Elementary School Pinehurst Elementary School, on Fairway Court in Lake View, is the original elementary school in the district. The school serves students in the area of the town roughly between Eighteen Mile Creek and Cloverbank Elementary. The next school to the southwest is Highland Elementary of the Lake Shore Central School District, approximately away in the hamlet of Derby. Before its construction, at least five schools existed in the area from 1795 to 1921, including a log cabin. taking in students from other schools such as Wanakah up to grade eight. The building was dedicated on December 9, 1965. The school's current name dates from 1993, while shifting from grades 7–9 to grades 6–8. At the middle school, students begin their foreign language courses and have the opportunity to enroll in advanced math. An expansion in the late 1990s added a music room and a second gym; a second expansion in early 2000s added a two-story wing with several classrooms. Located on Amsdell Road in the southwest portion of the town, students in grades 6–8 attend the middle school. The school had 96 teachers in 2020. As of the 2019–20 school year, enrollment was 1,142 students. The demographics of the school are 87% White (non-Hispanic), 2% Black or African American, 1% Asian, 6% Hispanic or Latino, and 4% multiracial. In 2008, 1,450 middle school teachers, staff and students participated in a large outdoor group photo, forming a wide red, white and blue eagle. Subsequent photos were taken at other schools in the district and elsewhere in the country. Each November, the school's student council organizes its annual fundraiser Bald for Bucks, which raises thousands of dollars to benefit Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. The school has a chapter of the National Junior Honor Society. At the high school, students are offered the opportunity to take ten Advanced Placement classes, courses from SUNY Erie, Hilbert College and SUNY Niagara, and vocational classes with Erie 1 BOCES in nearby West Seneca. The school offers over two dozen clubs and activities and over 64 varsity sports teams and began operating a student-run food truck in 2019. The high school has expanded three times. The first expansion was in 1993 with an eight-room foreign language education wing and secondary gymnasium The third expansion came in 2013, when capital improvements saw the addition of a new library media center and secured vestibule. The renovations were completed in 2014. == Transportation ==

school buses operated by Frontier School buses are operated by the district; the bus garage is next to the high school on Bayview Road. There are 86 buses in the fleet . Each neighborhood is assigned an attendance zone and corresponding elementary school by the Board of Education for efficiency of operations. In 2019, the district began deployment of a system for parents to track their child's bus. == See also ==