Gee, I wonder if it has anything to do with James Williams calling him on the phone and asking him is he saw "Scarface" and did he know what happened to those who aren't "loyal" and about a horse head in his bed. Nice Job running another talented Principal out of Buffalo! Thanks Williams, you are doing an excellent job.

Kazmierczak had already run out of Buffalo when he move to East Amherst and pulled his own kids out of his school.
Lack of leadership and management skills, inability to delegate, unwillingness to listen to and consider other points of view, lack of follow through, ability to divide and conquer staff and lack of respect for students, teachers and parents should not be considered "talents".
This was an incredibly anti-climatic inaugural year for the program moving into a new $35,000,000 facility.
The school needs a dynamic leader who knows the potential that this program, teachers and students have. Kazmierczak was quoted last spring in Buffalo Rising stating that BAVPA "was the best kept secret in Western NY". 8 years as principal and he thinks BAVPA should still be a secret?
Let Tonawanda deal with his "talents".

Kazmierczak left because he knew he was in deep trouble. At the beginning of this school year his immediate superior, Community Superintendent Catherine Battaglia told me he was "on a short leash". I began teaching teaching at the school in 1983. Until I retired in 2006 there were 7 principals - that is not a good thing. No one did more than Kazmierczak to cause the erosion of the program. His inability to organize is almost a sickness. He demolished the order that the former admisistrator Vic Fradin had in place for many years and then created chaos. Then he had to change his own chaos every week just for fun! There was only an arbitrary and confusing system of discipline under Kazmierczak - come down really hard on the good kids and let the wild kids get away with murder. Incidently, Kazmierczak was vehemently opposed to moving to the new building! Last, but not least Kazmierczak and his kronies (the fired Joy Trotter, former head of personnel) and Dave Thomas (Sup. of Phy. Ed - check out the Buf. News - he refused to testify on the McKinley case) broke the "No Child Left Behind" law wnen they hired the daughter of an aide as a dance teacher. She had no master's degree or certification and did no student teaching. There were 3 candidates who had the correct qualifications. I lost my position of 22 years as a punishment for complaining about this to Marion Canedo. Kaz. and buddies were behind this. He cared nothing about students. You will be hearing loud screaming coming from the direction of Tonawanda by October at the latest! Good riddance!

Mr Kazmierczak is a great guy, as a student at "The Arts Academy" I have watched his leadership as, a disciplinary & Arts advocate. Even though we are an arts school. Mr. K main focus is on the Academics. He cares about the kids. He always go out his way for them. What ties us together at "The Arts Academy" is we all including Mr. K and numerous teachers share a love for some form of Visual and Performing arts. In the past 8 years of being principal at "The Arts Academy" Mr. K as many of us call him has done so much for our school. he has build bridges with many people making them strong supporters of our school. For whatever reason he decides to leave. I know for a fact that he has been an Blessing to our school and he has left on a good foot. He will be missed! We at "The Arts Academy" know as always hes doing whats best.

To clarify my previous entry: No Child Left Behild says you must hire the most qualified teacher for a position. It doesn't say nepotism is OK.

Lets see. I would like to clear the air on a few things that have been written. Ms. Leslie Wexler, I do not believe that you have any place to make comment on any teacher or student at BAVPA. Any, so called, teacher who will lock little kids in a classroom and call them "Animals" is the one who is leaving them behind. This teacher without the masters degree or certification is actually the only teacher in the schools history that does have propper state certification. Where did you recieve yours? Oh, that right, you are not state certified. The only place that would give you ceritfication is the loony bin. Yes. You are certified. A certified WACK JOB. If you are going to comment on people make sure you have your facts straight.

Get a clue.

To "w": Isn't it interesting that I have no problem writing my name but you can only sign yours "w"? What do you have to hide? The teacher we both mentioned above did not have certification or a master's degree when she was hired and 3 other candidates who were passed over did, because her mother was an aide at the school and Kaz. and David Thomas insisted. The facts remain. (Let me guess, could you possibly be her boyfriend/fiance/husband?) The other stuff is just nonsense that was made up about me. Not worth discussing.

To "W": Why is it that I have no problem writing my name and you can only sign yours "W". And do you have a problem reading (in addition to punctuation)? I didn't say she didn't have certification. I said she didn't have certification and a master's degree at the time that she was hired and she was hired over three candidates that did have the proper credentials because her mother was an aide in the school and Kaz. and Dave Thomas insisted. (Could you possibly be her boyfriend/fiance/husband?) As for the other stuff, it's just nonsense that was made up about me. Not worth discussing...You know you really should just sign your name. There's no shame in supporting your girlfriend.

What's up at BAVPA? Is it as rosy as they say? I hear there are lots of discipline problems there that are swept away because of the new facility, no news is good news? Mr K likes to toot his own horn and loves himself and not real comitted to anyone or anything else?

By the way, it was The Godfather he asked K if he saw, not scarface. Nice.

Sorry about the 2 entries. The first wouldn't go through. Then both did. However, while I'm on again, let me say that I could (but I won't)
say get pretty nasty about this young teacher's teaching abilities. There is plenty to say. However, I am only interested in the fact that Kaz. and Dave Thomas broke the No Child Left Behind Law when they did not hire the most qualified teacher for the children at BAVPA. Jamie Moses' recent article about charter schools as union busters was eloquent and thoroughly researched. Let me just add that many parents such as myself choose to send our children to charter schools to get away from such corruption and deceit. Mine spent the first 6 1/2 years of her life in Russia, a country rife with corruption, and I was not about to expose her to such in an educational system.

Dont you have any thing better to do than write blogs and put down people. You have nothing nice to say about anything. You are the pot calling the kettle black. The kids at BAVPA never had respect for you, as you treated them, like second class citizens. You were not teacher of the year or even for the day, so get a grip and a life and move on. Your little rampage is getting old and borning. L Wexler

Ms. Wexler, I am writing to you as one of your former students parents. The only reason that I would not write my name is because I know how vicious you are to children you do not like. I would prefer that my child not have to deal with anything from you in this world. Most people know what you would go through to torture people you do not like.

BAVPA is a wonderful place. I would not have my child go anywhere else in this city.

To "a former student": I am so sorry that you think what I have to say is "borning" but in the Buf. City Schools one can get punished for speaking the truth (besides myself, of course there was Michelle Stiles and Jayvonna Kincannon) so a blog is a great place to express oneself. And to the second "w" your criticism doesn't bother me a bit. Yes, the students who didn't want to be at BAVPA or didn't want to do any work or wanted to act up in class didn't like me because I held them to a high standard but I know I was respected by the kids who were there to work. Why didn't you identify yourself? Was your child perhaps a trouble-maker? Too bad. With time, I was often able to turn those kids around, although it was getting really hard with efforts being sabotaged by nutjobs like Kazmierczak and Czarnecki...the latter having been removed as principal from two high schools.

As a visual art teacher at BAVPA, I can tell you from first hand experience that the dance teacher you are referring to is one of the hardest working teachers in this building. Ms. Wexler may not like the circumstances of her hiring, but I think that Mr. Kazmierzcak and Mr. Thomas made an excellent decision, based on results. I can’t help but wonder how an article about the principal leaving has turned into a personal assault on a teacher by Ms. Wexler. Whatever bad blood may be there does not change the fact that this teacher is dedicated and hard working. She is one of the most dedicated teachers we have.

LW..After all these years you are still envious....your jealous comparison to a present teacher is leaving you resentful and bitter. You definetly have psychological issues...obvious signs of low self esteem, depression,insecurities,hostility, jealousy and anger....with a combination of counseling and medication you can grieve for the job you so desired and were deprived of , get over the past and enjoy your retirement...Kazmierczak and Thomas under the No child left behind did hire the the best qualified...one with No mental illness

To dk - nice post. From what I've heard, pretty accurate about Mr. K's "talents" as a Principal. Best kept secret indeed! Not something to be proud of, the goal of the school should be to be the biggest thing going for kids who have interest in the arts, the place they want to be. I really hope that the powers that be will get an experienced, talented person in there with a PROVEN TRACK RECORD OF SUCCESS. Most of all, someone who cares about the school, it's mission, it's staff and it's students. It's a big job to fill. It has been over 20 years since I was a student at BAVPA. It is heartbreaking to hear the comments from former teachers and students about the direction the administration has taken it and the low morale. This new facility will mean nothing..ZERO..if the inner workings are failing. Brick and mortar is just that. Heal the school from the inside out, not the other way around. For those who are pleased with the way things are now at BAVPA all I can say is: if you think it's good now, you should have seen it in 1980!

Iam a current student at BAVPA and Mr. K has been my principal for 6 years. He has been a pretty decent principal over the years yet he's made some dumb decisions in the past but we're all human and humans make mistakes.Maybe the reason he left was because he was feeling pressured by people such as students,teachers,parents.Plus there has been several controversies.I have been hearing some rumors from fellow students that he gets paid $40,000 more than he did at BAVPA.We weren't told who our new principal is going to be but hopefully he or she will have a passion for what he or she does.I'm still questioning why he pulled his own kids out of the school and i don't blame him for moving to the suburbs because Buffalo isn't the greatest city.

I am a current student at BAVPA, he has been my principal and friend for two years now. He gets on a personal level with the students from what I see anyways. He is just great, he always has a smile on, he goes out of his way to help students including myself. He brought me to concerts a few time and brought me back home. He helped me with music and was just a great guy. And sorry, I don't know the negative side of Mr. K, because not only did he do a good job hiding BAVPA but he hid his personal issues also. Human is to error, people are going to make mistakes. Before I heard all this stuff about him I thought he was the best guy ever. Now maybe there some room for second guessing, but until that he is cool. Good luck to him, and grown people you can sit there and argue about him all day. But, simply he probably don't give two fucks. He is making more money that you, right now he is thinking about them nice checks coming every week. Maybe that new nice car, you guys are stupid...HAHAHAHAHAHA. :P

A note to "L.Wexler":SHUT UP,STOP HATING AND GET A LIFE AND STOP TRYING TO PUT DOWN SOMEONE ELSES YOU OLD WASHED UP RETIRED TEACHER!!

Mr. K was an incompetent man, who lacked the intelligence and knowledge run a school of the arts. He may have been kind, but he didn't know what the hell he was doing. I think that Mr. Brown is doing a far better job of running the school. Although, instead of making the rules more strict, I wish we would just kick out the kids who clearly don't belong there. Start re-auditioning us. Maybe if that happened, the school could be run less like a jail and more like a school where you have to have something special to attend. So students would be proud of going there. I think we really need to make the auditioning process more difficult. Some of the "talent" we have in the school is just dreadful. I hate to say this, but the theatre department was a mess. Only about 75% of kids had even the potential to learn. Discipline was, and continues to be a big problem. Just kick them out. Advertise the school a bit around the city. Get it's reputation up there. This is all our school needs to become an arts school that the city will want, and enjoy. These steps seem obvious to me, but I don't understand what the Administrators of the school are doing. It seems that they're going in the opposite direction of the right way. Creating and heavily enforcing new rules that are ridiculous, and making us feel controlled and feel like we have no freedom. We go to an arts school. Why don't we start acting like it's one?

As a bavpa alumni in the dance department .. I have a few comments to make .. Ms. Wexler was an amazing teacher who was dedicated and did indeed hold her students to a "high standard" as should every teacher in that school. Being at bavpa was a privledge not a right and should be treated as such .. I was in this recently hired alumni's class - and believe me nepatism was in high gear then - as I'm sure it is now..