OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Dunkirk City School District Superintendent Brian Swatland points to a bar graph that shows improving math test results in the district’s grades three to eight.

“We’ve got a lot of exciting things going on around the district I’m not sure people are aware of,” Dunkirk City School District Superintendent Brian Swatland said this week to start an interview.

Swatland, who just started his job in July, met with the OBSERVER in an introductory interview. He initially sought to emphasize improving standardized test scores in grades three to eight.

“We saw growth in this district we never saw before this year, in terms of proficiency,” he said, unleashing an array of statistics to back up his assertion.

For example, DCSD scores in eighth grade math went up 21% for 2024, so that 44% of the class was deemed proficient. That’s the state average among eighth-grade math classes. Four years ago, Dunkirk’s proficiency rate was just 6%.

“Every grade band in our three to eight math testing last year showed considerable growth,” Swatland said, showing a bar graph to back up his point.

Dunkirk’s eighth-graders now surpass the state average in science proficiency, according to Swatland’s statistics. Some 50% of eighth-graders in the city schools achieve the designation, compared to 47% across the state.

English-Language Arts proficiency as ranked by state testing is also on the rise for most of grades 3-8.

Swatland called it “remarkable growth,” especially in math, and lamented that “I don’t think enough people see this.”

“What’s important for this year is our starting point is a lot higher,” Swatland continued. “We need to make sure our instruction meets that.” That means higher standards for teachers and administrators, he said.

He pointed to Rebecca Leone, the district’s former curriculum director and secondary school principal, who has a new title: executive director of academic programs and data. “She has put in a lot of work on this in helping to prepare teachers and students,” Swatland said. She’s covered instruction techniques, academic programs, and the content of what is taught, he said.

Swatland talked up some more new administrators. Corey Markham, former secondary school principal at Westfield, now has the job in Dunkirk. Kyle Jarrell, the girls varsity volleyball coach, is the new athletics director.

“He is a student magnet, kids really like him,” Swatland said of Jarrell. “He’s starting to put his own spin on the program.”

Andrea Guenther, who has taught in city schools for 26 years, is now an assistant principal of instruction. Adam Hernandez has returned to the secondary school as another assistant principal.

“It’s a new team, but not a green team,” Swatland said.

Swatland also discussed district property. “We kind of reopened School 4 to a point,” he said. The school now hosts two special education UPK classes and a hybrid class with general and special education students taught together. A state grant helped the district fund the reopening, Swatland said.

“We just started digging at the capital project. We are at phase 1.1,” Swatland continued. The first phase will include construction of new spaces for a secondary school office and for school counselors.

Swatland said DCSD is trying to partner with Chautauqua County for a school based health center in the area to be vacated when the office and the counselors move. He envisions “two doctors and a dentist in our building,” but acknowledged it’s “a couple years away” from happening.

“A lot of the work going on now is strengthening our internal system, strengthening our responses,” Swatland said. He has started a cabinet that meets every week.

“It’s critical to have a group of people working on one purpose and one cause,” said Swatland, in a nod to his “One Dunkirk” logo campaign for the district.

The superintendent, formerly the Dunkirk district’s director of secondary education, said he has had “a lot of support in this transition and I want to make sure we keep doing these things.”

Swatland said he wants to build relationships with all staff, not just administrators. “Every adult in this district plays a role in a child’s success and graduation,” he said. He added that at a district employee meeting to begin the school year, he went through every title and explained how they affect kids.

“We want to make sure they’re ready and developed,” Swatland concluded of the student body.