Bernie Tolbert

Bernie Tolbert

Democratic Party

Education

High school

Lafayette High School

Bachelor's

State University of New York, Buffalo

Graduate

State University of New York, Buffalo

Personal

Profession

Security executive

Contact

Personal website

Bernie Tolbert was a candidate for an at-large seat on the Buffalo school board in New York. He lost the general election on May 6, 2014 to incumbent Barbara Seals Nevergold and challengers Larry Quinn and Patricia B. Pierce. Tolbert also ran unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate in the Buffalo mayoral election in 2013.

Biography

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Bernie Tolbert is a resident of Buffalo, New York. Tolbert graduated from Lafayette High School in the Buffalo school district before earning his bachelor's degree in 1971 and his master's degree in social work in 1973. During the 1973-1974 school year, Tolbert taught algebra and a special education class at Bennett High School in Buffalo. He began a career spanning two decades with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1980 as a special agent. He served in a variety of fields, including offices in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Tolbert retired from the FBI as the supervisor of the Buffalo division.

Following his public service, he served in security management positions for both the Coca-Cola Company and HSBC Bank. From 2002 until his retirement in 2012, Tolbert served as the vice president of security for the National Basketball Association. He is a trustee of the Statler Foundation and serves on the boards of the National Federation for Just Communities, the Wisteria Initiative and the Willie Hutch Jones Educational and Sports Program.

Elections

2014

See also: Buffalo Public Schools elections (2014)

Bernie Tolbert lost to incumbent Barbara Seals Nevergold and newcomers Larry Quinn and Patricia B. Pierce for the three at-large seats in the general election on May 6, 2014. Candidates Bryon J. McIntyre and Daniel Rockwitz Reynolds were removed from the ballot after they did not meet the petition signature requirements.

Results

Buffalo Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 5-year term, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Larry Quinn	16.1%	8,806
	Nonpartisan	Patricia B. Pierce	14.7%	8,061
	Nonpartisan	Barbara Seals Nevergold Incumbent	13.6%	7,449
	Nonpartisan	Bernie Tolbert	11.5%	6,298
	Nonpartisan	John Licata Incumbent	9%	4,930
	Nonpartisan	Samuel P. Davis	7.9%	4,334
	Nonpartisan	Sergio Rodriguez	6.3%	3,447
	Nonpartisan	Gizelle Stokes	5.6%	3,059
	Nonpartisan	Ralph R. Hernandez	5%	2,733
	Nonpartisan	Wendy Mistretta	4.4%	2,414
	Nonpartisan	Stephon Wright	2.3%	1,242
	Nonpartisan	Adrian Harris	1.9%	1,066
	Nonpartisan	Stephen Buccilli	1.7%	936
Total Votes				54,775
Source: Erie County, NY - Board of Elections, "Election Results Archive," accessed June 11, 2014

Funding

Tolbert reported no contributions or expenditures to the Erie County Board of Elections. School board candidates in New York were not required to report their campaign contributions or expenditures if they did not exceed $500.00.

Endorsements

Tolbert received endorsements from the Unity Coalition and board members Theresa Harris-Tigg, Mary Ruth Kapsiak and James Sampson. He also received endorsements from New York State Assemblyman Michael Kearns and New York State Senator Patrick Gallivan.

2013

Buffalo Mayor, Democratic Primary Election, 4-year term, 2013
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Byron W. Brown Incumbent	68.5%	15,487
	Democratic	Bernie Tolbert	31.5%	7,110
Total Votes				22,597
Source: Erie County, NY - Board of Elections, "Election Results Archive," accessed April 7, 2014

Campaign themes

2014

In response to a survey published by The Buffalo News, Tolbert answered several questions outlining his campaign themes, preferred education reforms and priorities.

“	Cite an example of a school program (here or elsewhere) that you think should be replicated in Buffalo: Replication should be rooted in assessment of Buffalo Public Schools' or other best practices. Effective teacher development/supports, talent management, and programs that translate to student outcomes should be a priority. In Denver A+ Game Changers recognizes educators and leaders who make contributions to improving schools. Chicago has an "in school court" where peers and staff implement restorative justice; it reduced suspensions by 36 percent. Describe two or three specific actions the district should take to help close the projected $50 million deficit for 2014-15: BoE should critically examine non- instructional related expenses; only $.45 per dollar spent reaches the classroom. The Buffalo Public Schools' approx. 2,000 extra seats is underutilization leading to unreimbursed expenses; aggressive consolidation to maximize utilization needs to be considered. Central office reorganization has not produced savings and administrative overhead must be cut. SAY YES offered a financial work out process that includes a highly qualified consultant, focus meetings with all stakeholders, and in-depth remedies that would help eliminate deficits. BoE needs to accept this no cost offer. List the three most important things you want to accomplish if you are elected: I'd move immediate action to revise BOE activities and policies to improve Governance, and perform the BoE self-evaluation they are obligated to but have yet to accomplish. I'd focus the BoE on student achievement by policy and procedure to ensure progress monitors and deliberation. I'd advance BoE efforts for direct two-way communication with families that is more than"telling" parents how to help with homework or when events are scheduled. I'd support policy and action that adds teacher support, work collaboratively to improve training, and realign district-wide schedules to add time in the school day for planning. I'd also refocus BoE policy to improve school leadership so teachers are better equipped to educate students. Evaluate Pamela Brown's performance as superintendent: Dr. Brown's strengths include the development of the strategic plan and a reorganization to begin to move forward. Weaknesses include unfamiliarity with the Buffalo Public Schools, the pace of change and ineffective communication with parents and the BoE, leading to a lack of support of the plan and confidence in her leadership. Currently, I don't have access to the information regarding her decisions/actions in order to fully evaluate her performance. If elected, I'd act with urgency and without reservation to become informed and make a decision that restores public confidence in the BoE and district leadership and that is in the best interest of children and parents, no matter how drastic the measure.	”
—The Buffalo News survey (2014)

Tolbert published a list of his priorities on his campaign website:

“	Achievement Gap Even though we are making some progress with school performance, minority, low-income, English Language Learners and students with disabilities are being left behind in large numbers. Buffalo needs policies that support the expectation that all students can attain high levels of achievement. We need to support programs with increased academic rigor including: more opportunities for early college credit and honors classes at every stage of schooling; second language instruction for all students; and intensive tutoring for all students who need it. Pre-Kindergarten Children have the best opportunity for success in school when they start with a quality education at an early age. We need to leverage new state funding to create high-quality, full-day pre-kindergarten to all of Buffalo’s children. We must provide our children with early childhood education programs that promote cognitive development, critical thinking and social and emotional skills so they are on a track and ready to excel in kindergarten. We only have one chance to provide our children with the tools that will help them succeed for the rest of their lives and far too many children begin kindergarten already behind. Access to Technology We often have goals of increasing students’ access to education through technology, but right now we have a unique opportunity to do things like put tablets in the hands of children for summer reading and expand broadband capability in underserved neighborhoods. It is the responsibility of the Buffalo Public Schools and the board to realize our city-wide technology in education goals by pursuing funds from the Governor’s technology in education bond initiative unveiled in the 2014 State of the State address. School Choice The quality of schools in Buffalo has become mixed, some are performing well some are not. It is up to the Board to ensure that our school portfolio has high quality options for all children and it is our responsibility to provide high quality school alternatives when parents and students are demanding better options and our current school portfolio cannot accommodate them. It may take time for us to raise the bar and increase performance of all schools in Buffalo, but while we do that we cannot afford to let students pay the price with their futures. Supporting Effective Educators We must work with teachers to provide the support they deserve, improve training, carve out more time in the school day for planning and collaboration, enhance the status of the profession and provide financial rewards for effective teaching. We must also establish a leadership pipeline to recruit the very best principals to lead our schools so that teachers are supported and enabled to educate children effectively. Family Engagement Open, honest and continuous communication with parents is not just a school’s responsibility. We need to support policies and implement district-wide activities to give parents feedback on how their children are performing and how they can help their children succeed in school. Parent involvement in Buffalo Schools is on the rise; we should seek to strengthen our partnership with parents by soliciting and using feedback from parents about how we can be better educators and become better schools. School Governance At the school level: The School Board must de-centralize decision making so that our schools can tailor their programs to the unique needs of their students. We will support first-rate neighborhood schools and increased school-based decision-making on budgeting, scheduling, staffing, class size, testing, and curriculum. At the administrative level: The School Board must set clear, transparent objectives for improving student achievement and district operations. As the governing body of the district, the School Board is responsible for setting district policies and evaluating the superintendent. The public should be aware of the expectations the board sets for the superintendent, and there should be a transparent process to evaluate progress. Transparency The Buffalo School Board should be a statewide leader in transparency and accountability by reporting the following data: The actual school budget, including a one page summary showing the amount of money that goes directly to the classroom and the largest cost drivers in the district. The local community is currently unable to access this data, and it is likely that the average community member would not be able to understand it. Daily student and teacher attendance, by classroom. By changing the way schools and districts report attendance, we will be able to identify the high-risk students in order to develop an improvement plan, and ultimately improve student achievement and graduation rates.	”
—Bernie Tolbert's campaign website (2014)

Demographics

Buffalo underperformed in comparison to the rest of New York in terms of higher education achievement in 2012. The United States Census Bureau found that 23.4 percent of Buffalo residents aged 25 years and older had attained a bachelor's degree compared to 32.8 percent for New York as a whole. The median household income in Buffalo was $30,502 compared to $57,683 for the state of New York. The poverty rate in Buffalo was 30.1 percent compared to 14.9 percent for the entire state.

Racial Demographics, 2010
Race	Buffalo (%)	New York (%)
White	50.4	65.7
Black or African American	38.6	15.9
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.8	0.6
Asian	3.2	7.3
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	0.0	0.0
Two or More Races	3.1	3.0
Hispanic or Latino	10.5	17.6

2013 Party Affiliation, Erie County
Party	Registered Voters	% of Total
Democratic	301,873	49.49
Republican	157,704	25.86
Independent	28,996	4.75
Constitution	13,067	2.14
Working Families	3,175	0.52
Green	1,488	0.24
Other	365	0.07
Unaffiliated	103,240	16.93

Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Bernie + Tolbert + Buffalo + Public + Schools"

Bernie Tolbert News Feed

See also

• Buffalo Public Schools, New York
• Buffalo Public Schools elections (2014)

External links

Suggest a link

• Buffalo Public Schools
• Campaign website

Additional reading

• The Buffalo News, "Used to tough decisions, Tolbert takes his time on Brown," April 29, 2014
• Buffalo Rising, "Bernie Tolbert: “I see a real lack of good governance”," March 21, 2014