School year starts right in Niagara Wheatfield

By Benjamin Joe

The 2025-26 school year began Tuesday in the Niagara Wheatfield Central School District. Superintendent Daniel Ljiljanich said busses were all on time and the day went smoothly.

Ljiljanich said, “We’re really excited about the professional learning communities that we’ve established. Our teachers work together with other teaching leaders and some of our administrative leaders to look at data to improve student performance. …

“Literacy rates, math scores. We started the professional learning communities last year and saw some progress, we believe, as a result. We’re looking forward to another year with these professional learning communities.”

One of the hurdles the district faced was a gap in learning due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Ljiljanich said he is happy to report the gap seems to have been bridged, and elementary school students most affected by the COVID years have recovered.

He credited this to the efforts of hard-working primary education teachers. Ljiljanich said there is no alternative better than learning in the traditional schooling of a regular classroom.

“I think that we did a lot of really good work with the federal funds to help fill that gap that was created by COVID,” he said. “There’s always room for improvement. We saw some nice growth in some of the grade levels we were most concerned with.”

He added, “First and foremost, when it comes to instruction, is having really strong primary teachers. A strong level of teaching is critical for student performance. So, the classroom teacher is really important to their success. When we need to pull students out for extra support, we’ve been able to do that, but the best place for a student to learn is in the classroom with their peers.”

Ljiljanich also noted the athletic program is doing well. Last year, it won the Sportsmanship Award from the Niagara Frontier League due to its players’ civil behavior.

In terms of capital projects, Ljiljanich said the high school auditorium should be completed by March 2026. Other projects, roofing and HVAC systems, will be worked on into next summer.

Finally, Ljiljanich said approximately 140 students registered in the pre-K program this year, 20 more than the district has ever had.

“We have really pushed our pre-K program, because what we’ve seen is the students who are in our pre-K program are outperforming students who don’t go into our pre-K program or other pre-K programs,” Ljiljanich said.

All in all, Ljiljanich exclaimed, “I think we’re going to have an outstanding year.”