From Niagara Falls City School District Superintendent Mark Laurrie - June 2025

     We are closing the 2024-2025 school year, marked by numerous successes and significant growth. The offerings we provide our students throughout the school year range from our youngest infants in Early Head Start to the Niagara Falls High School (NFHS) Class of 2025, who will receive their diplomas at the end of the month. The accomplishments and honors the Niagara Falls City School District (NFCSD) collects continue to grow each year. Let’s take a look back at some recent student and district accomplishments.

     On May 29, 2025, the district held an event to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the building of the “new” Niagara Falls High School. The absolute highlight of the evening was the documentary “Blue and Gold, 25 Years of Niagara Falls High School,” which our media production students wrote, produced, and edited. This outstanding documentary aligns seamlessly with anything you would see on PBS and other quality channels. Please take a look at this fantastic work by students; NFHS students are among the most talented in the Western New York area and beyond. The link to the documentary is on the homepage of the district’s website.

Here are some recent highlights of our 2024 – 2025 school year:
• Congratulations to the NFHS Chess Team for a perfect season, with 15 wins and zero losses, and for taking first place in its division and in the Western New York Interscholastic Chess Tournament. The NFHS Chess Team is currently ranked first place in all of Western New York, playing against some very talented teams.
• Congratulations to our NFHS Bands, which swept all the awards as they traveled to Boston to compete in the Music in the Parks Festival. NFHS swept their division in every category (Jazz Ensemble, Concert Band, Parade and Percussion Ensemble), bringing home first place across the board, two best overalls (Jazz Ensemble, Parade), Best Jazz Soloist (Miles Zacher), and the Esprit de Corps, the highest honor presented at the competition that is given to the group that displays pride, fellowship, and citizenship across all aspects of the festival. This fantastic group of student musicians was awarded for their character. Outstanding.
• The NFHS Boys Varsity Baseball team made history this spring by capturing the Section 6 AAA title and qualifying for the Far West Regional playoffs.
• 40 outdoor track athletes qualified to compete in the State Championships. That is a significant number of students with considerable talent. Congratulations to Coach Speidel and his staff.
• Also, in sports, Athletic Director Joe Contento is proud to announce that every single spring sports team qualified as a scholar-athlete team. That means every spring athlete kept up a grade point average of 90% or better.
• The district is honored to announce that 23 students earned the Seal of Biliteracy this year.
• On Thursday, June 5, 2025, 50 LaSalle Prep School students signed on to participate in PTECH, the computer and engineering program. An adult support person accompanied every student.

A quick note to wrap up: The district is aware that students, staff, and parents have many questions and concerns about the smart device (cellphone) ban, and we will keep you fully informed and updated. We received 920 responses to our survey on banning smart devices. The ban takes effect on September 1, 2025. The responses were representative of all stakeholder groups. We are compiling a PowerPoint presentation to share the results soon. Due to the timing of this process, I plan to hold one or two virtual town hall meetings to answer as many questions as possible, provide more information, and obtain feedback. The first event will take place on Tuesday, June 24, at 6:30 p.m. Links and information will be published soon.

Be proud of this school year, and enjoy your vacation! Please stay safe so we can all return in September refreshed, relaxed, and ready for another stellar year.