The school was designed to resemble London’s Buckingham Palace.
The athletic stadium behind the school appeared in the iconic baseball film “The Natural” as a stand-in for Chicago’s Wrigley Field.
Its alumni include basketball legend Bob Lanier, funk artist Rick James, Broadway director-choreographer Michael Bennett and model Beverly Johnson.
But at Lewis J. Bennett High School’s 100th anniversary celebration this weekend, the magisterial confines and famous attendees of one of the city’s oldest active high schools are the glossy cover to a story of grit and perseverance.
It’s a celebration of the people whose “blood, sweat and tears” held it together, even as its population evolved, its existence was jeopardized, its graduation rate oscillated and its stairs began to crumble.
“100 years later, we’re the ones that are holding the legacy, we’re the ones who are marking this anniversary,” said Marilyn Wittman, principal at Bennett High School from 1984 to 2004 and a board member of the school’s alumni association since 2008. “I think it’s historic and a huge privilege.”
The weekend has been packed with activities presented by the alumni association, which President Neil Lange said his group of about 50 alumni has been working on for 18 months. Friday featured a car show, a ribbon-cutting to showcase the new stairs leading up to the school, building tours and inductions into the school’s sports hall of fame.
The Buffalo School Board five years ago decided on a turnaround plan for what was once Buffalo’s pre-eminent high school. And Bennett’s passionate alumni base is working with the school board to make sure Bennett legacy lives
Saturday featured a homecoming parade, pancake breakfast and football game between Bennett and Hutch-Tech, capped by a dinner and dance at the Buffalo Convention Center. Sunday is expected to feature a brunch at LECOM Harborcenter.
Sharon Belton-Cottman, the Ferry District representative of the Buffalo School Board and a key cog in the group that fought for the school’s existence in 2015, raved about the ongoing efforts of Bennett’s alumni, who also maintain an endowment fund, give out scholarships, provide field trips, hold ice cream socials and pizza parties for students, and advocate on the school’s behalf.
Shania Kincannon often thought about dropping out of Lewis J. Bennett School of Innovative Technology. Her surprise pregnancy, classmates’ bullying, three-month absence from school and mental health struggles took a cumulative toll. Realizing her daughter’s future was intertwined with her own, Kincannon persevered.
“They’re a consistent pulse – they connect us to the past as we move forward,” Belton-Cottman said. “They have the spirit of Sankofa,” referring to an African heritage term that means to learn from the past.
More than 500 people are expected to take part throughout the weekend with many traveling from across the country. The scope has been intentionally broad: Alumni donated money to sponsor 25 current students to attend the weekend programming, while pricing for the activities was tiered to meet different income levels, added Lange, who taught special education at Bennett for more than three decades.
“It’s the relationships then and it’s the relationships now, and that’s why I’m so gratified to be here and be in touch with these people,” Wittman said. “This is the pinnacle.”
On the brink
The best way to illustrate the might of the Bennett Alumni Association would be to rewind to 2014, when the high school was declared “out of time” by the state Education Department and was offered to charter schools by a majority of the Buffalo School Board. Several board members at the time intended to transition the building at 2885 Main St. as a new site for Tapestry Charter School.
Then, it didn’t seem like Bennett would reach its centennial celebration. Steps were taken to kick-start a transition despite rallies to stymie the movement.
“They came and measured the rooms to start redoing them,” Wittman recalled.
Belton-Cottman, then in her second term on the board, said she remembers praying about Bennett’s continued existence and, when she opened her eyes, saw on a television members of the U.S. Senate filibustering. She called the district’s general counsel to inquire if that was a tactic the board could use to combat the closure momentum.
The strategy worked: After more than four hours of fighting, the board on Feb. 13, 2015, approved Superintendent Donald Ogilvie’s resolution to restart Bennett and three other embattled schools.
The work was not done, though. An alumni association “redesign team,” including Lange, Wittman, Margaret Lanz Puzio, Nicholas Costantino and John Vella, penned a 187-page plan to restart the school, which would later evolve to focus on computer science and software engineering when Kriner Cash became superintendent.
By 2017, when the reimagined Lewis J. Bennett High School of Innovative Technology opened, 102 freshmen walked in and embarked on a new era. Over the ensuing eight years, the school has grown and shown promise, enrolling 435 students and achieving an 83% graduation rate in 2024-25, as well as winning a state championship in football in 2022.
Present state
A reconstruction project of Bennett High School’s plaza and three tiers of concrete steps has hit repeated snags and remains incomplete. But recent developments approved by the Buffalo School Board indicate Bennett’s stairs and plaza will be completed before the school’s 100th reunion event next year.
Alumni advocacy did not stop upon the reopening, however. A project to redo the concrete steps in the plaza that rises up a hill to Bennett’s front doors took nearly three years and, if not for sustained pressure from Lange and the alumni, might have been a close call for the anniversary celebration.
District officials came through in the end, Lange said: Lake Side Contracting Co. won a rebid on the project and wrapped up work last spring. Lange and a group of current students tended to the landscaping over the summer, weeding and mulching, and district leadership was attentive in the days preceding the party.
“Bennett High School, these champions, are an example of the great things happening in the Buffalo Public Schools,” Mayor Byron Brown said.
“Will Keresztes gets 100 gold stars from me,” Lange said, applauding the district’s chief of administration who helped orchestrate painters, window washers and electricians for cosmetic work.
While it might lack the luster the school’s oldest graduates might remember – when a historian said there “was no more eloquent architectural statement of the dignity of education anywhere in town” – the century-old school was ready to welcome scores of alumni.
“For me, there’s always something magical about the school and having people come back,” Lange said.
Optima futura
Cecelia B. Henderson, a former member of Bennett’s faculty and currently on the alumni board, described an activity about 150 alumni will participate in at Sunday’s brunch.
With Bob Lanier, Gregory Brown does not think first of college heartache or the NBA. What he remembers is the jubilant Bennett celebration in 1966, when the Tigers knocked off Emerson to repeat as champions.
On a sheet of paper, alumni will write a message and insert it into a time capsule. There’s no specific prompt for the alumni to follow: The sheet can contain a message of encouragement to future students, a nostalgic memory of their years at the school or something remarkable about Bennett pride.
The capsule will not be opened until 2050, the school’s 125th anniversary, Henderson said.
In other words, a 100-year celebration is not the end to the school’s rich history. The school’s Latin motto – optima futura – means “the best is yet to come,” after all.
The closing activity fits a larger purpose that Wittman defines: that Bennett’s community can continue to give students a wealth of opportunities and a sense of belonging she says is challenging for today’s youth.
“We’re trying to instill into our students now: Once you’re a part of this Bennett family,” she said, “you’re always a part of this Bennett family.”
Ben Tsujimoto can be reached at btsujimoto@buffnews.com, at (716) 849-6927 or on Twitter at @Tsuj10.
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