Utica Schools To Unite With ‘Big 5′ School Districts

The Utica City School District will be gaining some backing in their efforts to call for more state funding.

Superintendent Bruce Karam and School Board President Chris Salatino say they will join members of the Big 5 school districts in Albany this week to push state legislators for more funding.

Students in Utica and the Big 5 school districts are overwhelmingly poor and struggling to fund more instructional time and resources as they attempt to implement the Common Core standards.

"Utica faces many of the same challenges as the Big 5 School Districts do, and I believe that joining with them will strengthen our message," Karam said. "Utica has a high needs student population, just like some of the State's larger cities have, and the Conference will provide us with some strength in numbers as we discuss funding needs with State legislators."

The Big 5 is comprised of the Buffalo, New York City, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers public schools.