Hometown News: Business First School Report

A study by "Business First" shows that female Western New York public school students have an edge over their male counterparts. Girls outnumber boys in the ranks of "elite students," with the 100 members of the Business First 2009 All-Western New York Academic Team consisting of 62 girls and 38 boys. New York State testing also showed that girls did better than boys in all 98 Western New York school districts.

That Business First report shows that Amherst's Smallwood Drive School is the region's top-performing elementary school for the third year in a row in the total of Rounding out the top five are South Davis ES of Orchard Park, Maple East ES in Williamsville, Southern Tier Catholic School in Olean and Charlotte Avenue ES of Hamburg. Coming in last was Potters Road School in West Seneca.