M&T Bank Partnership

For 15 years, M& T Bank has partnered with Westminster Community Charter School, placing an emphasis on reading and writing instruction to bolster academic performance. Students at Westminster also learn about literature through storytellers and drama; history and social studies through music and reenactment; science through theatrical presentations; and the arts through a variety of visual, performing and literary presentations.

Students participate in a variety of arts programming, including African Drum and Dance, chorus, jazz and instrumental band. This year, the Drama Club presented “An Adaption of the Lion King,” with the school band playing the entire score, the choir providing backup vocals and students in art classes producing three-dimensional masks and other set and scenery props.

Among the many programs now underway at Westminster are a daily after-school program, a six-week summer school program, a technology program consisting of five computers per classroom and two 30-computer teaching labs, a mentoring program involving over forty M&T employees, a health services clinic, a comprehensive staff development program facilitated by consultants from Columbia University Teachers College, and a comprehensive fine-arts program.