Scott Lawniczak Named Principal at Amherst Middle School

The Amherst Central School District has named High School Assistant Principal Scott Lawniczak as the new principal at Amherst Middle School. Lawniczak will begin his new duties on Dec. 5, 2022. He succeeds Dr. John Griesmer who leaves Dec. 2 to assume a new leadership position with Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES.

Lawniczak has been an assistant principal at Amherst Central High School for the past five years and has had a positive impact on academic, behavioral and social-emotional programming at the school. He served as chairperson of the Instructional Leadership Team and oversaw the New York State Seal of Biliteracy and New York State Seal of Civic Readiness programs. He expanded and reimagined summer school programming to help at-risk students re-engage with their education and remain on pace for graduation. He has proactively addressed student discipline issues and worked with students to create a building-wide mental health awareness program. He was a key contributor in creating and developing a building-wide master schedule process and was a lead facilitator in a wide variety of staff and faculty professional development workshops.

Prior to joining Amherst, he spent 10 years with the Batavia City School District. While there, he served as a high school social studies classroom teacher and department chair, per diem assistant principal, instructional coach and K-12 humanities chairperson. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from SUNY Geneseo.

He earned a master's degree in secondary social studies education and certificate of advanced study in educational leadership from Buffalo State College. Over the years, he has served as a coach and advisor to a variety of sports and extracurricular activities including basketball, tennis, football and student government.