You now have until September 19 to comment on a proposed new Code of Conduct policy for city schools. The deadline, which was originally set for the end of August, has been extended because the response from parents has been poor. The Rochester Community Task Force on School Climate released a draft of the new […]
Tim Louis Macaluso
I was born and raised in the Rochester area, but I lived in California and Florida before returning home about 12 years ago. I'm a vegetarian and live with my husband and our three pugs. I cover education, health care, and local politics for City.
Posted inNews & Opinion
No decision yet on Aldi
The city’s Zoning Board of Appeals didn’t make a decision at a meeting earlier today regarding controversial plans for an Aldi grocery store on the corner of Blossom and Winton Roads. Aldi submitted revised plans last month in an effort to address numerous concerns about the project. But the revisions failed to persuade many residents […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Attack rallies trans community
Nicole Clark, a 19-year-old transgender woman, was attacked last month on Monroe Avenue near Goodman Street. Clark, who was with her mother at the time, says she was punched several times and knocked to the ground, where the attack continued, according to a police report. Police later charged Dyshieka McFadden with harassment in relation to […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Envisioning a “one-stop shop” for vets
US Air Force vet Shannon Barradas spent a recent afternoon painting the intricate details of a mixed-media piece she calls, “Rebirth.” Barradas, who served in Operation Desert Storm, has been going to art therapy at the Veterans Outreach Center on South Avenue for about a year, and is preparing her own art show. “I’ve been […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The photonics fight: it’s about leadership, not buildings
SUNY Polytechnic should have known better than to pick a fight over the photonics institute. Companies and researchers in the Rochester region helped carve out the multi-disciplinary, high-tech field, and they’ve remained at the top of it. Local leaders have been fiercely protective of the industry, and they weren’t about to let someone from outside […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The end of AIDS in NYS
The next time you see your primary care physician, don’t be surprised if you’re asked when you were last tested for HIV infection. HIV testing, particularly for those between the ages of 13 to 64 in New York State, is on its way to being as routine and regular as checking for high blood pressure. […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Center for Youth expands west
The Center for Youth is expanding into the Buffalo area to provide social-emotional support programs to the Kenmore-Tonawanda School District, says Elaine Spaull, the agency’s executive director. “The Kenmore-Tonawanda School District, which is comprised of many excellent administrators and teachers, found they needed some triaging and some alternative support for their middle-school youth,” she says. […]
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Burst of school improvement planning
It seems like K-12 education is all about plans. There are lesson plans, plans for School Improvement Grants, plans for School Innovation Grants. There are plans for plans. All this week, the Rochester school district is holding public hearings focused on improving its lowest-performing schools. The meetings are required under the new receivership law, and […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Does a new state education law undermine school boards?
The Rochester school board is grappling with a new state education law involving receivership for failing and persistently failing schools. According to the Regents’ EngageNY website, the intent of receivership is to address the barriers that have prevented some school leaders from turning around failing schools. The barriers include: governance, school leadership, teachers, union contracts, and […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Sea change in student discipline
Christiana Otuwa spent much of the last school year scrutinizing every potential suspension in the Rochester City School District. Otuwa, who is deputy superintendent of city schools, makes the final decision on whether a student should be suspended. She asks: Does the punishment fit the wrongdoing? Has the student received support services? Is it the […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The mortgage drought
Despite the economic recovery, African Americans and Latinos continue to lack equal access to homeownership in Rochester and Monroe County, says a new report from the Empire Justice Center, “The River Runs Dry II: The Persistent Mortgage Drought in Rochester’s Communities of Color.” An analysis of local lending practices from 2010 through 2013 showed that […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
A life’s work, but still not enough
Mention James Lawrence, the former longtime editor of the Democrat and Chronicle’s opinion page, and you’ll likely get a wide range of reactions. Lawrence, who retired from the D&C six months ago, became something of an iconic media figure in Rochester. Almost every high-level city, county, school district, and community leader in the area met […]
