A team of scientists at the University of Rochester, led by Dr. Harris Gelbard and Stephen Dewhurst, UR vice dean of research, may have developed the first drug to improve memory and cognitive ability in patients with certain types of illnesses. And a new company, Camber NeuroTherapeutics, has been founded to usher the drug called […]
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.
RTS and RCSD reach summer busing agreement
The Rochester City School District and the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority have reached a deal to provide bus service for summer school students. The details are still being worked out. In a letter to Bill Carpenter, CEO of RTS, schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas said that he will seek an additional $350,000 in state aid to […]
UR takeover of East nears
In a little over a month, the University of Rochester will be handed the keys, so to speak, to East High School. The State Education Department approved the UR-East deal last year in an attempt to turn around one of the state’s lowest performing schools. There are few delusions about East. The school — with […]
Genesee in unchartered territory
The Genesee Community Charter School faces a serious challenge to its charter renewal because its enrollment, as almost anyone familiar with the school knows, doesn’t reflect the city’s student population.
Vargas says he’s ‘100-percent committed’ to the RCSD
There was a small crack in the Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargasโs silence last week concerning his notice of claim against the city school board. Vargas wouldnโt say whether he intends to proceed with the litigation, but he did speculate about his future with the district. Vargas talked about his job performance, starting with a […]
Revised law empowers school supers
A revision to the state education law concerning failing schools could give Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas substantially more authority at a time when he’s at serious odds with the school board over management. Though it’s still unclear, the law appears to give Vargas the ability to make sweeping decisions to improve failing schools, including […]
Conservative questions trickle-down economics
Either it was a slip of the tongue, or some conservatives finally get what progressives and many urban community leaders have said for years: Reaganomics or trickle-down economics doesn’t work. Despite the rhetoric, it doesn’t โlift all boats.โ (Don’t ask what happens if you can’t afford a boat.) Michael Steele, Maryland’s former Republican lieutenant governor […]
The super-commuters
Chris McGoldrick often leaves work on Friday afternoons, but it’s not until the early hours of Saturday morning that he pulls his white Subaru Outback into his driveway. Aside from the flickering glow of a neighbor’s television, there are few signs of life. It takes about six-and-a-half hours for McGoldrick to drive the nearly 400 […]
[UPDATED] RTS says no more city student busing
RCSD says it will give students daily bus passes and they will ride buses like every other user.
Talks may decide Vargas’s future
It’s unclear whether Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas and the school board will recover from a dispute over the superintendent’s powers, or if Vargas will even fulfill his contract with the school district.
Education in crisis: it has come down to naming teachers
Rachel Larson, a parent of a student at School No. 12, made a strong appeal to Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas yesterday. Larson’s son opted out of state-mandated tests under way this week, and Larson asked Vargas to stand up to the State Education Department by not giving the controversial tests. โI want you to […]
The prison-to-pension pipeline
The correlation between low student achievement, failing schools, and youth incarceration is clear, especially for black and Latino males in urban public schools. “The school-to-prison pipeline is not some abstraction,” says education activist Howard Eagle. “It’s not something people are making up. The link is direct.” Eagle, a retired teacher for the Rochester City School […]






