Earlier today we posted a story about the Rochester City School District and the professional evaluations of its high school principals. In that story, we reported that central office administrators consciously documented false information. That is an inaccurate statement, and we apologize.
Regarding the rest of the story: there is a disagreement between the leadership of the Association of Supervisors and Administrators of Rochester — the union that represents principals — and Superintendent Bolgen Vargas and central office administrators over whether the principals were properly evaluated according to the terms of the Annual Professional Performance Review.
We’ll continue researching the story, reporting updates as warranted.
This article appears in Nov 5-11, 2014.
Your retraction is entirely inadequate. How did this statement get included? Was it a mistaken interpretation of a document or a deliberate lie on the writer’s part? You owe your readers a full airing.
I have to agree with Mochael on this, your statement “That is an inaccurate statement, and we apologize.” is not supported by any evidence at all. The original story which seems to have been removed, by my memory reported the testimony of an official that stated very clearly that the principals were not required to participate in this evaluation, and yet they were given full credit; you now state that this was innacutate. Perhaps, but you now have to support that claim with some evidence, which you do not.
So was this testimony falsified? If it was not falsified then it would seem to be true and this retraction would seem to be the falsity. That in itself would seem to be a serious thing, deserving of some attention – and a detailed write up. Where is the investigation and reporting on this fact, if it is indeed a fact.
Back up what you are saying here fully, or it seems we have to assume the original story was in fact true, and your credibility is shredded.
Quite a position you seem to have put yourselves into, huh?
Given what a complete mess the RCSD is I feel your paper has been very fair and consistent in your reporting, maybe too forgiving. If there was an error it should be cleared up but there was some substance to this story that should be flushed out. The D and C recently a story that the district made a 5 million dollar screw up regarding special education costs. Five million dollars! This was just one of many apparent large-scale blunders but the public rarely hears more about who was to blame. It ends up fading away and that is a shame for everyone especially the kids and their teachers.
Someone needs to hold leaders accountable.