He’s back, sort of. It’s been a few years since former city schools superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard left Rochester rather abruptly to become Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel’s schools chief — though he didn’t last long there, either. 

It’s no secret that some Rochester board members, teachers, and union leaders were 

Credit: FILE PHOTO

happy to see Brizard go. Others, even some of his strongest supporters, were dismayed by how he essentially dismantled the district and then left before putting it back together.

And you almost felt sorry for the guy when reports of clashes between Brizard and Chicago’s teachers began to surface, not to mention the break up with Emanuel.

But absence does soften the heart; many of Brizard’s sharpest critics in Rochester speak kindly of him today. So maybe it’s not surprising that Brizard is listed as a member of the founding design team for Vertus Charter School in its application to the New York State Education Department.

Brizard was always pretty clear about his support for charters.

Vertus is expected to open in Rochester as a high school for boys sometime in 2014. The school’s founder is Perry White, who founded Citizens Academy Charter School in Cleveland, Ohio. Retired General John Batiste, president and CEO of Klein Steel, is a board member.

Welcome back, JC.

This article appears in Oct 16-22, 2013.

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,...

5 replies on “Brizard returns, kind of”

  1. Tim, I’d like to know who among Brizard’s sharpest critics speak kindly of him today. Anyone who works (or worked) at RCSD remembers him as a ruthless dictator who did incalculable damage to the system. Take a look at the data before he arrived. Now take a look at the data after he arrived. Never (to date) in the District’s history has one person done so much damage in so short a time; those are the facts of the case, for anyone who actually cares to examine them.

    By the way, and as but one very small point on this rogue regime, did “the kids” whom he spoke of so frequently, really need his monthly car allowance to go from $500 per month to $800 (he wanted $1,000 per month)? I guess the kids needed him to drive something nicer than the $51,000 Acura MDX that RCSD leased for him.

  2. This isn’t surprising. He goes from district to district, decimating the public schools so he and his buddies can grow charters to skim money and get big money contracts. This was the logical progression (and probably his plan from the beginning).

  3. Mr. Brizard’s return to the spotlight is as the new Senior Advisor to the President at the College Board, hired by David Coleman, the prime developer and cheerleader for the Common Core State Standards gold rush. Coleman is President and CEO of that company and will lead its efforts in developing Common Core aligned assessments.

  4. “Many of Brizard’s sharpest critics in Rochester speak kindly of him today.”

    Which critics? Present some evidence for this. Because I’m pretty sure you’re just making this up.

Comments are closed.