Rochester’s schools are one of the region’s most critical challenges. This city cannot reinvent itself until its students are graduating with the education they need and deserve.
Improvements can’t come solely from the schools themselves; the city’s extraordinarily high poverty concentration has affected children and their families in ways that the entire community must address. But unquestionably, there are serious shortcomings in the school district itself.
There are signs that the district is trying to tackle some of its worst problems. The graduation rate is still abysmally low, but it has begun to inch upward. The district is trying new approaches to develop a safe and healthy culture in schools. It’s about to undergo a nearly $30 million technology upgrade.
It’s preparing to enter the third year of its unique partnership with the University of Rochester to operate East High School, and in May, the school board approved a partnership with SUNY Geneseo for School 19.
The district’s new superintendent, Barbara Deane-Williams, has been on the job for about a year. And by most accounts, Deane-Williams and the board are working well together.
But progress has been painfully slow, and it can be tempting to call for a revolution, to throw out everyone – teachers, principals, school board members – and start over with new people. But that isn’t likely to improve student achievement in city schools. The district’s low performance developed over a period of decades, and it will take time to repair it and restore the public’s trust.
While new blood and new energy are important in any elected body, one current member began her service last year, and another has served just over one term. It takes months, even years, for new board members to grasp all of the state and federal rules and regulation affecting public schools, much less the problems with each individual school.
A current board member, Jose Cruz, is not seeking re-election, and the board could also lose former board president Malik Evans, who is running for City Council. So the board will have its share of new blood, regardless of who is elected.
In addition, given Rochester’s turnover in school superintendents, stability on the board is an attribute.
This year, voters will elect three of the seven members of the school board, and in the September 12 Democratic Primary, six candidates are vying for those seats. On the ballot will be incumbents Van White and Cynthia Elliott and newcomers Beatriz LeBron, Natalie Sheppard, Cecilia Griffin Golden, and Sabrina LaMar.
We’re endorsing Cynthia Elliott, Beatriz LeBron, and Van White.
The endorsed candidates
Cynthia Elliott – whom we’re endorsing for the first time – has at times been a harsh critic of the district, its teachers, and its leadership. And her blunt, direct style of communicating with others has often gotten in the way of valid ideas that she’s tried to present.
A three-term board member and current board vice president, Elliott is assistant to the director of Baden Street Settlement and has spent much of her adult life working with Rochester’s poorest residents. In the past, we’ve felt that her bluntness prevented her from providing the public service that she clearly wants to provide. But she seems to have softened that approach, without in the least weakening her commitment to Rochester’s children. And she is a powerful, eloquent advocate, willing to speak truths that the larger community needs to hear.
In a recent interview, Elliott talked at length about her concerns with the district’s largely white, female teaching staff. Though many are hard-working and caring, she said, some are afraid of their students and can’t build relationships with them. And many of the district’s teachers simply don’t understand the culture of the students they’re working with or the life experiences they bring into the classroom, she said.
We disagree with Elliott slightly (and less than she might think) on the importance of poverty as a barrier to student achievement. And we agree with her that the district needs to have the resources and provide the training to help teachers help students achieve despite the impact that poverty has on them. We also agree that student poverty is sometimes used as an excuse, leading to lowered expectations of black and Latino children, she said.
While there are certainly pockets of success throughout the district, Elliott says, the district has had trouble expanding that success to all of its schools due to a breakdown in management, systems, and efficiencies.
We’re endorsing Elliott partly because she has evolved into a much more effective team player. But most important, in her work as assistant to the executive director at Baden Street Settlement, she sees and serves some of the same families that the district serves. Her unique perspective lets her speak out on behalf of parents in the community who too often feel they are not being heard.
Beatriz LeBron is a community care coordinator with Rochester Regional Health, where she connects her patients with the kinds of medical services they need. Her children have attended city schools, and she has been a substitute teacher in the city school district.
LeBron knows first-hand what it’s like to be a single, working mother, who also put herself through college. She says she understands from personal experience what many city children face in their homes and in their neighborhoods, as well as the struggles their parents have trying to care for them.
LeBron also knows how many of those challenges find their way into the classroom. If she is elected, she says, she would push for more classroom support for teachers. But she also believes that teachers, principals, and school administrators need to spend more time in their students’ homes and neighborhoods. Expecting to build relationships and engage families from a school building isn’t realistic, she says.
The district has many students with learning problems and social-emotional needs, and LeBron says she worries that the many high performing students aren’t getting the attention they need.
“Higher performing children are just lumped in and not given that extra stimulation and challenge they should be receiving,” LeBron says.
LeBron is sharp and engaging, and she would bring fresh, new ideas to the board. In addition, with Jose Cruz retiring, LeBron would be the sole Latinx member on the board. In this diverse city, that representation is crucial.
Van White, who is currently school board president, is completing his third term on the board. He is also a civil rights attorney and a long-time Democrat, and for many years, he was a regular guest on a popular talk show on WDKX radio, fielding callers’ questions about current concerns.
White has had some challenges on the board, and he certainly has his critics. A tense relationship with former Superintendent Bolgen Vargas became quite public, and White’s critics have accused him of wanting to micromanage the superintendent.
But White has shown that he’s an independent thinker and a strong leader. He has worked hard and persistently on a wide range of issues, particularly on improving graduation rates. One of his most important strengths is a rare ability to relate to a wide range of people in various situations.
He’s also innovative. He proposed creating a School of the Arts on the west side of the city, as well as a military-style school. And although neither came to fruition, he was instrumental in forging the partnership between the University of Rochester and the district to manage East High School. And he pushed for the new partnership with SUNY Geneseo for School 19. White’s goal, he says, is to give students and parents better choices in schools and entice them to stay in the district.
The other candidates
Cecilia Griffin Golden has 20 years of educational experience, much of it with the Rochester school district as a reading teacher, vice principal, and a senior level administrator. She is currently the director of education with Hillside Family of Agencies, where she works with school leaders and community-based organizations. She is deeply familiar with the district and its challenges.
Natalie Sheppard also works at Hillside, as a foster-care coordinator. She speaks with sensitivity and compassion about her work at building positive relationships between foster parents and children, and she thinks there is a shortage of social workers in city schools. But she also says that management in city schools, as it relates to social work, is inconsistent compared to the suburban schools that she visits.
Golden and Sheppard both have impressive experience, and we wouldn’t be concerned if they were elected to the board. But we believe that White, Elliott, and LeBron are stronger candidates.
Sabrina LaMar, the sixth candidate, did not respond to our requests to meet with her and did not provide information about her candidacy.
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This article appears in Aug 16-22, 2017.
This article is filled with blatant contradictions, and is in fact, thoroughly ludicrous in so many ways. Let us count just some of them:
“The graduation rate has begun to inch upward.” WHAT??? Anyone who is really paying attention, and/or honest, knows that the so-called “graduation rate” in the RCSD has hovered around 50% (give or take a few percentage points) for decades — with the exception of years in which “standards” were raised by the state, and rates dipped even more than usual (such as the year when Van White was first elected — when the rate dropped to about 39% — due to newly imposed “standards” ). And we know that, when we take a close look at the REAL graduation rate, i.e., the number of “graduates” who are actually competent relative to ALL that the state stipulates they should know and be able to do before they are handed a diploma — it dips way below the numbers that are actually reported. This is NOT speculation, nor conjecture. It is a known FACT: https://vimeo.com/51726420
“The district is trying new approaches to develop a safe and healthy culture in schools.” REALLY — what are they (specifically)???
I am sicker-and-tireder-of-being-sicker-and-tireder than Mother Fannie Lou Hamer was of hearing this s^*t (make-you-want-to-curse) — “The district’s low performance developed over a period of decades, and it will take time to repair it and restore the public’s trust.” There is NO MORE TIME. I’d be willing to bet you a dollar-to-a-doughnut that white, super-liberals wouldn’t be spewing this foolishness and super-hyper-rhetoric if their children’s education was at stake.
“…stability on the board is an attribute.” WHAT??? You got a person on the Board who has been there for nearly, if not 20 years, and two others for well over 10 years respectively; — “stability” — WHAT??? Get the (make-you-want-to-curse) out of here.
“Cynthia Elliott is a powerful, eloquent advocate, willing to speak truths that the larger community needs to hear.” WHAT??? Which so-called “larger community [specifically] that needs to hear [which so-called] truths” (specifically)??? What (specifically) is she saying now that she hasn’t been saying for ALL OF THE NEARLY 12 YEARS THAT SHE HAS BEEN ON THE BOARD, AND WHY HASN’T THE BOARD DONE ANYTHING ABOUT THE SO-CALLED “truths that the larger community needs to hear???”
“Elliott says, the district has had trouble expanding that success to all of its schools due to a breakdown in management, systems, and efficiencies.” WHAT??? WHAT??? What in the (make-you-want-to-curse) is that suppose to mean???
“LeBron would bring fresh, new ideas to the board” — SUCH AS??? Stop making stuff up.
“White has shown that he’s a strong leader.” REALLY — “strong” and as INEFFECTIVE as (makes-you=want-to-curse). What are you talking about??? He has presided over nothing but failure and more failure — please STOP!!! Would he be considered as a so-called “strong, innovative leader” if he was presiding over YOUR children and grandchildren’s education???
“Cecilia Griffin Golden is deeply familiar with the district and its challenges,” and has more educational-knowledge, wisdom and understanding than ALL of the current Board members combined.
YOU “believe that White, Elliott, and LeBron are stronger candidates” (based solely on your dangerous-shallow-know-nothing-bleeding-heart-liberalism).
It was intelligent of “Sabrina LaMar not respond to [your bleeding-heart] requests to meet with her and not provide information about her candidacy.”
NOW FOR MY PREDICTIONS: Two of your picks will win by default, i.e., one will PURCHASE his seat, and the other will win as a result of her PRIMARY COMMUNITY ENGAGING LARGELY BULLET-VOTING (LIKE THEY ALWAYS DO). The third will be UPSET, I.E. RTA’S SLATE WILL PREVAIL.
The Struggle Continues, and 2017 IS the year of reckoning.
Seriously City News staff?! This is the best you could come up for our kids and community, more of the same ineffectual leadership? Who paid for your endorsement? This is majorly disappointing. As a parent in the district this is offensive to me, lip service and simply stability on the board seems to be the most important thing to you, not results? Our children CAN’T wait any longer, things need to change NOW. As for LeBron, I have no opinion yet, but I do feel the Latinx community needs to be represented on the board if the person is right for the job.
I concur with every word Howard Eagle expresses. He is a truth teller and knows that Van White and Cynthia Elliott have done absolutely nothing but collect paychecks. Sabrina LaMar and Cecelia Golden are the true intelligent choices, who will not make excuses for our children failing.
So in other words, more of the same old same old.
Carl Paladino is available.
Reelect Cynthia Elliott to the city school board? Shame on you, CITY newspaper.
Have you forgotten about Elliott’s cruel refusal to shake Tim Mains’ hand, because he was Gay, when he applied for an RCSD post? Have you forgotten her chronic neglect of board duties while collecting a paycheck? Have you forgotten her bullying and mistreatment of school staff, her physical menacing of a union leader at a public meeting, her relentless political appeals to racial animosity, or her repeated public bursts of profanity, which would never be tolerated from a student?
You resort to unsupported bromides about growth and passion, but offer no evidence that Elliott cares about the plight of urban kids. Enough of this idea that because you are a vulgar bully, your care more than people quietly laboring to solve difficult problems. Elliott is part of the problem. Twelve years is long enough.
I have served on 3 publicly elected school boards, over 26 years, with some 40 colleagues. Ms. Elliott is the most unfit public official I ever encountered. Some colleagues and past allies have lost their nerve in upholding standards they once championed. They should be ashamed of themselves, and they know it.
This the latest of many absurd editorial positions taken by this so called alternative newspaper. Fortunately, CITY’s monopoly on that nitch is weakening, the gatekeeper role they have so long abused, is long gone. Progressive have more places to go for information. If you want to find a good restaurant, look at CITY. If you depend on CITY for political news, you probably know less than the people who read it.
We are now living with a President who flaunts his vulgarity, mistreats people, panders to racial animosity, and neglects the heavy lifting duties of public office. His supporters call him a truth teller too. The truth is, Trump and Elliott represent the same problem in our public life. Voters need to deposit them both on the same curb.
One of the arguments made above is that the only reason why the graduation fell to 39% in 2006 (the year before I became a member of the Board of Education) was “due to newly impose standards”. That argument is simply not correct as it is based on facts and dates that which, quite frankly, are wrong.
The “newly imposed standards” (which included phasing out of the local diploma and requiring that students pass an ever increasing number of Regents examinations) did not affect any graduation class until the students who graduated in 2009. That year, 2009 graduates (for the first time) had to pass two Regents examinations in order to get their diplomas.
Every year after that, R.C.S.D. graduates have had to pass an ever increasing number of Regents examinations in order to graduate – i.e. in 2010 they needed three; 2011 they needed four; in 2012 they needed to pass a total of five Regents examinations in order to graduate. Indeed, by 2012 the local diploma cease to exist as it had been completely phased out.
So the bottom line is that the year BEFORE I got onto the School Board, the graduation rate for our District had fallen to 39%. As is clear from time frame laid out above, the “newly imposed standards” had absolutely nothing to do with that very low graduation rate because the 2006 graduates were allowed to cross the stage without passing a single Regents exam!
Therefore, while I cannot explain why the graduation rate had gotten so low BEFORE I got on the Board of Education, we do know that it had absolutely nothing to do with the “newly imposed standards” (as suggested in the earlier post) as the new requirements that students pass rigorous Regents examinations would not take affect for another three years (2009) AFTER I got on the Board.*
Ironically, beginning in 2009 (not 2006), this would have an impact on our ability to increase the graduation rates because the local diploma was no longer available as an option for city scholars. Notwithstanding that fact, we have worked diligently through those changing standards. And despite those shifting standards (which again were implemented AFTER I got in the Board of Education) we’ve seen steady increases in our graduation rate.
Certainly, no one is claiming “mission accomplished” simply because of the 10% increase in our graduation rate. MUCH MORE work lies ahead of us. However, the improvements that we’ve seen thus far should not be cavalierly dismissed or explained away by an inaccurate chronology of events. Instead, the steady increase in R.C.S.D.’s graduation rate (from 2007 to 2016) should be acknowledge and recognized for what it represents – i.e. the collective manifestation of years of hard work by thousands of students, families, and staff members to overcome obstacles and sometime arbitrary and changing standards and to get across the stage and move on with their lives. No matter what we think of individual Board members or candidates, we should all acknowledge this type of progress.
*The following year the State of New York also changed the standards for passing the E.L.A. and Math tests. In 2010, the New York State Department of Education changed the “cut score” ( i.e. the percentage that is required for a passing score on E.L.A. and math scores). As a result, that year the number of R.C.S.D. scholars passing those state-mandated test went down abruptly and significantly. Personally, I think “raising the bar” for our children was a good thing. But the manner in which the State Department of Education did it (e.g. after the children had already taken the test that year and not phasing it in) was, in my opinion, a mistake and unfair to our scholars and our staff.