ROC the Future, an organization representing numerous city leaders, institutions, and non-profit agencies, held a press conference this morning to say they agree with State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia : the Rochester City School District is in a state of crisis and the status quo isn’t acceptable. And they want Elia and the board of Regents to include them when they decide what to do about the district.
Elia had given the school board and administration until
February 8 to come up with a plan addressing Distinguished Educator Jaime Aquino’s report about the district’s failures. The district sent a detailed response, and now it’s waiting for Elia’s response. Elia and Rochester-area regents had warned that if they weren’t satisfied with the report, they might take action.
ROC the Future sent a letter to Elia on Friday, outlining their concerns and expressing their need to be involved.
“As a cross-sector alliance of over 60 community institutions and leaders, ROC the Future has been successful driving some improvements in child outcomes in Rochester, largely from outside the district,” the letter says.
“Don’t do anything without us,” Mayor Lovely Warren said at the press conference. “Come and talk to us about the decision you’re making. We want to believe in the decision the commissioner is making.”
RTF executive director Jackie Campbell said that RTF leaders made the decision to approach Elia preemptively after reading the district’s response to Aquino’s report. “We felt the plan was less than needed,” Cambell said, adding that it “lacked vision.”
But the group and Warren said they are also concerned about the district’s ability to manage itself and to implement the plan.
For instance, the letter also said, “there is no evidence that RCSD’s governance has enabled — or can enable — the development and implementation of meaningful change strategies.”
But some people saw this as a pretext for urging Elia to consider changing RCSD’s management to a mayoral control form of governance.
“We are not asking for a state take over or a mayoral take over,” Ajamu Kitwana, RTF chair said at a press conference. Warren said she did not think that mayoral control was the answer to the district’s problems at this time.Â
But the lack of the school board’s full endorsement of the plan weighed on RTF’s decision to send the letter. Upcoming elections could result in the board members who approved the plan no longer being on the board to implement it, Warren said.
Added to the uncertainties: The board is looking for a new superintendent, who would also have to implement a plan that he or she had no role in creating.
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This article appears in Feb 27 – Mar 5, 2019.
I realize that my comment is rather cynical, but exactly what have either ROC or Warren done in the past few years to make one think that they will offer any value to the process. The first party just sponsors studies and write editorials. the latter has avoided the schools ever since becoming mayor.
Perhaps, Rochester Schools are at a turning point, when something has to give…
So, I think it is great that the Mayor is trying to stay involved, at this point.
But what about the rest of us? Is RCSD ready to open its doors to outside people and outside ideas? I hope so. Clearly, they cannot solve their own problems.
Hello, Rochester City School District? Hello?
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http://www.SavingSchools.org
You can do all you want with RCSD, but if the students don’t WANT to learn, there’s nothing the school can do. I recommend bringing this gentleman into town for a year and boost the attitude of the students, and it wouldn’t hurt for the rest of the community to listen to this guy too. Les Brown:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ4en7o8B-…
This is like a primal scream from Rochester’s poverty pimp class that desperately wants to maintain its own relevance and future cash flows. It’s time to move on from these people. They have had their chance and they have failed miserably. They need to be flushed before any progress can take place.
One obvious piece of the puzzle that no one discusses is the union. Get rid of it. It cares only about perpetuating itself by protecting bad teachers and adding layers of useless administration. The union couldn’t give two craps about the children.
The other obvious piece is more school choice. Those parents who care about their kid’s education will welcome it, those who don’t? Don’t know.
So, eliminate the union, and offer more choices. How about starting there?
Funny how some people trash unions while simultaneously taking advantage of every benefit fought for and gained for ALL workers by unions in past decades.
Dear Commissioner Elia: Lovely Warren and Joe Morelle in no way reflect the majority of residents in our city. ROC the Future was remiss in selecting them to represent their interests at a recent press conference. In case you had not heard, Mayor Warren is under investigation by the Monroe County DA’s office for campaign finance violations at the same time that three close associates of hers have been arrested by the FBI. She is using ROC the Future as a public relations vehicle to offset the storm on the horizon. Joe Morelle, on the other hand, has been in elected office for a very long time. If he truly cared about the children of our community, he has been in the prefect position to do something about it for many years. He is already campaigning for his next term, which is likely to be much more difficult due to the anticipated (and exciting) primary challenges. Both of these individuals are using our long suffering school district for their personal and political needs. What we need are tasks completed, not more task forces. Please reach beyond ROC the Future in making your decisions. Sincerely, Rochester
Someone explain to me what value the union adds to RCSD, without invoking socialist doctrine. Explain to me how protecting bad teachers helps the kids and their families. Explain to me how favoring the seniority of old burned out teachers helps the kids and their families, versus bringing in fresh young teachers who could actually make a difference with new ideas. Explain to me how providing more school choice wouldn’t help (and why unions fight it. Money perhaps?).
We keep doing studies, we keep talking mayoral control, blah blah blah, same things over and over again. Yes, concentrated poverty is the root problem, but there are plenty of families who care about education, but are stuck in a lousy public school. More school choice is an obvious solution. We always talk about “thinking outside the box”, well, now is the time to actually try that. The same old solutions DO NOT WORK!
Do not take this as a slam on teachers. A good teacher is worth a LOT. 40 more administrators? Not so much.
This is an interesting approach: https://www.thalesacademy.org/, for instance.
I also like the phrase “poverty pimps”. I usually call them “poverty whores”, but perhaps “pimp” is a better word.
Ironmw – Perhaps you can explain in more detail why you hate and fear unions, and why arbitrary hiring and firing of employees by management , and dictation of working conditions is preferable to a standardized, objective system of employment……without invoking NeoCon doctrines of course.
Robert Patterson, I don’t fear unions, I just hate them. They promote mediocrity and protect bad actors to the detriment of society, IMO.
Ironmw – But of course you don’t hesitate to take advantage of all the benefits those nasty, evil, socialist unions have gained for ALL workers, blue and white collar, over the past decades. (Hmmmm. I think the word for that is “hypocrite”.) And of course we all know that we can totally trust corporate management to always do the best things for their employees.