For years, the Rochester school district has struggled with financial management issues, both perceived and real. Its annual budget is now almost $1 billion, and some observers see that as an example of bureaucratic bloat. The budget keeps increasing, critics say, even though just over half of the district’s students graduate in four years, and until this year, enrollment had been declining since 2000.
But other observers point to the district’s extreme challenges. The student population is arguably the poorest in the state, and a significant number of students need language and special education support. Providing an education to those students is complicated and expensive.
It’s in this context that the Children’s Agenda released a report last week analyzing parts of the district’s 2018-2019 budget. The report questions whether the district is spending its money in the most effective way. Is it, for example, directing enough resources to the children who most need help?
The district’s budget for next year calls for a substantial increase in staffing, including 132 additional teachers, many of them bilingual special-education teachers. That can’t happen soon enough, says Eamonn Scanlon, policy analyst for the Children’s Agenda.
But the report notes that district budgets often include an increase in staffing, and those positions aren’t always filled.
At a press conference last week, Scanlon and several parents said the district clearly doesn’t have enough bilingual staff and teachers, which makes it hard for parents to communicate with school staff.
Worse, says the report, the district has no cohesive plan for working with new Spanish-speaking students and families. The district has nearly 5,000 Spanish-speaking students, a number that increased as Puerto Rican families came here in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Many of those students have both language and special education needs.
Wailany Olio, who speaks only Spanish, has a son in School 9 who is doing well, she said at the press event. But her daughter, who has cerebral palsy, goes to School 29, where only a few adults speak Spanish, she said. Olio’s daughter has feeding problems, and Olio is afraid to leave her alone at the school. Olio isn’t confident that if an emergency arose and she was at home, she could communicate with school staff and tell them how to stop her daughter from choking.
“I take her to school every day, and I spend the day with her,” Olio said.
A shortage of Spanish-speaking teachers isn’t the district’s only language challenge. For instance, about 400 district students speak Nepali.
The district’s problems with special education are well documented, and the Children’s Agenda report says they are made worse by chronic changes in leadership and staff.
Cheryl Carleton’s son has Down’s syndrome. He’s in the sixth grade, and Carleton said she’s extremely concerned about his transition into middle school. Carleton has had adjust to numerous staffing and leadership changes in her son’s school in just this year, she said.
“I want to prepare him for this big change,” she said. “But no one at the school building level can tell me what program options will be available to him next year.”
While the district has many options for special education programs and specialists in several languages besides Spanish, it can’t offer them in every school, and there is a shortage of teachers who are trained for this work nationwide.
To meet the needs of every child in every school, then, would require even more money.
This article appears in Apr 25 – May 1, 2018.
Let this sink in a little bit: A budget of a BILLION dollars for the Rochester City School District. A district which boasts a C- grade at best in preparing the children for the adult world.
Let’s say it again: A BILLION dollar budget. A budget to overpay under-qualified administrators and underpay teachers who have to deal with disenfranchised students and parents.
Does anyone realize what a billion dollars would buy in terms of housing and opportunities for the residents of the city. Talk about the entitled 1%. How do I get one of those cushy admin jobs? Should I get a degree in Human Resources?
Put that money to good use and give it to the citizens. Ship the kids to various Suburban school districts where they have it dialed in already.
A billion dollars buys an awful lot of Chinese Tea.
Here is a creative short video from “Prince EA” on the school problem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqTTojTija…
This is only 6 minutes long and perhaps it could be shown at school board meetings, at schools, at PTA meetings, etc.
Maybe City Newspaper could comment on this wonderfully done video.
http://www.SavingSchools.org
To; RCSD and community,
Restorative Justice does not work nor does the Dr. Joy DeGruy model. It lets students that commit crimes get away with it. To send a child who has repeatedly broken the rules straight back to class with not a true consequence breeds negative behavior. It forms bad habits in our kids.
Here is a model that I learned:
We attach our feelings and emotions to our thoughts, we then experience the world and each time we past judgment(it is human nature), then me make a choice, which then leads to our outcome.
In summary: thoughts, feelings, experience, judgment, choice, then outcome.
Our urban public schools is a breeding ground for negative outcomes: jail, dropout, death, homelessness, pregnancy, rape/incest. It is a pipeline for destruction of our kids and community.
Would you find it acceptable for your child or family member to be a victim of bullying?
I created a blueprint to bully proof people, which will bring positive outcomes. When a person respects oneself, they can then begin to respect everyone outside of them.
Peter Burkin
To: RCSD and community
I believe that any PTSD is awful in any form, but the next generation can still be successful. This is done by not letting their offspring know about the heinous experience that they unfortunately experienced.
Everything from veterans, rape victims, victims of kids being murdered, victims of parents who child commits suicide,slavery(generations ago), etc. these people are still asked to live a productive life in the pursuit of happiness.
This is not done by storytelling and passing down a part of history that gave this country a black eye. How about the white settlers doing a great job of annihilating certain Native American Tribes?
I was a product of violence in my home growing up, but I refused to pass this way of raising my son the same way. It is my hope that my son makes the right choices to never beat his offspring, just like I modeled only respect to him. Violence in my son’s life has skipped his generation and it is his moral obligation to pass that gift to his family.
Our African and Latino American families do not need another excuse like Post Traumatic Syndrome from holding them back. Does President Obama approve of this madness? How about all of our doctors, lawyers, entertainers, and anyone that have found success in positively moving forward. They do not let excuses hold them back.
I also believe that God made us in the uniqueness and likeness of Him. He made each and everyone of us co-creators.
Just ask Dr. Idonia Owens if she ever let the history of slavery hold her back from being a doctor. We are all human beings doing the human experience.
Give our students a break from all of this negative programming and let them become aware that God loves them too. They were given the same DNA and free will to make good choices in life. This brainwashing is detrimental and should be taken out of public schools. This should be introduced as a college elective, when a student has a choice and has a more developed brain. To expose young people to this madness is unacceptable and this district needs to be held accountable.
Please help stop this madness. As I presented to the board: we are not our diagnosis and we do not have to let our limiting beliefs hold us back. We as a community need to teach students that there is more to life then basic survival. There is also charity and being in service to others. Forgiveness is another quality that needs to be instilled in people.
I have been to one of DeGruy’s lecture and I You Tubed another on-line, but I refuse to be brainwashed by reading her book and accepting this theory as being the reason why our kids are being victimized. Lastly, I believe the Board of Education, the unions, central office, and human resources should be held accountable for this madness.
Peter Burkin
I have created a blueprint to bully proof people. The RCSD and superintendent has been aware of the work I have been doing to eradicate bullying and suicide for almost two years now. The first step in healing past trauma is to acknowledge/ become aware and then begin to understand that there are solutions to the many problems. I was taught at home and in school that for every problem, there is a solution. It is time to do what is right. This is an email I sent to a very influential person, but I am leaving out their name. I challenge this community to heal.
Dear so and so,
These documents have not been acknowledged by the superintendent. It has been two school years without hearing from her.
This can be said about Parent Engagement too.
Do you believe that one person can make a difference?
I think the work I have been doing is a game changer. It makes me sad that so few people, the ones in control, affect the masses.
You have known about this work I have done, since April 25th. The time is now to do what is right.
Please forward our emails to the rest of the parents, they deserve to know what you and I know.
If I were you, I would feel the obligation to do something about this. Namely, set up a separate meeting and let me present my ideas.
Our kids, families, and community deserve it. I am passionate about this community and planet and I am sickened by the people in power that think the status quo is acceptable. This includes you so and so, you are a person in power.
In conclusion, I am asking you to pass these emails to the parents and community and set up a meeting.