School board referendum decision coming Friday 

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The judge who's hearing a Rochester City School District lawsuit against the City of Rochester says he'll issue a decision at 10 a.m. on Friday.

The district's lawsuit aims to stop a referendum on a temporary state take-over and removal of the school board. In June, City Council approved Mayor Lovely Warren's request for the referendum, which would be non-binding since only the state Legislature can remove the elected board.  If the referendum survives the lawsuit, voters would weigh in other whether to change the City Charter by removing language referring to the school board and board members’ salaries.
State Supreme Court Justice Scott Odorisi heard arguments on the case today.  An attorney for the district reiterated their assertion that the referendum is improper under state law because it is advisory in nature and basically amounts to an opinion poll.  It's asking for a permanent injunction to remove the referendum from the November ballot.

An attorney for the city argued that the lawsuit has no merit. The City Charter has authority over the salaries of school board members and over the board itself, the attorney argued.

WXXI's James Brown reported this article. His tweets from the hearing are posted below.