SUNY Geneseo inched closer last week to a partnership with the Rochester school board and School 19, a K-8 school in southwest Rochester. It’s a sign that the board is continuing to seek outside organizations to help turn around some of its most troubled schools.
In a presentation to the board on March 16, a team of district and SUNY Geneseo educators made a strong case for taking over the management of the low-performing school and revamping its current structure. The teacher-led school they described could dramatically improve School 19 students’ achievement over five years, they said.
SUNY Geneseo officials hope that the partnership would start this summer, but first they have to get approval of the school board and SUNY officials at the state level.
School board President Van White, who spearheaded the board’s partnership with the University of Rochester and East High School, courted SUNY Geneseo’s involvement with School 19.
White has repeatedly pushed for creating more school choices for parents while the district simultaneously improves its most academically challenged schools.
“We need incubators of success,” White said before the meeting. “We’ll be able to compare, and we’ll know if these models work.”
Currently each classroom at School 19 has one general education teacher. In addition, special education teachers provide services for classrooms with children needing that assistance. In the SUNY Geneseo model, two classrooms would be combined, with staff acting as a team: two general education teachers, a special education teacher, and a teaching assistant. A pilot program was implemented in School 19’s third and fifth grades in September, and the results in reading and math seem promising.
School 19’s teachers and principal would work together to develop the curriculum and school culture. And a yet to be named superintendent of the school would report to the board. But Anjoo Sikka, dean of Geneseo’s school of education, said that there was no need to renegotiate labor contracts. The UR, in contrast, reached an agreement with the board and union employees to ask every individual working at East High to reapply for employment there.
For the school board, the bigger stumbling block for the Geneseo proposal may be funding. School 19 would receive a $2.5 million school improvement grant from the state over five years. But the Geneseo proposal requires additional teachers and teaching assistants, and it’s not clear whether the state grant would be enough to cover all of them. White told Geneseo officials last night that the partnership can’t require additional district funding above School 19’s yearly budget.
Board member Jose Cruz also expressed concern that the partnership relies heavily on a state grant at a time of uncertainty about federal funding for public education.
Nor are academic results guaranteed. The UR’s relationship with East High, now in its second year, is showing some incremental gains, but the school’s academic performance is a long way from a complete turnaround.
Still, the proposed SUNY Geneseo partnership with School 19 has some strong support. “I think it would be devastating if the board rejected it,” Rochester Teachers Association President Urbanski said at the board meeting, “because it would send the message to the rest of the district teachers – don’t even try to innovate.”
This article appears in Mar 22-28, 2017.
In my opinion, the school board president is continuing to act in a manner that supersedes his authority and overrides the powers & duties of the appointed superintendent. The superintendent has the credentials, knowledge and experience and is the instructional & operational leader of the district. All plans for school redesign, partnerships, etc. should come directly from the superintendent, and not the board president. The board’d duties are to write and enforce policies that support the efforts of the superintendent to improve the district. It is understandable why Dr. Vargas filed suit against the district for usurping his powers and authority. Proposals that promote partnerships with colleges and urban public schools have been a large failure in this country. Just look at the Eastern Michigan University/Detroit Public Schools failed partnership efforts, or a few others. It is safe to say the the East High School EPO is following in the same direction. It has had a very high staff turnover rate, unnecessarily high teacher salaries, and minuscule levels of student success. The Geneseo proposal defies “best practices” in every way. Combining 2 classes, 2 regular ed, 1 sped, and 1 TA. They fail to realize that most likely an ESOL teacher will be added, due to the consultant teacher SPED model. An additional SPED teacher may be needed to maintain compliance with SPED teacher caseload. This could mean 6 adults servicing this combination. This would cause total chaos! Not to mention a possible fire hazard. Educating students does not need to be this complicated! Another even more devastating factor is that these type of partnerships supports the Republican Education Agenda to SYSTEMATICALLY DISMANTLE PUBLIC EDUCATION! Before long, we will have our local colleges becoming charter school sponsors. Our school board president should immediately cease & desist from acting in a manner that is contradictory to rebuilding strong public schools by seeking to establish EPO partnerships that privatize public schools, in my opinion!