It’s finally out in the open. The on-and-off tension between Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas and members of the school board has erupted in a most unsavory way. Vargas has taken the first steps to sue his bosses.
This is not frivolous litigation. This is serious and it raises important questions about the role and responsibilities of elected school boards and the leaders they hire. Who runs the district and makes the day-to-day decisions? Should the superintendent have some of the same latitude in decision-making that most private-sector CEO’s take for granted?
And who should be held accountable when those decisions turn out to be wrong?
To recap: the Rochester school board in a 7-0 vote last night approved two resolutions. One revises the board’s policy regarding the Superintendent’s Employment Group. These are employees that are usually handpicked by the superintendent and are among the highest-level administrators in the district.
But they are not members of a union, which means that they serve at the pleasure of the superintendent.
The resolution is intended to limit the employees in the SEG to those permitted by State Education Law. Vargas says he’s following the law now, but the school board says that he isn’t.
The second resolution asks their attorney to get clarification from the New York Employment Relations Board regarding which job titles are allowed to be part of SEG.
But in his notice of claim, Vargas says that the resolutions “usurp the Superintendent’s authority and violate his rights” and that board members have “unilaterally modified the Superintendent’s employment contract.”
The claim was filed in State Supreme Court. A notice of claim essentially lets the court and the involved parties know that a suit is coming.
The claim says that the State Education Law was revised in 1997, with the support of Assembly member David Gantt, specifically “to increase the powers relating to the management and operation of the Rochester City School District in the Superintendent of Schools instead of the Board.”
“The resolution violates his employment contract and violates provisions of employment law,” Vargas’s attorney Steven Modica said in a telephone interview earlier today. When asked if the board might be trying to get Vargas to resign, Modica said, “That’s certainly something we wonder about.”
But much of the disagreement centers on a longstanding question that has plagued many school boards and superintendents: what specifically are the roles of the board and the superintendent?
White says that the board’s resolutions are an effort to comply with state laws. The SEG group has expanded over the years to include employees who shouldn’t be there, he says.
What happens next is anyone’s guess. But the suit certainly doesn’t bode well for the credibility of the district.
The suit also raises questions about the district’s relationship with the University of Rochester as it steps into a management role at East High School — not to mention the district’s relationship with other outside agencies.
And does the suit raise the specter of mayoral control — legislation that would probably eliminate the school board and put the schools, the budget, and the superintendent under the mayor’s office?
And most important, can Vargas still be effective as superintendent considering his challenges with the principals and administrators’ union, and now the board? Is there still an opportunity for both the board and Vargas to resolve this amicably? We just don’t know.
This article appears in Mar 4-10, 2015.
The board has been very open about the fact that they are not happy with the superintendent’s ability to get things done. This has been accelerated since Mr. White became the president. The fact is that the board is micromanaging and this is not their job but the superintendent has left them no choice. The district has never been so misdirected and this too is well documented.
In an effective organization the board would fire the CEO and replace him or her rather than micromanage but no one would dare take the position right now. Lets not forget that this same group hired and supported him in the first place but it seems very obvious his days are numbered.
This is just another reason why the community, the state and even national figures laugh when they hear about Rochester City School progress. It’s all %$#*&^%$#%& to those who matter the most-the kids, the families and the teachers.
The Board doesn’t want to buy out his contract, and they can’t just fire him. It’s about impossible to say, but this could be a move to get him to resign so they don’t have to either buy him out or sit around and wait for his contract to end. There’s no shortage of Machiavellian tactics over there.
Suggestions for the Board of Education and the Superintendent of the RCSD.
You can save a lot of money by merging departments that can be merged
successfully.
For example:
The Plant Maintenance Department oversees grounds services, moving
services, and all types of craftsmanship services.
Why couldn’t it also oversee the distribution services of computers, books, and
inter-office mail? It’s just one more service that the district provides.
Really, how many Managers/Supervisors and secretaries do we need to coordinate
services for the RCSD as a whole?
This is why the district is struggling. It spends a lot of money micro-managing
services. (To many chiefs not enough Indians)
As a city taxpayer I urge you all to please give this serious consideration. It can be done.