Rochester city schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas says he wants as many schools as possible to eventually be under the full management of Rochester-area colleges. He says that he wants at least one school to be under a college’s management by 2015.
Vargas made several far-reaching proposals tonight to members of the school board.
Vargas appeared before the Excellence in Student Achievement Committee with a plan containing several proposals to dramatically improve student achievement. The proposals are both innovative and controversial.
Vargas prefaced his proposal concerning the colleges by conceding that the district is having difficulty managing so many low-performing schools at one time.
College leadership would have all of the supervision powers of the superintendent, Vargas said. Funding would follow each student and go to the college, but students would remain enrolled in the city school district. Vargas said that he would like to “have as many schools under college supervision as possible.”
He gave no indication of which schools he’d like the colleges to take over. And he didn’t say if colleges are waiting in the wings to carry this out. But Vargas has been talking with the heads of area colleges and there is some interest in the idea, says district spokesperson Chip Partner.
Other proposals include revitalizing the district’s Careers in Technology program with BOCES. While the district has been working at providing more opportunities for students in ares such as the arts, music, and sports, Vargas said that many students say they want to participate in programs that the district isn’t offering.
Students who want to pursue careers as electricians, plumbers, HVAC specialists, auto-repair technicians, and cosmetologists will be able to attend BOCES for the programs if the district isn’t offering something similar, Vargas said.
Vargas also proposed a community-wide approach to improving student behavior. The district’s unusually high suspension rate has been a controversial subject for years. The district shifted away from a student conduct policy that strongly encouraged outside suspensions because many students were missing weeks of instruction. In-house suspensions were supposed to deliver the appropriate level of punishment while keeping students in school receiving instruction in special classrooms.
But some school board members had questioned the effectiveness of the conduct policy — whether it unfairly targets African-American boys, and if the standards for good conduct have been fairly assessed.
Vargas also proposed a five-year plan to eliminate the structural problems with the district’s finances. Budget battles create winners and losers, he said, and cause instability in school communities.
And Vargas proposed eliminating summer learning loss for K-3 students by greatly increasing summer reading program opportunities.
All city school board members were present tonight except Willa Powell. Most board members complimented Vargas for introducing the proposals, which include ideas they said they’ve been discussing for several years. Board vice president Van White seemed especially enthusiastic about the college management proposal.
But there are questions about how it would work. Vargas said that some districts around the country, including New York City and Buffalo, have turned to colleges for management. And he said that Adam Urbanski, president of the Rochester Teachers Association, supports the idea, at least conceptually.
The colleges would have to honor RTA contracts, but a mechanism in the current contract allows for changes to be negotiated by the colleges.
But some of the biggest concerns by board members involved the proposal for a community-wide discussion about improving student behavior. Vargas proposed creating a task force to engage the community with the goal of coming up with a shared vision for expectations of students and proper school conduct.
Vargas said that the recent gathering of students at the Liberty Pole downtown that included a gun being fired was a clear indication that improvement in student behavior is needed. But it was less clear whether board members agreed.
Throughout the presentation, Vargas said that the proposals would require a re-examination of the district’s budget priorities and a shifting of funds. He said that declining enrollment would require staffing adjustments in central office administration, but he did not elaborate.
Vargas said several times that the need to improve student achievement is urgent, and that the district is facing its last chance to turn around.
This article appears in Nov 13-19, 2013.
Cool idea of getting some free manpower on each low performing kid. Personal tutors etc. However, it still may not be appropriate for school discipline. For political reasons punishments are frequently too late for some kids and too hard on others (toy guns etc). Colleges are just as guilty as lower public schools in trying to appropriate legal powers they do not actually have. If the consequences are serious they should NOT try handling it internally.
Schools must comply with “due process” under the Constitution. Children are entitled to family court trials for every incident — if its worthwhile and the school administration is playing reelection politics.
Parents must agree to out of court adminstrative alternatives in lieu of trial (family court) — for each incident. The situtation is very similar to the military. You have to decide if the legal results of court procedings could be worse than “out of court” administrative punishments.
Schools and the PTA have no legal legislative powers — except as each set of parents decide to agree. Even expulsion (refusal to perform public service) is legally limited. However if schools do not rescind illegal expulsions after trial its probably best to sue the school district and specific administrators and take the money elsewhere. If illegal actions are being pressed by parent activists after family court trial I would even consider including them in lawsuit as individuals for conspiracy to violate your rights.
Some may think this idea has intellectual merit. It does not. It is an intellectually lazy and dishonest attempt to push problems off on someone else. When you get a ticket from a cop, you don’t call in the FBI. Instead of pawning off this kids on colleges (who’s job it is to educate people at a college-level), it only takes responsibility away from the public (taxpayer-funded) school system that is obligated by law to educate these students. It isn’t the U of R’s responsibility that Tommy and Tonya know 4×4=16; that’s the public school system’s. if Vargas is introducing college-level curriculum, such as A.P. and honors courses through local colleges, that’s one thing. But pawning the school district’s problems off on colleges is irresponsible and inappropriate.
Vargas visited my friend’s school last week. She said he walked into her classroom in the middle of a lesson & began talking to the students. Unprompted, he began speaking about himself. He then encouraged the students to read more, and even offered to throw them a pizza party if they read X number of books. Real innovation there, folks. This man makes a lot of money – this is our return?? Passing the buck to local colleges? The more he speaks, the less faith I have in him.
And will Superintendant Vargas take a cut in pay equivalent to the lessening of his work load as he passes the schools off to colleges? Does not seem to be a good solution as presented thus far.
PARENTS & TAXPAYERS: STAY ALERT!!!
As soon as I saw this, my FIRST QUESTION was: If the Rochester Board of Education is going to hire Colleges and Universities to help MANAGE RCSD SCHOOLS, does this mean that their compensation will come out of Dr. Vargas’s pay, i.e., out of his six-figure-salary, and/or out of the six-figure salaries of his so-called Superintendent’s Executive Group (SEG)? After all, MANAGING THE SCHOOLS IS THE SUPERINTENDENT’S AND HIS HIGHLY PAID SEG’S JOB. THAT’S WHAT THEY WERE HIRED TO DO. If the money to pay for this is not coming out of their salaries, as far as I’m concerned. THE DISCUSSION SHOULD STOP RIGHT NOW — because it is absolutely unconscionable, immoral, unethical, and would be fiscally irresponsible for the Board to approve the idea of paying Colleges and Universities additional money to do what Dr. Vargas. and his SEG are already being paid BIG BUCKS to do, especially when numerous RCSD schools are suffering from the lack of adequate, fundamental, structural, and programmatic resources.
SECONDLY, where is the evidence that Rochester area Colleges and Universities have (as Dr. Vargas claims) “an excellent track record of successful education management” of URBAN schools? There is no such evidence, which necessarily leads me to ask: Does this whole idea boil down to nothing more, or less than new, symbolic, SNAKE OIL? STAY ALERT!!!
I’m not exactly sure what I think of the idea of local universities taking over some schools. But I know exactly what to think of Vargas. He has now thrown in the towel and admitted he can’t fix Rochester schools. That may be a good first step, though I don’t know if I can get over this immense failure.
I think the next step should be for Vargas to decline accepting any further salary as he puts this plan into action. After that, he should resign.