My nose tells me that something may be up with mayoral control and the Rochester school district. But it’s difficult to pin down.
What we know for sure is that State Assembly member David Gantt introduced mayoral control legislation in January 2013, and reintroduced it in January 2014. It presumably sat there until May 20 of this year, when it was on the Assembly Education Committee agenda. The bill was held for consideration — limbo, essentially.
Nothing has changed as far as I know; the bill looks unlikely to make it out of committee, much less hit the floor for a vote. And the odds are even slimmer in the Senate; there’s no bill and no local senator has said he’s willing to sponsor one. (Anyone can introduce a bill, though the protocol is to usually defer to the local representatives.)
I asked Mayor Lovely Warren for insight into the situation. Warren and Gantt are very close; she used to work in his office and they have a mentor-protégé relationship. Specifically, I told her that it’s difficult to believe that Gantt would keep introducing the legislation if she’s telling him she absolutely does not want mayoral control.
“Well, that’s not necessarily true,” Warren said. “Nobody speaks for him. He doesn’t speak for me and I don’t speak for him. That’s an issue that’s controlled by the State Legislature and the governor, and whatever they see fit to do…We have several [state] mandates that we have on us already, and we follow suit.”
That seemed rather blasé to me, especially since education was the main issue in her campaign; she even released an education plan. Giving control of the school district to the mayor is a serious matter and requires serious consideration. It’s not like deciding whether or not you really need that pack of gum when you’re waiting in line at Wegmans.
So I tried to summarize what I heard Warren saying. And that was essentially, if she gets mayoral control, fine. If not, that’s fine, too. But she’s not out pushing for it.
“That’s what I’m saying,” she said.
I don’t get it. But I guess working behind the scenes, if that’s what’s happening, makes sense considering the debacle that ensued when former Mayor Bob Duffy publicly declared he wanted mayoral control.
Incidentally, Warren said during her campaign that she would not seek mayoral control.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2014.
I can speak for me too and something needs to be done now. After 50 years of more or less nothing…someone has to do something. Lovely can do it but she is concerned about not getting elected again. As well, it will take about 5 years of drastic change in the system to raise the graduation rate to let’s say 80 % or more. Money is not the answer but parenting is the answer and one cannot legislate that issue. Jobs are the answer to the opportunity in disguise. How can we as Rochester Residents get faces of color into jobs ? How can we help create jobs ? How can we change concentrated poverty ? How can we give students a reason to graduate if there are no jobs waiting ? I have some ideas but not one will listen or at least take the 15 minutes to hear me out.
Craig R. Moffitt
Craig are you seriously saying jobs should be given to people based on color? How about giving jobs to people based on their QUALIFICATIONS?
Mike …I did not say that at all. Try reading the comments again. Most of my comments were about the Rochester City School District’s miserable failure in educating all students and graduating students in 12 years with an education that means something …and not just going on to college if at all. Then I moved on to the lack of jobs in Rochester irregardless of Race. I also commented on Mayor Warren’s fear of getting Mayoral Control and then not getting re-elected as a result of that single issue. Maybe I was not clear in my writing and comments. No where did I say what you have implied. You said it… Look at the NYS statistics on unemployed in Rochester. I believe you will find the real statistics alarming .
Craig R. Moffitt
“She used to work in his office…” Seriously? She is/was his Chief of Staff. Why the attempt to distance the two? He cleared the decks for her to get appointed to City Council. Why deny that Gantt and Warren are joined at the hip?
The RCSD has about 6,500 employees, while the city has about 3,500. That would be a big pill to swallow! If I was the mayor taking over the school district would make me very nervous.
Why is Mayor Lovely Warren acting like she’s still running for mayor? I sense lots of missing pieces. Maybe mayoral control means Gantt control. Warren needs to start revealing more because this isn’t adding up.
The mayoral control bill is going nowhere anyway. So, in this case, their relationship seems to be one of synergistic failure.
The Mayor and City Council’s control of over $151,000,000 million dollars would be the best thing to happen in Rochester since nothing else has ever worked. I would like to see it tried for five years to see if things will improve. If the City is healthy the County of Monroe will be healthy. As well, the inverse could be true. We can do it now or later..
Craig R. Moffitt
I also would like to see The Mayor and City Council partner with the Towns of Henrietta,Brighton, and Gates since these Towns border Rochester and that these Towns should take an interest in what happens both financially and in planning as well as by meetings between Mayor and Town Supervisors. Lovely is trying with Maggie Brooks and Maggie is trying with Lovely. That my friends is s good start.
If The City of Rochester School District, and the Brighton School District were joined educationally, you would see a mass exodus from Brighton.
The people of Brighton don’t want their children learning the rules of the ghetto.
They want their children to be educationally superior.
Just the facts …