The debates are over, all but a handful of voters seem to have made up their mind, and President Obama and Mitt Romney are virtually tied. Regardless of who is elected, this troubling campaign could have a troubling ending, with the outcome not immediately known – and, perhaps, with one candidate winning the popular vote, […]
Bolgen Vargas
Posted inNews & Opinion
Vargas emphasizes early childhood education
The Rochester school district has become a “remedial district,” Superintendent Bolgen Vargas said today at an early morning meeting with parents and students. The term is used by educators to describe a teaching atmosphere that emphasizes helping students catch up to as close to grade level as possible. The way to change the district, he […]
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Fad or fix: longer school days
Alysha Rodriguez has one of those smart, sassy smiles that brighten fireplace mantels and living room walls. The 17-year-old senior at Northeast Preparatory High School greets visitors with a firm, sincere handshake that would impress any executive. She plans to go to college to become a zoologist. But Rodriguez says the student she is today […]
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EDUCATION: Grim grad news for minority males
The Rochester city school district has earned another disturbing distinction. Only 9 percent of the district’s black males who were eligible graduated in the 2009 to 2010 school year, according to a recent report. Rochester graduated the lowest percentage of black and Latino male students of any district in the country, behind Detroit, Philadelphia, and […]
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NEWS BLOG: Do you take this chief of staff for better, for worse?
Rochester school board members who are upset that Superintendent Bolgen Vargas hired a district critic still haven’t been able to meet with her. The board’s staff tried to coordinate some meetings with Vargas’s new chief of staff, Patty Malgieri, to discuss her role and her criticism of the district when she was deputy mayor. Malgieri […]
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NEWS BLOG: Malgieri contract under fire – and so is Vargas
Since being named Rochester schools superintendent in April, Bolgen Vargas has been extremely popular with most school board members. But the honeymoon is over. In a special meeting last night, the board went into executive session to discuss Vargas’s decision to hire former deputy mayor Patricia Malgieri. And it didn’t go well. Malgieri has been […]
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EDUCATION: Vargas confident in Malgieri hire
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas says he hired Patricia Malgieri because of what he’s heard from parents almost daily during the last year. “They’re saying their children have less opportunity today than they did a decade ago,” he says. “It saddens me daily that we have thousands of children who have difficulty even getting into […]
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Urbanski will wait and see on Malgieri hire
Patricia Malgieri is no friend of public education, says Rochester Teachers Association President Adam Urbanski. Malgieri has been hired as chief of staff to Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas. Urbanski says his experiences with the former deputy mayor Malgieri have not always been pleasant. Malgieri has been a strong proponent of charter schools, privatization, and […]
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NEWS BLOG: Vargas’s contract asks for less
Few things in business are as deadly as overplaying it. Overplaying a sales pitch is for the clumsy amateur, the unconfident, and the unprepared. Underplaying it, however, is entirely different. Underplaying takes skill. And there’s some risk involved. You’re essentially asking for less, and promising little. But you have to deliver more than what’s expected. […]
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[UPDATED] Agreement near on funding school modernization
UPDATE (Thursday, May 31): The bill passed the Assembly yesterday and now goes to the governor for his signature. BY TIM LOUIS MACALUSO and CHRISTINE CARRIE FIEN Mayor Tom Richards, city schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas, and Rochester Teachers Association President Adam Urbanski are close to resolving the funding issue that nearly stalled the district’s schools […]
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Doing the math: the middle-school dilemma
When our son, proud alumnus of the Rochester school district, was a high-school senior in 1988, he and his classmates wore a T-shirt created especially for them. Its wording: “They saved the best till last.” The school was Monroe Junior-Senior High School, of which his (we thought) was the last graduating class. The next […]
