Rob Brown answers tough questions on urban education
Rochester City School Disctrict
Posted inNews & Opinion
Reader feedback 3.19.03
Pleas for peace On a recent trip to Laos, it was with great shame that I saw the results of the US bombing during the Vietnam War. US pilots indiscriminately dropped more than 250 million cluster bombs, hitting schools, hospitals, and temples, killing thousands of innocent people. Historic sites are filled with bomb craters; ancient […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Facing the crisis
In the midst of preparations for war, with budget crises looming in Albany, in Monroe County, in City Hall, it’s easy to overlook one of the biggest crises of all: the waste of minds that is taking place in the Rochester school district. We’ve heard about that crisis so often that we’re bored with […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
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 […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The great divide: behind the School Board anger
The Rochester School Board entered the new year with one of the deepest — and angriest — divisions in recent history. And while to outsiders the rancor may seem rooted in personality differences and power struggles, the division is more significant than that. All seven School Board members are Democrats, but some of them […]
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News Briefs 12.24.02
The bells, THE BELLS! Mistletoe, bells, the scent of pine, bells, snow, bells, lists of who’s been naughty and nice, and the ringing of bells all around as you shop this holiday season. And these bells have been ringing in front of red kettles in Rochester since 1900. “The whole red kettle concept started […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Reader Feedback 9.18.02
Supporting police, praising McCall, helping schools, fighting the budget cuts
Posted inNews & Opinion
Super-mayor?
If you aren’t one already, imagine being the parent of a child attending one of Rochester’s troubled inner-city schools. You’ve just sent your kid off to class in a school district rocked by financial crises, dismal test scores, an astonishingly high drop-out rate, the controversial departure of its superintendent, and a political maelstrom that’s developed […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
After Cliff Janey
Rochester schools will open next week as they always do, with teachers, administrators, and children full of enthusiasm and hope. But a huge black cloud is hanging over the district, and it may taint everything that happens in the coming months. This week, Cliff Janey’s tenure in the City School District comes to an […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
News briefs 7.24.02
Debra Trione found 50 powerful and influential Americans…
Posted inNews & Opinion
News Briefs 7.17.02
Those who frequent the Water Street Music Hall know to make a beeline for the long bar’s left side for the coldest beer, swift service, and a slice of local history. There, beneath the neon and Rattlesnake Pete’s gaze, stands Chops, Rochester’s notoriously sharp-witted, longest-running bartender. “Chops is an institution,” says Water Street owner John […]
