Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas told parents, teachers, and community leaders in his State of our Schools speech last night that the district can be turned around. But he simultaneously lowered expectations, saying that it will take years, and test scores and the district’s graduation rate could get worse before they improve. “I want you […]
Rochester School Board
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Superintendent’s eval reflects on board
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas met with school board members last night to discuss his evaluation. The seven-member board’s chief responsibility is to hire and supervise the superintendent. But board members’ evaluation of Vargas is also a review of their own skills as a publicly elected body. And their participation in and influence on the […]
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A better model for neighborhood schools
Once again in Rochester, there are calls for a return to neighborhood schools. While it is important to create neighborhood elementary schools within urban villages where possible, and to align accountability, consolidate services, and make it all transparent, my experience brings me to conclude that for a future system of education to be successful and […]
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Parent trigger law debate heats up
The Buffalo-Rochester Parent Trigger Coalition, a group of community organizations and education activists, is renewing a push for a parent trigger law for the school systems in both cities. Parent trigger laws, first initiated in California, give parents a tool to transform persistently failing schools. Parents can petition the school’s board to enact one or […]
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School board’s confidence and containment
There’s a powerful scene in Tennessee Williams’ play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof when family patriarch Big Daddy learns that his health is failing. His family ambushes him with normalcy and mindless chatter as they plot to take over his estate after his death. “What’s that smell in this room?” he says. “Didn’t you […]
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Week Ahead: Lots of school board action
The Rochester school board will meet at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, January 2, to elect a board president.
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School board leadership challenge
It’s probably a safe bet that Malik Evans will be re-elected president of the Rochester school board at the board’s January 2 meeting. The 5:30 p.m. meeting is at the district’s central office, 131 West Broad Street. Board members will elect a president and vice president for one-year terms. Evans has already served five terms […]
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Our legal WMD’s
Unimaginable pain… unimaginable horror: Reporters and commentators have struggled for words to describe last week’s tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. And yet if it’s unimaginable, it’s only because we still won’t face gun violence head on. These killings are not rare, not in this country. A blog on The Nation’s website notes 16 multiple shootings in […]
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RCSD faces $50 million budget gap
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas last night presented board members with a rough outline of his budget plan for the 2013 to 2014 school year. And it’s going to be another financially tough year for the district. For starters, the board approved a $705 million budget for the current year, but the district has operated […]
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The neighborhood school dilemma
The trouble with neighborhood schools is that there many definitions and ideas of what a neighborhood school should be. That was evident last night at a public hearing on the second phase of schools modernization in the Rochester school district. Much of the evening was dominated by residents, parents, students, and teachers who either had […]
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Public needs to weigh in on Vargas’s schools modernization plan
There has been almost no serious public reaction to Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas’s proposal for the second phase of modernizing city schools. Vargas has held several public meetings to present the plan, which calls for closing five schools and spending about $625 million on modernizing buildings over the next 10 years. The school board […]
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Vargas proposes $625 million second phase of schools upgrades
Superintendent Bolgen Vargas has recommended closing five schools: 16, 22, 25, 36, and 37.
