Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas has made longer school days a cornerstone of his strategy to improve student performance. Three schools served as pilot programs this year, and Vargas plans to have a total of 10 schools with longer days beginning this fall. But some parents, teachers, and school board members aren’t sold on the […]
Rochester school district
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Vargas wants to bus more city students
Rochester school district officials have asked the State Education Department for permission to change the district’s transportation policy guidelines. Superintendent Bolgen Vargas says he wants to provide elementary students who live a half mile or more from their school with bus transportation. The current policy limits transportation to students who live a mile-and-a-half or more […]
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RCSD: Longer days for an out-of-school culture?
More than a year ago, Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas launched a major campaign to improve abysmally low student attendance in the city school district. Now teachers are in the hot seat. Vargas has sent an email to teachers saying that 730 of them were absent last Friday, and he he’s concerned that teacher absenteeism […]
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Rochester’s grad rate dips again
The four-year graduation rate for the Rochester school district dropped by one point, according to the New York State Education Department. The SED has released its Report Cards for districts throughout the state, and out of Rochester’s 2007 cohort of 2,868 students, 50 percent graduated in 2012, down from 51 percent from the prior school […]
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Rochester report
Rochester is in need of fundamental transformation, said Mayor Tom Richards in his State of the City address on Monday night. Refusal to acknowledge that fact or to insist that nips and tucks will do the trick is to condemn the city to failure, he said. | Richards’ speech touched on public safety, education, housing […]
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Week Ahead: Fracking discussion, RCSD budget vote, State of the City address, Preservation Board considers University Ave. complex
On Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., the local anti-fracking group R-CAUSE will hold a panel discussion titled “Hydrofracking as Seen Through the Lens of Public Health.” Two panelists will discuss the possible environmental consequences of fracking, and fracking’s potential impact on human health. The speakers are Dr. David Carpenter and David Kowalski. Carpenter, […]
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[UPDATED] Week Ahead: College Town grocer wants tax breaks; learn about the Common Core; RCSD budget meeting
Update, Tuesday, April 16: According to a spokesperson for Monroe County, Meliora Provision Co. pulled its application from this month’s COMIDA agenda because they are still working out details with College Town’s developer. The company looking to build a grocery store in the future College Town project on Mount Hope wants sales and mortgage tax […]
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Rochester’s education, housing, and poverty by the numbers
If you’ve lived in the Rochester region for a few years, the scores on ACT Rochester’s recently released annual Community Report Card probably won’t shock you. Most of us already know that the nine-county Rochester region, overall, is doing better than the state in some areas — the economy, education, health, and housing. But when […]
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Rochester parents want more music and arts in the schools
Unlike some prior budget proposals in the Rochester school district, where the response from parents and teachers was swift and aggressive, the response to Superintendent Bolgen Vargas’s current budget proposal has been more of a slow build. But last night’s public hearing on next year’s budget drew a nearly packed conference room at the district’s […]
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Week Ahead: Mayor’s Ball, RCSD budget hearing, RPO court battle continues
The State Supreme Court will hear arguments in a lawsuit against the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Attorney Eileen Buholtz is suing to invalidate the RPO board’s annual meeting, which was held on January 23, including the results of board member elections. Buholtz ran for a board seat as a write-in candidate, and in her lawsuit she […]
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[UPDATED] Week Ahead: RCSD and city budget hearings, Cuomo cancels, RPO lawsuit proceeds
The Rochester school district will hold a public hearing on Superintendent Bolgen Vargas’s proposed $728 million spending plan for the 2013 to 2014 school year. The budget has been criticized by parents because it includes closing School 30. Parents are also concerned about implementation of the new core curriculum and its impact on rigorous programs […]
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City schools and the Rochester mayor’s race
The mayoral race is officially under way and if past elections are any indication, be prepared for plenty of heated debate about the city school district. Though the situation is far from perfect, the district and the city have been working more collaboratively over the past two years than at any other time in recent […]
