UPDATE: City’s full, detailed story can be found here: http://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/rochester/vargas-is-out/Content?oid=2662571 Rochester city school district Superintendent Bolgen Vargas will be out at the end of December, district sources confirm. The district says an official announcement is coming at 3:30 p.m., and at that time it’ll also release the name of his interim replacement. The city school board […]
Superintendent Bolgen Vargas
Posted inNews & Opinion
Feedback 4/29
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The latest bad news from the city school district
Tension between the superintendent and the school board has
erupted into public view, and that’s terrible in many ways – not the least of
which is that any bad news from the district reinforces the public’s poor
opinion of it.
Posted inNews & Opinion
Students’ fights may be Vargas’s biggest challenge
The last few weeks haven’t been good for Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas and the city schools; one troubling incident has followed another. First, there was the vote of no confidence against Vargas by the Association of Supervisors and Administrators, the union that represents school administrators. That was followed by a disturbing incident involving a […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Public meeting on RCSD budget
Rochester schools superintendent Bolgen Vargas will present his proposed budget for the 2014-2015 school year at 6:15 p.m. today at the district’s central office, 131 West Broad Street. The presentation will be followed by two “budget open houses.” The first will be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, February 12, at Wilson Foundation Academy, 200 […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Attack on White boomerangs
This is a corrected version of this blog: 2-7-14 at 8:26 a.m. Here we go again. Even when you try to maintain a sense of hope for the city school district, it’s easily dashed. The latest example comes from a story reported yesterday by the Democrat and Chronicle’s David Andreatta. This is what we know […]
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Charters nervous about de Blasio
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was a staunch and vocal advocate of charter schools. Charters proliferated during the Bloomberg years, aided by the guidance of former schools Chancellor Joel Klein and a change in state laws that raised the cap on the schools in New York. Teachers, parents, politicians, and school officials across […]
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Vargas appeals to Albany for more money
When Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas testified before Albany lawmakers in the past, he didn’t press for an increase in funding for the school district. Instead, he stressed how the district was able to handle its budget challenges by allocating resources more efficiently. He told lawmakers that he reduced the number of teachers, revised the […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
White charts new agenda for Rochester school board and district
Surrounded by nearly two dozen community leaders, newly-elected Rochester school board president Van White laid out an ambitious plan yesterday to improve city schools and to stop the steady loss of students to charter schools.
Posted inNews & Opinion
King seeks more power for Regents
Earlier this year, State Education Commissioner John King made the unprecedented decision to move two of Buffalo’s most troubled schools under the supervision of Johns Hopkins University and Erie 1 BOCES. The arrangement, which weakens the control of superintendents and school boards, is referred to as an educational partnership organization or EPO. He also had […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Absences add up
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas has successfully brought public attention to the connection between attendance and student achievement. While the district’s low graduation rate has been reported for years, one of its underlying causes — chronic truancy — received less attention. School officials confirm that three months into this school year there are 186 students […]
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Despite student performance, voters have so far stuck with school board incumbents
While most of the attention during the Democratic primary and in the last weeks leading up to the general election has been on the twists in the mayoral race, there’s been something equally unexpected about the city school board race. With such dismal performance of city students by almost every standard, the dissatisfaction with school […]
