Send comments to feedback@rochester-citynews.com with your name, your daytime telephone number, and your city, town or village. We edit selections for publication, and we don’t publish comments sent to other media. School choice The title of the August 20 Urban Journal declares neighborhood schools to be “popular” (“Neighborhood Schools: Popular but Impossible?”). The conditions that […]
Willa Powell
Posted inNews & Opinion
Feedback 8/7
We welcome your comments. Send them to feedback@rochester-citynews.com with your name, your daytime telephone number for verification, and your city, town or village. Comments of fewer than 500 words have a greater chance of being published, and we do edit selections for publication in print. We don’t publish comments sent to other media. Why the […]
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Another special ed reboot
Once again, the Rochester school district is under fire for failing the children who receive its special education services. And once again, district officials are considering another reform, one the school board could adopt this week. Rochester’s troubles with special education date back at least to 1981, when the Empire Justice Center filed a class […]
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Van White re-elected as Rochester school board president
The Rochester school board elected Van White to serve another term as board president in a 5-to-1 vote yesterday. Board member Liz Hallmark cast the dissenting vote. Long time boa rd member Willa Powell was elected board vice president in a 4-to-2 vote, replacing Cynthia Elliott. Improving communication between board members and Superintendent Barbara Deane-Williams […]
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School board approves studying a regional school
The Rochester school board has taken the first step in exploring the feasibility of a regional school designed to attract a diverse student body. Board members voted last week to include the measure in a study of the district’s school-choice policy, which already under way. The school could be much like the one proposed more […]
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The Vargas future
Superintendent Bolgen Vargas’s contract with the Rochester school district ends June 30, 2016. While it may seem premature to be thinking about it, the school board will need to have a serious discussion in the next few months about whether to renew that contract or start the search for a new superintendent. It’s hardly a […]
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Dems pick candidates
The Monroe County Democratic Committee unanimously endorsed Sandy Frankel for county executive during a relatively smooth nominating convention tonight. The only drama came during voting on city school board candidates, which required a second round of balloting. Ultimately, the four endorsed candidates were Liz Hallmark, Malik Evans, Mary Adams, and Matthew McDermott. Hallmark and Evans […]
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No home-school guarantee for RCSD
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas’s announcement last weekend that children who live within a half-mile of their neighborhood elementary school are guaranteed placement in that school — the “Home School Guarantee” — may have been misleading. The announcement comes with some conditions, and no new policy has been approved. | The district’s Parent Preference-Managed Choice […]
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Reader feedback 9.3.03
‘Business as usual’ Strong Board or Weak Board? There has been little thoughtful weighing of this question, but the community must understand what is at stake before any further snuffing out of democracy for city residents in that most American grassroots institution — the elected local school board. I write this as a fan […]
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Primary challenge: the city School Board race
Seven people are running in a Democratic primary for what must surely be the most thankless of all local elected offices, the Rochester School Board. Although there will be Republican, Independence, and Working Families parties on the ballot in the November election, the four winners of the September 9 Democratic primary will have a strong […]
