Persistently Struggling: Lovely Warren’s Audacious Plan to Save the Distressed Schools of Rochester, NY
Rochester, New York
According to the principal’s account, an incident occurred at Enrico Fermi School 17 in Rochester, New York, just before Christmas break last year. A seventh-grader was playing basketball on the playground, while students were being dismissed. Unexpectedly, an eighth-grader, who was supposed to be suspended for getting into a fight, approached the basketball player from behind. The older student pulled out a gun and forced the younger student to walk towards the school amidst a crowd of students.
The principal, Caterina Leone-Mannino, immediately called 911, but the boy managed to escape before law enforcement arrived. Thankfully, no one was harmed during this incident. Although the security cameras captured the confrontation, the weapon was never found, and no charges were pressed, according to Leone-Mannino.
During a meeting focused on addressing school violence in February, Leone-Mannino described the incident as a tragedy narrowly avoided. Among the attendees was Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, who, two months later, unveiled an ambitious plan to revamp the struggling public school system in Rochester.
Warren later emphasized that this incident, along with years of poor test scores, low graduation rates, and high absenteeism, highlighted the failures of the city’s schools. It strengthened her determination to prevent at-risk students from falling through the cracks.
Leone-Mannino informed the group that the student carrying the gun was well-known to social service agencies in the city. At the age of 14, he had already been in and out of jail and had experienced multiple changes in legal guardians. The previous summer, he witnessed a shooting involving several individuals during a party at his foster home, Leone-Mannino disclosed.
Leone-Mannino explained that she and her staff had been fighting for months to get the troubled student into mental health counseling through a local provider before he was suspended. Unfortunately, they were unable to obtain permission from the student’s family to proceed with the counseling.
"There should have been a protocol in place to ensure that he received preventative counseling," she expressed. "How bad does it have to get before we take action?… This is an all-too-common story in Rochester."
Mayor Warren concurred. "Here we have a school and a principal striving to make a positive impact within the system," she stated in a recent interview with . "However, despite their efforts, they face outdated rules and regulations that don’t benefit either child. So what happens? They both suffer."
Rochester, New York skyline (Photo by Brian Stiehler)
"The Young Lion of the West"
The dire state of public education in Rochester is not a new revelation within the state of New York. Once known as "The Young Lion of the West," the city flourished along the Erie Canal. It later became an epicenter of abolitionism, women’s suffrage, and the birthplace of personal photography with the success of Eastman Kodak.
Like many cities in the Northeast and Midwest, Rochester’s economic prosperity, supported by industries like Xerox and Bausch & Lomb, as well as reputable universities, gradually declined over the past five decades due to manufacturing losses, technological advancements, and the migration of white residents.
Presently, Rochester has the highest levels of child poverty and extreme poverty (families earning less than half of the poverty rate) among cities of its size in the United States.
The public school system in Rochester, which serves 28,300 students, with 90 percent belonging to non-white and low-income families, consistently produces the lowest test scores compared to major cities in New York State. Proficiency rates in reading and math have remained in the single digits for years. Approximately 30 percent of students miss at least ten days of school annually, while one in five students have disabilities.
Rochester’s graduation rate of 51 percent trails behind other cities and falls significantly below the state average of 78 percent.
While many struggling districts attribute poor performance to inequitable funding, Rochester stands out for spending a significant amount with dismal results. According to a school funding analysis by National Public Radio, the city allocates $26,392 per student, which is about 65 percent higher than the state average of $17,548.
The Plan
During her State of the City address at Rochester’s historic Genesee Brewhouse in April, Mayor Warren presented her proposal to establish a new school district for the worst-performing schools in Rochester.
Twenty schools that did not meet their academic targets for 10 years were labeled as "persistently struggling," while the others, referred to as "struggling" schools, fell short of targets for three years. Superintendents of districts with persistently struggling schools were given additional powers, such as the ability to extend the school day and make staffing decisions based on merit. If these schools failed to show significant improvement after a year, control could be transferred to an external receiver. The struggling schools were given a two-year period to improve.
Initially, 14 schools in Rochester were identified as persistently struggling, but after the state reevaluated the data, the number increased to 28, which represents about 40% of the city’s schools.
Mayor Warren sent a letter to the State Education Commissioner expressing the need for a unified improvement strategy for Rochester. She believed that the state’s approach could result in multiple receivers overseeing separate reforms without coordination. In her plan, Warren proposed the creation of an independent "Rochester Achievement School District" with a single receiver chosen jointly by herself and the commissioner. The schools in this district would have the freedom to determine their own operations, including hiring staff aligned with the school’s mission regardless of seniority. The letter also mentioned the possibility of schools converting into charters.
However, there was a significant obstacle to Warren’s plan. State officials explained that New York’s law does not allow for an entire district to be placed in receivership or the creation of an independent Achievement School District. The responsibility for the school district’s receivership remains with the elected school board, according to the State Education Commissioner.
Despite this limitation, Warren remains determined. She plans to seek support from business leaders and lawmakers to amend the receivership law and include the creation of independent districts in the state’s turnaround strategy. She is also looking for allies in the Board of Regents and the governor’s office.
The governor’s office did not respond to inquiries about Cuomo’s stance on Warren’s proposal for a separate receivership district.
Warren’s closest education advisor, Allen Williams, expressed optimism in response to the commissioner’s statement. Williams believes that while she did not explicitly say yes, she did not say no either.
The use of receivership, where an individual or organization is appointed to oversee one or more schools, has gained popularity in recent years as a way to improve failing schools. The success of the Lawrence school district in Massachusetts, where receiver Jeffrey Riley implemented cost-cutting measures, restructured the district, and reached an agreement with teachers, has influenced this approach. Lawrence’s focus on repairing traditional schools, rather than replacing them with charters, has made it particularly appealing.
Mayor Warren has commissioned an analysis of receivership and achievement districts across the country and believes that elements of these systems could be implemented in Rochester.
It is expected by local political analysts that Warren, a lawyer who previously served as president of the city council, will run for re-election in 2017. The proposal for the receivership could become a central focus of her campaign, similar to how education was in 2013. Since being elected, Warren has led efforts to fund universal pre-kindergarten, promote literacy programs for 3-year-olds, and expand after-school educational opportunities at the city’s recreation centers and libraries.
However, not everyone in Rochester’s education community agrees with Warren’s direction. District officials have made it clear in the weeks following her State of the City announcement that she should leave school issues to the professionals. Van White, the school board president, expressed his skepticism by using a rowboat as a metaphor. He stated that each sector of the city should focus on their own responsibilities, as competing for the same resources will only hinder progress. White urged the mayor to concentrate on creating job opportunities, reducing crime, and fighting poverty. According to a 2015 report, Rochester is the fifth-poorest city in the country.
White, a former prosecutor and mayoral advisor, stated, "She’s got her hands full." He acknowledged some progress, such as a few Rochester schools being removed from the state’s receivership list and a slight decrease in chronic student absenteeism. However, he acknowledged that there is still a long way to go and that the city’s educational achievements are still at the bottom of the state rankings.
Williams, on the other hand, wants to challenge that mindset. He believes that both the school board and the teacher union only believe that traditional district schools, with their collective bargaining agreements, are capable of delivering a quality education. He argues that this perception has not been proven over the past few decades and that there needs to be a change in how alternative forms of education are viewed.
Adam Urbanski, the president of the Rochester Teachers Association, who has been involved in city politics for many years, suggested that Warren is not equipped to handle the education system. He stated, "I don’t think that her willingness to play a role should be rebuffed. However, I am not in support of that particular proposal. It’s really nothing more than a back door to mayoral control." Urbanski also stated that Warren’s plan to take the issue to the legislature would be unsuccessful.
Warren has made it clear that mayoral control is not up for discussion, despite the failed attempt by former Mayor Robert Duffy in 2010. The administration has emphasized that Warren wants to have significant involvement in the operation of the receivership district, but the local school board will still govern the rest of the schools in Rochester. However, there is still uncertainty surrounding the naming of a new superintendent, who will also serve as the initial school receiver under the state’s template. This position would not exist if Warren has her way.
The mayor stated that she shared her views on the qualities she hopes to see in the next superintendent through a survey provided by the board earlier this year. But for Warren and Williams, this is not enough. They believe that the district cannot afford to wait and see how a new superintendent will approach the receivership issue. Williams questioned how long they should wait before taking action to make a difference and how many students would be negatively affected in the meantime.
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