from WXXI news.

This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was made with the hiring of a new superintendent for the Rochester City School District.

As we reported last month, the board chose Eric J. Rosser, who comes to Rochester after spending five years as the superintendent in Poughkeepsie.

Rosser will be leaving Poughkeepsie City Schools to start in Rochester on July 1st.

That's exactly a year after interim Superintendent Demario Strickland stepped in in Rochester.

And following the resignation last year of Carmine Peluso, who left Rochester to take the head job in Churchville, chili, the Rochester City School Board is hoping this this hire will finally, at long last, bring stability to that position.

But as we've reported, that vote was not unanimous.

Rosa was selected by a vote of 4 to 1 board member.

The former board president, Cynthia Elliot, was not present and did not vote.

And want to be clear?

We invite all board members to this program to talk about what's going on in the district, to talk about their views on hiring, on culture, on education.

Two board members took up, took us up on that first.

And they were on this program about a month ago, former board vice president Brian, as long as well as Commissioner Isaiah Santiago.

And they were the ones who voted against this hire.

They told us a month ago that the election of Donald Trump had placed school districts like Rochester into a state of crisis, with many students refusing to go to school out of fear they will be apprehended by Ice and deported.

LeBron said that the district needs to shift its focus entirely to dealing with Project 2025 and the new presidential administration.

And she wanted the district to make the interim superintendent permanent.

But of course, it didn't happen.

The majority of the board decided it could handle all of those issues facing the district and hire a new superintendent.

Meanwhile, the district was rocked by the death of a by suicide of a student recently, and I'm sure listeners are familiar with that story.

Mental health services are being stretched.

So this is our continuing series of conversations with the members of the board.

And the president of the board is joining us this hour.

Camille Simmons is back with us.

President Simmons, nice to have you back.

Thank you for being with us.

Thank you.

Evan, thank you for having me.

let's start with the superintendent, who I still have not met.

But you have, of course.

Of course.

And you're feeling good about this hire?

Absolutely.

Doctor Rosser is a phenomenal hire.

As you stated, he comes from the Poughkeepsie school district.

But that is not the only, years of experience that he brings to the Rochester City School District.

Yeah, he has collectively about 24 years in leadership and has served in spaces like the Buffalo City school districts, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. so he brings a plethora of knowledge, experience, and, the level of experience that we think we need in this, this time.

Did you go into this process thinking we really do need an outside voice, or did you think, you know, let's see how Interim Superintendent Strickland is doing.

Let's hear some inside voices.

Do you have a mindset going in on what you wanted?

I think it's important.

and having served in leadership and gone through several different hiring practices, either in the district or externally at other organizations, it's extremely, to me, important that I go in with an objective mind.

so you may have an idea of ideas, around what you would like to see, based on community feedback, based on experience that you've seen within the district.

But it is imperative that you keep an objective mind.

An open mind.

and that way, you can get the most viable candidate possible when you're going through this.

If you close your mind to possible parties, you miss out on great opportunities.

Tell me about the advantages that you think this superintendent brings to this job.

Again, you know, just even watching him come in, doctor Rosser has started his transition plan.

His official start date will be July 1st.

But even in his transition, where he's come in, he's able to see structurally a lot of things and ask questions.

And oftentimes, I'm a person who believes that you don't have to have all the answers, that it's important that, that you ask the right questions.

And so even his line of questioning, and curiosity around how our district is structured, what what's working, what's not working lets me know that he, he has seen exactly the way he needs to see.

I feel confident that, his, again, his experience.

And he's he's he's not in a space where he's building his career.

He's already done that.

He's coming in, I believe, with a stable mindset, and the fortitude to really drive systems change in the Rochester City School District.

And like any superintendent, they're only as successful as their board.

you know, allows for them to be.

And so it's going to be extremely imperative that we function in a way that allows them to be successful.

I would think this is such a hard job.

You have a situation where it's a district with a lot of poverty.

It's a district that is.

And we'll talk more about this.

you know, populated by some students who are fearful right now what's going on.

And we'll talk about that in a moment.

it is a, a district that is trying to figure out how do we prepare students for their future careers, whether they want to go to college or not?

Are they going to be able to work?

What is technology doing to the future of work?

Are we engaged with that?

Is he.

Do you view him as an innovator?

Do you view him as kind of a culture person?

I mean, like, how do you contextualize his leadership?

Yeah, I think he's going to be able to set some foundational pieces in place.

and even looking at his work in Poughkeepsie much most recently and, the population is not comparable to Rochester, but he's served in areas.

And for him to go and the the issues in Poughkeepsie, actually mayor Rochester.

but the other piece is being able to lay foundations and see the impact of those foundations is impressive.

Also, like, for example, literacy is something that I'm very, leaned in on.

I think that literacy is the foundation for all education.

If you can understand literacy in all of its plights and you understand science, you can understand math because literacy gives you that, that foundation.

And for him to take the literacy rates and exceed the state, progress in Poughkeepsie, gives me, a lot of, happiness.

you know, I'm feeling very happy about that.

given our conversations in the past, I'm not surprised that you in particular said.

Let me see those literacy rates.

Yeah.

And you like what you saw?

Yeah, absolutely.

And I know that he can expand and scale.

He has the skill to do that.

And so, when you're tried and true and you have examples and you can take a look at a person's resume and it shows you, that progress.

Then, then it's something that, you can lean into with comfort.

I'm also excited that he'll be coming through the community meeting folks.

He was just here this past Saturday.

I, unfortunately, was out of town for, attending a school board conference.

So I was able to talk with other, school board members from national areas, and just see what how they're feeling about, you mentioned project 2025, looking to see who has these answers that people think everyone should have, who has the answers.

And really, you know, it's kind of it's scary.

A lot of folks are trying to figure out how to move in this space.

And you you want to move in a way that is responsible, and not alarmist, but you also want to move with a sense of urgency.

But you have to move, in fact, and things are coming in so many different directions.

you have to, you know, certainly plan with it, collaborate, partner up and get that information in front of, you, know, your your school district.

So when it comes to to reading, I want to ask you about a proposal from the governor in a conversation that's really kind of become a national conversation about what kids can do in terms of access to tech in schools.

I was listening to a recent conversation, and I'm going to be reading Jonathan Height's newest book.

I think it's called The Anxious Mind.

Maybe you guys can fact check me on that.

I think Jonathan Height's newest book is The Anxious Mind.

he's a psychologist and he's become this national figure was advising governors, Republican and Democrats, and he's telling them students cannot concentrate.

They are anxious.

They are panicky.

It is a lot driven by the culture in schools, where sometimes bullying is driven by tech and, and access to smartphones all day long and screens.

And that's not been good for kids.

And so, number one, he says, we've got the least thriving generation of kids and young adults, in 100 years.

And number two, we should be banning cell phones in schools.

Bell to Bell is governor Hochul is talking about not like can have them in class.

You can have in your locker.

It's they're not coming in the door.

You're not thinking about them all day.

You're not obsessing during a class about what you're going to be texting in the hall during the break.

Bell to bell ban.

Do you support that?

Do you want to see a bell to Bell cell phone ban schools?

I do want to see some kind of constraints on cell phones.

I also want our students to feel safe and have access.

And when we talk about anxious minds and the ability to reach your parent if you're not feeling okay, if that ability is not in front of you, that that gets a little difficult.

We'll still have phones in the office, right?

They have phones.

So we want to make sure that we create systems where children feel safe and they know where they have access to make those phone calls if necessary.

and so I do think there needs to be some level of constraint, but we also need to consider how we can be innovative around technology.

How can we leverage that to better support our students learning?

Because we are talking about young people who are growing up in the face of technology, where we we learned the computer, we were introduced to different levels.

They are born in the generation of technology.

That's all they know.

And we're asking them to go back to this antiquated way because we're used to that.

We know a time where technology did not rule the world, and we can we can think of who you and I are.

The bridge generation.

Yeah.

I'm eight.

I'm dating myself.

Right.

But we were the bridge generation, so we knew when the streetlights came on, we knew, that parents, you know, different ways to reach our parents, how it was.

Get on your bike and go see Tommy up the street.

Now, you can just text them or FaceTime them.

What are you doing?

so we know the day that existed before.

And so we're asking young people to unpack that and imagine kind of.

But what if it's not antiquated?

What if it's actually a better way for kids to be raised and for kids to live?

I think there's a balance.

I can appreciate it.

And I think it is disheartening when you see young people like their head down and they're in that phone and it's driving things.

Even me as a mother, my son's 27 now.

But, just even when he was growing up, I recognize how technology was used.

It could be used for good or evil.

Right.

and so there are things that happen with at the hands of technology.

I think school systems can support, ways to be innovative around technology.

I think it's an and an even.

I guess that's what I'm getting at, how to be innovative and use it in a responsible way.

how, arming them with education around the harms of it, but also how you can balance it.

there are times where you might need to put those phones away.

So, do you think a bell to Bell ban is going too far?

We'd have to see how it works out, but not necessarily.

You're open to it.

I'm open to to exploring it.

But I need students to feel safe first.

And foremost.

And I think that anything we do needs to be balanced.

I'm talking to the president of the Rochester City School Board, Camille Simmons.

So let me just close the loop on a couple things for the superintendent.

You said he starts July 1st effectively, but he's he's already preparing, doing some work.

He's in touch with you guys.

And I know, you heard that the former vice president of the board and commissioner, still, Commissioner Beatrice Lebrun told us a month ago that she didn't even want to participate in the hiring process.

She did not want to, attend those meetings because she felt like the district was too distracted.

That had the election gone differently in November, she might have felt differently.

But she said she's read project 2025.

She thinks the district should be exclusively focused on that.

She thinks the district had a interim superintendent who would have been a suitable permanent superintendent.

and obviously you disagree that boards can disagree.

But tell me a little bit about your feeling about whether this district and whether this board is responding appropriately to the issues related to it, she says.

Project 2025.

Yeah, I would, I would say is that, I think it's important that people do their due diligence.

I love that she read up on project 2025.

We know it was written, I believe, in 2022. and that there was a viable, understanding that this could become a reality when Trump ran for office, back in 2024, we knew he was running.

We knew he was coming.

I wasn't the leadership of the district at that time.

and so I don't remember hearing too much about, you know, what the plans were coming in, and I haven't heard too much around what we're doing right now.

What I can say is there is, a an impending threat on districts across the nation.

D is under threat.

Special education, free and reduced meals.

students who are, learners of other languages, you know, so we have a lot in front of us.

There's programs that are potentially going to impact teacher education and professional learning and development.

So there's a lot at stake right now with the threat of the Department of Education being closed.

even if we know it takes an act of Congress, even if it doesn't close, they're laying people off so that, impact services.

Will there be contingency plans set in place?

Those are questions that are being asked.

What are our contingency plans?

How can we look at these dollars?

How are we preparing our school district to do less with less?

And so those are the, areas that you have to explore.

There have been partnerships or conversations, should I say, with the state, education Department.

We've had Regents come in.

There's some calls taking place tonight.

there's people that are doing legal functions and signing on the lawsuits.

So there's a bunch of stuff happening.

How do you consolidate that and create a plan of action around, what I would quite frankly, refer to as chaos.

And how do you do that in a responsible way?

Again, it's, important to move with a sense of urgency, acknowledge the urgency behind some things, but you cannot incite anxiety across an entire district.

Do you think that the district you think the board is doing enough right now about this?

I think we definitely need to do more.

And as we gain additional information, we can then have a plan.

And so those are conversations that are happening.

Those are conversations that are happening.

Do you think the board was distracted by the hiring process of a new superintendent?

no.

No, not at all.

Okay.

Now when it comes to how students are doing every day, are there still today a number of students who are absent consistently because they are scared to be in school, given the climate?

Yeah, I think we have we definitely have a chronic absenteeism issue.

And then when you, consider there's a bunch of variables that go into that.

But I would say I would be remiss not to acknowledge that there are some students that may be certainly afraid or concerned about, you know, what they're hearing out in the public and things of that nature.

So I do know that our interim Superintendent, Stricklin, several months ago put a plan in place, that was communicated to staff within the school buildings and things of that nature.

So, people are going are being impacted in our community, in our schools, in our nation.

And so, we have to have those plans in place and make sure that we're following through with them.

Yeah, certainly there has been an issue with absenteeism before this last election, before Ice became, you know, more of a presence and a threat, perhaps.

but do you have a sense for how many students in the district are choosing not to go to class because of a fear of ice?

No.

Is it a big number?

I don't have that number.

And I can connect with the, superintendent, but that would be, you know, something we would have.

I think it's a lot of, we have a lot of students who would potentially be impacted by that, but I would be irresponsible to message that as fact if I have not validated that information, what should the communication be to those families and to those students then who are scared?

Yeah.

So, the communication that's gone out, the communication that was received by the superintendent, the and, and interim excuse me, superintendent.

Yeah.

You know, and so we, we definitely want to ensure that our students are protected, that they feel safe, and that we have measures in place to support them.

telling them and showing them are two different things.

And, you know, ongoing, you know, had do we have the, lines of communication where they can reach out and get an understanding?

And those things have been communicated at the building level.

So there are actions put in place.

And one of the questions I've heard a lot from listeners in the last 3 or 4 months is can Ice go into the classroom?

Can they show up at the school building and go inside and pull people out?

They should not be able to.

But the as we know with these federal threats that things are changing day in and day out, we also recognize that we're dealing with an administration that doesn't always follow the rules.

And so you can have something legally in place.

but people can, look, we got people getting deported that are not supposed to be deported.

They're not supposed to be deported.

Right.

So so anything is up.

And so to how do you plan for that?

And I'd love folks that are really leaned in on this to provide some solutions that maybe they're thinking of.

I haven't heard those yet, but I would I would love to hear that as well, because even being at the National School Board conference, I wanted to talk to other school communities.

What are we doing?

What are we hearing, hearing from, folks from the state level?

What what are you hearing from other districts?

What do you suppose we do and or propose?

We do and and, you know, legal junctions and things like that.

That's great.

Suing things like that, that can happen.

Those things take a lot of money.

They take a lot of time.

What are the action plans we can put in place right now?

And we it's this, constant change of what's going to happen next so that that's hard to plan for.

Yeah.

Makes it a hard job I mentioned.

Well, and this is a board over time that hasn't always been cohesive.

I'm I know you've said that right now you feel like the board is going to work effectively and productively.

You're very confident in the higher that the board just made of superintendent.

You feel good about the future.

We do right now.

See one board member, James Patterson, petitioning New York State to remove another board member, Isaiah Santiago.

They've had plenty of beef.

And, is there anything that that you can relay?

I don't know what you can say publicly about that.

I know there's ongoing matters happening there, but can that get resolved?

Can this still be a productive and healthy board?

Can they be on the board together still in your view?

You know, for a board to be productive, there has to be a commitment on, on everyone's end.

what I will say, you know, and I can't speak to things that I have like, potentially legal litigation taking place and things of that nature.

And I want to respect that process as it is.

But I will say that boards, require to be highly effective vision.

we have to be really laser focused on policy because policy can either help or hinder school district.

Right.

and the students and the outcomes accountability, which is something I think we lack, seriously, on our board and community leadership.

And then we have to consider governance.

And when those elements are missing, you get what you get, right?

so as far as where our board is, again, I would be not telling the truth if I said, yeah, we're a highly functional and effective board.

I think that the culture of the board must change.

You can put Superman in the superintendent seat and he will not be successful if the board culture does not change.

And when you consider this board culture and the headlines that have happened, and I'm not talking about even recent, I'm talking back, you can go back decades, literally decades on the dysfunction that has existed.

Yeah, yeah.

It's not okay.

It's not okay.

And at some point ego has to go out the door and the focus has to be on children.

You are a viable hypocrite.

If you sit there and say you care about kids, education and learning and cannot check your ego at the door.

Now, I'm not saying put up with just anything, but it requires us to really fall back from self and leaning towards kids.

And I don't know historically if that's happened in this district.

So one other extension on that point, and it's about culture.

And I read a lot about leadership.

That's a lot of the work that you do is on leadership as well as we know.

And I know you think a lot about culture.

One of the things you just said was, this is a board that has not historically shown a lot of accountability, that it's got issues with ego and a lack of focus on students.

And you said if there's Superman in the superintendent seat, but the culture is poisonous, Superman might not even succeed.

And this is, I think, such an important point, because you can have the greatest innovator in the world.

But if the culture is terrible, things are not going to work.

Yeah.

And so what do you do then?

Is there anything that you can describe to the community that you are trying to bring to this role as president of the board that says, I can't fix everything, but I here's how we're going to try to address culture.

Here's what accountability would look like.

What's the answer there?

Yeah.

so yeah, you got to try to drive board culture.

And what does that look like.

That's not going to be easy with this board.

Now I will say this I was I was refreshed I don't know if I should feel refreshed, but as I while I was down at the school board conference to hear some of the stories and other things that happened on boards, I was like, okay, Rochester's not alone, right?

We're not an anomaly, and I don't I'm not happy about that.

But but I'm there's some comfort for me to know, right?

Misery loves company.

no.

I am happy to know that that we're not alone in board struggle and.

You have to drive in systems of accountability.

And I think we've created ourselves as a great case study for.

How do you do that in a way where you cannot control other people?

And I'm not interested in that and no shape or form.

Can you go in and, say you must stop this?

You would hope that people would recognize their own behaviors and say, I need to make some changes.

That's not always going to happen.

So how do we build in systems of accountability that hold us as board members?

That includes myself.

This is not the finger point.

This is this is all of us.

How do we build in systems of accountability to hold us accountable when we can't act right?

Those are things that I'm looking into right now.

I'm looking through ways to creatively do that because it's going to require some level of creativity.

But beyond the accountability, you have to move towards board healing.

And for some, you and there's got to be a willingness.

I think there are people that are willing, and I think that is happening in some spaces, and you have to respect those who may not be willing to, to heal.

Okay.

And then you have to, but you got to keep moving.

That's what you have to keep doing.

In the spirit of this is for everybody, including the president, including myself.

What does it look like when you feel like you get home at the end of a long day and you go, I think I lost the plot a little bit there.

I kind of like what is happening with you when you feel like you yourself are not exhibiting what you want to exhibit?

well, I think it's a self assessment.

I can't tell other people to do something that I'm not willing to do.

Right.

So when I talk about, dying to self or checking your ego, I have to actively be checking mine.

So if there's a criticism in my leadership or things that people feel I may or may not be doing, I cannot allow ego.

I'm insulted by that.

I'm trying really hard.

And that's my response.

That's that's childlike in my opinion.

and in the space of leadership, you have to take those those things that you may think are credible or not credible and assess yourself and say, is there something you asked me a great question.

Are we doing everything we can do?

And I have to say, I think we can do more.

I think we can do more, and we have to figure out what that more looks like.

Right?

And there are conversations that are happening, and I'm not talking about conversations just with another person and, no one else knows about them.

It's conversations of building and creating a plan to put in front of people.

But you want to be careful about how you go about doing that.

And that's all I can say there, if that makes sense.

But I have to be willing to take the criticism if I believe it's viable or not.

And I have to be willing to self-reflect.

Sometimes I will even seek out the opinion of someone else.

What do you think I can do differently?

They might tell me something I don't want to hear, but that's that's the humility that comes with leadership.

That's the humility that allows you to to begin to grow and to do better.

And that's what our district deserves.

So when I'm sitting in this space, I can't worry about how somebody else choose to act.

I can only really look at me and I have to think about our families, our children, our educators, people that come in to this district every day.

What do they deserve to see when they see me?

And I try to give them that?

As imperfect as it may be, and all I could do is try to get better.

You've got a public facing job.

This microphone is a public facing job.

People will let you know when they're not happy.

Oh, they look they let you let me know.

They let me know.

And sometimes it's the best thing for me.

sometimes a really sharp criticism can really help you see something differently.

Absolutely.

If you're willing to hear it.

we're talking to Camille Simmons, the president of the Rochester City School Board.

we have to take our only break of the hour.

We're going to welcome your feedback on the other side, if you want to join the conversation, it's 844295 talk.

8442958255263 WXXI.

If you're in Rochester 2639994.

Email the program connections at Sorg.

Join the chat on the Sky news YouTube channel.

If you're watching on YouTube, we are right back with the president of the Board on Connections.

Coming up in our second hour, we talked to small business owners across the region from a number of different sectors about how the tariffs have affected them, their prices, the supply line, what they're seeing and maybe what they intend to do with their customers, the effect on small businesses.

And if you're in that category, by the way, if you're in small business, we want to hear from you.

Next hour, we'll be.

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This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson, Karen in Rochester on the line first.

Karen, go ahead and, good afternoon and thank you so much for taking my call.

first, I want to thank, the commissioner for her transparency about the condition and state of the school board.

I think most of us have observed that for some time.

And one of the things that I think in terms of accountability is that we don't always think so much about the public's responsibility and accountability because the public elects the school board.

And in many cases, we don't always have access to information about who the candidates are, what their positions are, what they're planning on doing.

We see their names on the ballot.

often people just vote for the names that they recognize.

If they had the same board members, which we have for decades, you just keep voting for the same people.

And those people have been doing exactly the same thing that we've seen in our schools.

And it has reflected poorly not only against our children who are supposedly being educated, but ultimately towards our society, because they have to leave the school district and go into the workforce or not.

And I think a lot of that responsibility has to come from individuals who don't really understand, nor are really capable of effectively electing people who are going to work to the best, to the public good.

So that's sort of my comment on that, Karen.

Thank you very much.

Commissioner Simmons.

What do you think?

Oh, I love that.

I love what she just shared.

I, I, I have been actively thinking about the fact that the, the culture of the school board has, persisted in the way that it has.

and she's right.

we have to do a better job of educating our, public on civic engagement and what that looks like, understanding how to research candidates so that, you pick viable candidates.

I some folks are like, oh, yeah, she represents us because, you know, I may represent a certain population.

I'm like, check me out and make sure you know what my talking points are.

You know what I stand for?

You know who I am.

Learn about me before you decide about me.

Just based on, some outward facing characteristics.

She's right, you know, because ultimately, our public elects, who sits in these seats.

Karen, I also just want to say a little plug for what we do, but I share your concern that people often don't know a lot about who is on the ballot, especially in local races.

That is why we at connections and I was and all of our partners, we are committed to making sure you hear people at length before you vote.

You really should.

This is maybe one of the last platforms and public squares to do it, and we're going to keep doing that for you.

so thank you for the phone call.

Karen.

844295 talk back to your your feedback in a second.

A couple of the things I want to make sure we talk about, WXXI news reports and our colleagues have reported that last year under then superintendent Carmine Peluso, the projected budget gap was $14 million.

This year it is $38 million.

Although, again, some of those numbers are a little malleable.

But regardless, it looks like there has been a gap.

what is the budgeting process been like?

Are you concerned about that?

Yeah.

certainly concern.

We had our first budget deliberations this past, a couple of days ago, actually.

So we're currently in deliberations and, you know, what we've been, presented with is what has been described as a balanced budget.

some of that was in consideration to state foundation aid.

that was anticipated.

May have gone down a bit.

and also what you're seeing regarding these gaps, people are saying, how do you get $1 billion budget end up with a gap?

You know, what happens there?

we have to consider health care costs and all of these, other costs that that are sustained within school systems.

But we also have to take a look at, decisions that have not been made over a number of years.

we have a declining enrollment.

Decisions have not been made around, how to rightsize the district in a responsible way.

We have to take a look at central office.

We have to take a look at duplication.

we have to look at long standing contracts.

What are the decisions that need to be made that may be difficult?

that have kind of been kicked down the road, if you will, and you find yourself ending up in these spaces.

So those are the conversations we're entering into right now.

What is something that has been on the table to cut?

Are there are there things that you say we can't cut this.

And you know, there's proposals to to make changes.

Are you worried about possible cuts that would do damage?

we want to see.

I think anyone wants to see cuts that may need to happen to be as far away from the classroom as possible, right?

Because the ultimate responsibility of the school system is to educate children.

So we want to ensure that the cuts, are healthy and done responsibly.

we have to take a look at central office bloating and things of that nature.

and so we are exploring those pieces and waiting to hear back from administration on what those, those potential cuts could look like.

Okay.

so that's a story we'll be following.

And my colleague Noel Evans also recently reported on an incident that involved the allegation of peer to peer assault, the reporting procedures and how the district handles this kind of incident.

first of all, were you or other board members briefed about that incident, or did you have any communication with the district ahead of publishing that story?

I was made aware of it.

And so, you know, the conversation becomes, what what do we have in place?

What's happening under interim Superintendent Demario Strickland?

one of the things that he actively worked was ensuring that we had centralized systems in place.

this would to ensure like the adequate reporting.

And it was also connected to the student repository system, which connects directly to the state.

So those are things that he's been trying, making sure our driven in the right way.

and it really becomes a matter of continuous improvement.

I think when you look at systems, continuous improvement is vital and you cannot afford to be reactive.

And so what are our systems again of accountability?

How what is our crisis response?

what do we have in place in these things really, in my opinion, should be practiced like fire drills.

Well, I mean, part of the reporting that Noel story showed is a gap in incident reporting in school safety and educational climate.

and for example, at Sota, Noel looked at the SCC report and so had reported over a year.

No incidents of bullying.

Does that seem realistic to you?

The reporting is accurate.

I would want to, connect with Interim Superintendent Mario Strickland, for some updates around those pieces.

So I think that, driving those systems, making sure things are placed in the centralized system where they need to be, I think power school, all of that stuff should be in there.

And that's one thing that he championed and made sure was happening.

So yeah.

Okay.

And one other part here that I think is interesting, Noel's reporting finds on the district website that Sota has two guidance counselors for roughly 1000 students.

When the American School Counselor Association is recommending a minimum of one guidance counselor for every 250 students.

So Sota would need to have a minimum of four, they've got two.

Is that the kind of thing that can be addressed in the budget?

Is, is the budgeting so tight that that is not something that can be addressed?

What do you think?

I think I think anything can be addressed in a budget.

I think it's it's again, it's not about having the money.

We we clearly know money is not necessarily always the issue.

It's about strategy and how you utilize it.

And so if there's bloat or duplication that's taking place, how are we then identifying those dollars and spaces that they're needed?

How are we resourcing our schools to ensure that they are, staffed properly, that they have the curriculum, all the things that they need to be successful.

So those are the things that we we have to continue to, conversate about and get a better understanding around.

The children's agenda was on this program last week.

They do a lot of work.

I know you know that.

And they're advocating for mental health support in various ways.

And they came on this program, they were going to be on the program anyway.

And and then, a student dies by suicide really rocks the community.

And, you know, everybody is sort of feeling that.

So, I want to ask you just a couple of things there.

First of all, I mean, how do you think the school community is doing after.

I mean, that is a tragedy that rocks any community.

Has RCC doing after that?

Yeah.

doing as well as can be expected, right.

Of and and I think it's, it's, what was amazing to see is the wrapping around of support for the school community, for the family, and out of respect for the family, you know, I'm going to, recognize this is an ongoing investigation and legal matter that I can't discuss too much.

But I will say that, my heart goes out to that family.

I, I cannot imagine.

And I went there that day and to see, the, the how the school community has come together.

I to watch, interim superintendent and, his folks from his cabinet try to make sure that the resources are there, that students and staff, have the resources.

I know that the services for, the young lady were, held this past Saturday.

I know folks came there.

And so it is an ongoing, space that you would not want to see anyone have to go through.

Yeah.

And so now, I guess part of the question going forward is what's the right combination of mental health supports?

That's something that Commissioner Santiago talked about on this program a month ago.

and I know he works a lot on that.

And I'm sure the whole board is thinking about that.

you know, you can't put one counselor for every student, and I don't think you'd want to.

I mean, I think I so but what can be done?

What does that look like?

Yeah.

And then guidance counselor, academic counseling and things of that nature quite different than mental health supports and social work and things of that nature.

So, and the district has a plethora of different supports.

I think the objective is to take a look at what already exists and how are we leveraging supports.

Do we have a centralized, coordinated plan for, students to access those supports?

what can we do better with leveraging those supports?

and, I'm definitely about having, a coordinated crisis response as well.

So, we are looking at that and unpacking all the things that we have in our district, to ensure folks know where to go, how to access it, that type of thing.

Yeah.

After the incident, I hope the media always reports really sensitively on this.

I think for the most part, I mean, I certainly feel like we did, you know, it is an important story because people often know that a district and kids are hurting.

You also have to be very sensitive in stories with self-harm and suicide.

And for a while, they're school board members who are elected officials.

were apparently, you know, some members were telling me that they were told not to speak to the media.

was there like any unofficial gag order in place over this that you're aware of?

No, I wouldn't I don't believe that was the case.

What I believe is that you recognize in highly sensitive spaces where a family is been impacted.

Sure.

Yeah.

Friends, family, students, school, community, folks sometimes can run ahead and misinformation can be very, it can be dangerous and it can be irresponsible.

we don't know all the information, but we have to be sensitive that these things happen, that family members and people were still learning about what was going on.

And you want to move very cautiously, sensitively and responsibly in spaces like this.

And why would you want to run straight to the media?

I do believe the public has the right to know what happened, what's going on.

But you want to be very cautious.

Yeah.

In that time.

So I wouldn't say, you know, gag order.

You can't speak to anyone.

It's a matter of let's let's handle this responsibly.

Yeah, I think that's I understand that, let me get Charlie's email.

Charlie says Evan and Camille, I've taught for 33 years.

The last 31 in the city.

I cannot agree more about changing the culture of the board.

Superman is superintendent.

Ha!

I would ask the new superintendent and all the board members to please listen to people away from board meetings, listen to kids alone, away from any adults, listen to parents, listen to members of the community.

Listen to your administrators, albeit with a grain of salt.

And also listen to your teachers away from their immediate supervisors.

And you will, I promise.

Learn more about what needs to be done.

Good luck.

Our kids future depends on it, he says.

P.S.

Charlie says, P.S.

the phones must be put away.

They are stealing their owners education, so he wants to endorse that part.

But but part of what he's saying is, try to get the best kind of accountable feedback that you can get away from spheres of influence where someone might not be able to give you their full opinion on something.

Is that fair?

Yeah, absolutely.

That's something I try to practice with within reason, without getting too far into some things.

One one piece that I'm excited about is that we have partnered with the Council for Great City Schools.

they're helping us with our school board, governance, student outcomes focused framework and all that good stuff.

And, one of the pieces that they're helping us develop is engaging with the community.

It's not so much what the gentleman just spoke to, because it's a community conversation.

So there are spaces where people do need to feel safe to say, hey, I this is this is something I'm struggling with and, what have you.

So how do you balance out receiving that feedback, and supporting folks in their in the right way?

Charlie, thank you for that.

And, Charlie, we're going to talk about the proposal from Governor Hochul on a bill table, cell phone ban in schools.

We'll be talking about that very soon on this program.

It's probably going to involve a series of conversations.

I really want to talk to teachers and students and parents and administrators, to stakeholders across communities.

We want to talk to child psychologist.

I mean, we're going to try to bring in a lot of people because that's a big proposal, and a lot of states are moving in this direction, and it's not really Partizan.

I mean, you see it in Illinois, Democratic Governor Pritzker, you see it in Arkansas with a Republican governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

And so we'll be talking about that.

I promise soon, Charlie, on this program, Greg wants to know.

Greg says, is it true that a school board commissioner was targeted for his age?

So Greg is talking about the dispute among commissioners that we referenced earlier.

Commissioner Isaiah Santiago was elected at the age of 19, I think, when he was elected the youngest board member ever in Rochester.

and of course, he had recently been a student himself.

But, you know, that that very close to the students perspective.

And he has said that he feels he was targeted by a commissioner for his age, that he was treated differently for it.

and Greg just wants to know if that is true.

Is that.

I don't know if that's been established fact.

I don't even know if you can talk about it, but I'll let you answer.

Greg and I and I wish I could, expound on those questions.

I think they're good questions.

but the reality is, right now, as they are going through, their litigation or what have you, I am unable to really respond to that.

But I do appreciate the question.

I do think that, school boards, to be effective, have to comprise of a multitude of different skills and perspectives.

And I think that's what drives the health of a school board.

so you may have an expertise or experience around leadership.

You may have someone else who who understands curriculum and teaching and learning, or someone with a legal background and someone with a youth perspective.

So I think those things are always a very healthy balance to have.

when you're considering systems.

Okay.

Greg, thank you for that.

a couple other things before we go this hour.

You had mentioned earlier, you had pointed out accurately that the federal government, at least the leadership now is talking about eliminating the Department of Education and also noted that that's supposed to be an act of Congress, although who knows who has the power anymore.

Commissioner in Washington.

Right.

so if this is a prerogative of the current white House, if they want this to happen and they've got Republican support in Congress, they might very well be able to do it.

So I don't know what that would mean overnight.

I don't know if the headline tomorrow is Department of Education eliminated.

What that means.

in principle and in, in practice right away, what comes to mind for you?

What are you worried about?

Yeah.

it's really having a plan of action.

how will the school district be able to survive you when you look at.

I'll just focus in on special education, if that were to be interrupted, you know, what does that mean for, things that are expected.

There's there's reporting that's supposed to happen with special education.

I think they were talking about putting it under the health, administration or something of that nature.

but there's a very huge education component that needs to be upheld in regard to, student learning and special education.

What does that look like?

So we have to, be thinking about if that were to be interrupted, what are the contingency plans?

And those are conversations and questions that I'm continuing to ask.

We would like to see some form of a plan A, B, maybe even.

I see how our dollars can you put dollars in the Drudge Fund.

Right.

How do we allocate our dollars responsibly or our you know, what does that really look like without getting into too much?

Well, does the district have a rainy day fund?

We have, a healthy fund balance, I'll tell you that.

We have, some, some flexibility.

And so we want obviously legally, how can we move these dollars around in a way that, would allow us to sustain them because districts the initial anticipation is that you wouldn't see them hit this particular year, but in year two and three, you're going to be looking at some, some really crazy things that you're going to have to navigate.

And so, how are we putting, plans in place to navigate those spaces?

Okay.

yeah, that's another one.

Listeners, we'll keep our eyes on the Department of Education and cover that as it goes forward there.

and finally, when it comes to the new superintendent, feel free to send a message as we will continue to send messages that when he's here, we'd love to sit down with him.

I'm sure.

I'm sure we will.

I'm sure that'll be a regular thing.

it always is with superintendents here, and I know he'll be busy.

One of the things that was mentioned a month ago by your colleagues who did not vote for the new superintendent, was they felt like in a crisis, which they feel like we are in, that it's hard to bring in someone who is not from the district to learn it fresh, to start fresh and not have a basis, not have a foundation, you know, a 90 day listening tour.

It's sort of a classic idea of new leaders and new spaces, and they were questioning whether there's even time for that.

Are you concerned that the next superintendent, will have a big learning curve at a time of crisis when you need leadership that has institutional knowledge?

Yeah.

He's well-equipped, he's well-equipped.

He's ready for the charge.

If I didn't feel that he was, I wouldn't have voted for him to come.

I'm confident.

I'm excited.

And at this point in time, you'll be here July 1st as his official start date.

He's already transitioning, and that's something to be said about experience.

You know where to look, you know how to move.

And the reality is, even sitting superintendents in other districts are in this crisis time trying to figure it out.

oh.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

So that's that's the reality.

So let's wrap with this then this is a district that's seen a ton of turnover, unfortunately.

And I just don't even think I have it in me to keep asking, like, do you think this is the one that's going to stay because everyone always says, yes, what?

I'm going to tell you is I have all the confidence in Doctor Eric J. Rosser, and I know he's going to come here and do his thing.

But like I told you earlier, even if this board does not get themselves together, Superman himself could not come here and be effective.

It's going to really, truly depend on us.

And if we all collectively say we care about students and families, even if we didn't select him, then we need to lean in and make sure that we do what we need to do to ensure he's successful in helping our students and families.

And you'll know if you're serious about that by the actions of the board.

That's it.

And in 30s, what about the rest of the community?

What do you want to make sure that they hear?

To try to lay the groundwork for a superintendent position that will not be turned over again in a year or two?

We need the community.

The community voice is powerful.

The parent voice is powerful.

Beyond measure.

We have parent groups, but we need the collective community parent voice.

I'll be doing a, community conversation this Saturday for a couple of hours.

At first Genesis.

There's some there's some, stuff going out there.

First instance between this Saturday, this Saturday, Saturday, April 12th, I'll be doing a community conversation.

What time?

at 2:00 pm, from 2 to 4 at First Genesis Baptist Church.

Come out and have some conversation.

Charlie said.

We need to hear from folks coming.

Let's do it.

Let me.

Yeah, let's do it.

Absolutely.

Saturday, 2:00, you can meet and talk to the president of the Rochester City School Board.

As you continue your work and your colleagues will continue to be welcome here.

I want to thank you for being here, and I always look forward to the next conversation.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

The president of the Rochester City School Board, Camille Simmons, as part of our series of conversations with the board.

We've got more connections coming up in just a moment.

But.

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