There is good news for School 16 in the revised Facilities Modernization Plan (FMP) program announced last Thursday March 14th by Superintendent Vargus. 

Major Changes Since January 10 are:

  School No. 4

• Renovation shifted to phase 3, 2016-2017
• Program may size down to K-6 over next two years

  School No. 16

• Renovated in phases 2 and 4
• Students return to renovated K-6 school as early as 2015

  School No. 22

• Program remains in place through 2017-2018
• Students move to Franklin Campus or replacement building after that

  Swing space

• Temporary locations are being adjusted to match need

We are getting School 16 Renovated and back to a K-6 elementary school as we wanted !!

Unfortunately the plan still calls for moving the School 10 Expeditionary Learning program to School 1 and eventually closing the School 37 building on Congress Avenue it is currently housed in.

The full FMP Impact Summary can be found at this RCSD page:  http://www.rcsdk12.org/cms/lib04/NY01001156/Centricity/Domain/7841/...

This graphic shows the School 10 and School 16 information separated out:

You can click on it to make it more readable.

Prior to the Superintendent reviewing the FMP changes with the Board, the public had an opportunity to speak to the Board.  John Laing and I were the only two to speak. 

John Laing reviewed the School 16 Survey results which had been mailed to the Board and Superintendent a few day earlier.  In particular he reviewed the newly calculated comparison Kathy King had derived from the survey data.  This showed current School 16 parents place a much higher value on student busing than do past parents and non-parents.  That busing data can be viewed in this table.

I then reviewed the Dr. Walter Cooper Academy School #10 PTO position letter that the PTO had sent to the Superintendent and Board back in early February.  I stressed they want to stay in the 19th Ward in their current school on Congress Avenue.  I also stressed the value that the 19th Ward places on having this Expeditionary Learning program in our community and in keeping the school on Congress available.  I pointed out that the feeder pattern that formerly was served by both 10 (37) and 16 has 1068 students currently attending City schools.  That feeder pattern is now assigned to School 16 alone. The return to neighborhood schools will overwhelm the capacity of School 16.  The effort underway to convince the State to permit busing of students less than 1.5 miles from their school of choice will cause a very large increase of student attending neighborhood schools.  We left them with copies of both documents.

Following the Superintendents presentation the Board discussed the pros and cons of the various proposals.  The proposed buildings for closure are shown in red in the following plan map:

There was quite a bit of discussion around the future of current students at School 30 whose program is being closed and the the School 54 program being moved to 30. 

Malik Evans requested that the Superintendent's staff explore keeping the School 10 program in the 19th Ward.   He also requested that they investigate expediting the return of the School 16 program to the Post Avenue building so that the loss of connection with the neighborhood is minimized.  

Melisza Campos also voiced interest in keeping the School 10 program in its current School Building 37 location but agrees some buildings have to close. 

Willa Powell urged that if School 10 can not stay where it is that the RCSD keep the land on Congress avenue so the district will be able to have the land available for building a future school.  Willa also discussed the fact Rochester has one of the highest teacher/student ratios in the state.  Unfortunately many are not actively teaching.  This needs to change.

Mary Adams pointed out that there is an inequitable distribution of school buildings in good condition in the City because of past inequities of maintenance.  Building 1 is only 10 years newer than Building 37 but is in much better shape.  She suggested the district consider moving the School 54 program to Building 1.  She also pointed out that the NY State Assistant Commissioner of Education had suggested we involve the State more in in early consideration of renovation options to try to ensure we qualify for the 98% reimbursement for facilities modernization and look at  maximizing what we can do.

I think that the Location of the School 10 program and the future of the School 37 building is still to be determined.