City schools salary exodus to the suburbs
exacerbates disparities in student opportunities
April 5, 2021
IT’S ABSOLUTELY AMAZING THAT — HERE IN MODERN-DAY-SLAVE-TOWN U.S.A. — NO SO-CALLED PROMINENT BLACK LEADERS (OTHER THAN ONE OR TWO WHO CLEARLY REPRESENT THE OLD, DEEP-SEATED, THOROUGHLY-ENTRENCHED, RACIST, STATUS -QUO) — ARE SAYING ANYTHING ABOUT THIS TRAVESTY. SOMETIMES WE JUST HAVE TO CALL A-SPADE-A-SPADE — THIS IS ONE OF THOSE TIMES!!! AND JUST IMAGINE THE DEAFENING SILENCE IS OCCURRING IN THE FACE OF A NEW, SO-CALLED “BOLD” $200,000 DOLLAR JOINT CITY AND COUNTY “ANTI-RACISM” REPORT TITLED: ‘NO TIME FOR EXCUSES: IT’S TIME FOR ACTION’ ( https://rocrase.com/files/report-rase.pdf ) — RIGHT!!! IF IT REALLY IS TIME FOR ACTION — SHOULDN’T WE START AT THE TOP?
1) First of all, make no mistake about the fact that this deadly-serious issue represents one of the most glaring cases and examples regarding functioning and manifestation (within this city, county, state, and nation) — relative to the tripartite beast and illness of individual, institutional and structural racism ( http://minorityreporter.net/the-tripartite-beast-and-illness-of-individual-institutional-and-structural-racism/ ). That is to say, this crystal-clear, historic, socioeconomic, sociopolitical, and sociocultural pattern is NOT unique to Rochester and/or the Rochester City School District (RCSD), and/or surrounding lily-white suburban towns and villages — nor their separate, public school districts. Instead, this very exact/same pattern is repeated throughout this thoroughly racist, white-supremacist-based nation-state (in every direction — North, East, South, and West), which represents the most logical reason why we know that it is not just one great, big coincident, but instead represents the cumulative outcome of literally centuries of blatant, ongoing, intentional, calculated, racist policies, practices, procedures, rules, regulations and laws that have guided and governed the thoroughly racist institution of public education (from day-one — from the very beginning — right up to this very moment — https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/to-understand-structural-racism-look-to-our-schools/ ). It also represents one of the most glaring cases and examples of the long-standing and clearly deepening BLACK-CLASS-DIVIDE ( https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/education/edlife/black-america-and-the-class-divide.html ), which it’s high-time Black folks start discussing openly, honestly, and regularly.
With regard to the local scene:
2) In light of the kinds of information contained in this article, hopefully those who have been advocating for routinely directing potential “defunding-police-monies” — to the RCSD (without close and careful scrutiny) — are beginning to understand why that’s a very, very bad idea. It’s like going from the racist frying pan into the racist fire.
3) We must admit (no holds barred, or as Gloria Winston Al-Sarag would say — “straight with no chaser”) — the following crap is absolutely amazing: “Non-city residents include Superintendent Lesli Myers-Small; Chief Academic Officer Kathleen Black; Deputy Superintendents Melody Martinez-Davis and Genelle Morris; East High School Superintendent Shaun Nelms; and Chief Financial Officer Carleen Pierce.” THAT’S NEARLY THE ENTIRE TOP ECHELON!!!
4) Lesli Myers-Small is really full of crap, e.g., “Lesli Myers-Small is the first superintendent since the district was founded in 1841 not to live in the city. The board agreed to let her maintain her home in the town of Parma. In a statement, Myers-Small said it was important to her to remain in that house because her mother is medically fragile and would have had difficulty with the change. Her mother lived with her for many years. She no longer does so, but comes to stay with her on occasion. I recognize that living in the school district is an important characteristic for the superintendent in some school communities, Myers-Small said. When my mother stays with us, ours is the home that she recognizes, knows, and loves as her own. I shared this information with the board and they were supportive of my ask given the relationship between my mother and me, as well as her medical condition.” WHAT?! WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF THIS STATEMENT?
5) The sorry Rochester Board of Education is also full of crap. They claim that: “A residency requirement for district administrators in the 1980s was canceled after it proved difficult to enforce.” “Difficult to enforce”? WHAT?! How so? It’s simple — the RCSD utilizes direct deposit. Thus, they have every district employee’s accurate, current address. With literally hordes of overpaid, under-performing people at 131 West Broad Street, surely two or three of them can be assigned to perform month-to-month residency-checks, at least for top-level administrators, and the rule would be, if you are discovered to be living outside of Rochester, you get 30 days or so to move and provide proof of CITY RESIDENCY, or you’re gone (in each and every case — no exceptions) — period. When folks don’t want to produce change — they structure things in ways that become so-called “difficult to enforce.” They need to stop. In Myers-Small’s case, the chief talking-head of the Board, Van White claims: “She was an extremely rare and exceptional candidate, and under the circumstances involving her mother, we did not feel it was our place to make her move” — right! Translation: After skipping over Myers-Small when the Board had hired a superintendent who dumped them in less than one year — they were desperate to get the political-egg off of their incompetent faces, and desperate to quickly find a replacement. Thus, they looked back at the rejected-list, and Myers-Small was (by far) the most politically-expedient choice (whether she’s up to the job or not).
6) Tim Cliby (president of the Association of Supervisors & Administrators of Rochester — so called “ASAR”) is also full of crap: “The most important thing is to attract highly qualified, highly committed people no matter where they reside, ASAR President Tim Cliby wrote in an email. [Educators’] commitment for the advocation of students and families will not change because of their zip code.” The super-hyper-rhetoric sounds good (to those who don’t know any better), but those of us who have been around, and who are keenly astute relative to overall, objective reality, will always ask: “…highly qualified, highly committed people” — according to who, and by which specific measures? How can people possibly be so “highly qualified, highly committed,” and still end up with the RCSD literally being the worst performing school district in all of New York State, and one of the worse performing in the nation? Clearly so-called “high qualifications and high commitment” are NOT translating into high (positive) results. Good intentions are no longer good enough. It’s beyond time for good results:
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/rochester/news/2018/09/27/rcsd-rochester-schools-testing-new-york
7) Speaking of the agent who is most-full-of-crap, we already knew what the master-of-crap, Adam Urbanski would say — because he ALWAYS says the same thing: “We should celebrate the willingness of anyone to teach in the city if they’re committed and competent teachers, he said. This kind of a requirement would throw the district into a downward spiral — if there’s still room to go further down for this district, which is questionable.” Isn’t it interesting (to say the very least) that he questions whether or not there’s “still room to go further down for this district,” but will NEVER admit that one of the greatest aspects of this decades-long problem and issue, is founded directly in the attitudes, belief-systems, and behaviors of MANY who stand or sit in classrooms and zoom meetings before our children daily???
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Connections: Discussing the impact of RCSD staff living in the suburbs
4/6/21
- Justin Murphy, education reporter for the Democrat and Chronicle
- Simeon Banister, vice president of community programs at the Rochester Area Community Foundation
- Adam Urbanski, president of the Rochester Teachers Association
https://www.wxxinews.org/post/connections-discussing-impact-rcsd-staff-living-suburbs-3