EDUCATION and SOCIETY Crisis Conditions Reduced to Buzzwords and Baby talk

DATELINE

Rochester, New York State, USA

This bit of raw data is prompted by a recent conversation “Connections” host Evan Dawson had with a member of the Rochester New York City Schools District Board of Education. 

Dawson is a kindly interviewer who might pose a single question, repeatedly; but doesn’t push for a clear and clean answer. He seems to prefer the appearance of compliments instead of confrontation. Perhaps he worries about backlash or programs without bodies to interview.

The particular guest in question was in a segment focused on the Rochester City School District’s musical-chairs leadership and top-heavy, weighted-down incompetence (my words) played the political game of platitudes, talking points, feigned concern (my heart goes out, thoughts and prayers, hearts and flowers blah blah blah) sandwiched between buzzwords and a salad of empty words all signifying absolutely nothing of true substance. (WXXI News by Evan Dawson and Megan Mack April 9-10, 2025, a conversation with “RCSD ((Rochester City School District) Board President Camille Simmons on the new superintendent and the latest with the (Rochester City School) district” Published April 9, 2025, at 11:49 PM EDT https://www.wxxinews.org/2025-04-09/rcsd-board-president-camille-simmons-on-the-new-superintendent-and-the-latest-with-the-district


Consider these IGNORED

• Raw Facts
• Context Factoring into the Failure of America’s Young

Highest salary at Rochester City School District in year 2024: $270,425

Gov Salaries https://govsalaries.com/salaries/NY/rochester-city-school-district

Rochester City School Board Members’ Salaries (January 2025)

Combined cost of the salaries for Rochester School Board:

$133,600

Board Members annual Salaries

Members (Commissioners): $16,000 Board Chairman/woman: $17,600 ($16,000+$1,600)

Jordan Shearer Post Bulletin January 21, 2025, “Rochester School Board members to vote on their salaries next meeting” https://www.postbulletin.com/news/local/rochester-school-board-members-discuss-th

Democrat and Chronicle newspaper Columnist David Andreatta wrote in a 2018 article, citing the district’s budget, “six of the seven members on the Rochester Board of Education are paid $27,033”; and the seventh member, “President Van White, takes a salary of $34,758.” Andreatta opined that “the worst school district in the state pays its board commissioners the most.”

“Of the roughly 700 school boards in New York (State), only a handful of districts pay their elected representatives; and the rate of pay in Rochester tops the list by a mile.” Democrat and Chronicle November 23, 2018, “Why are Rochester School Board members highest paid in state?” https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/local/columnists/andreatta/2018/11/23/rochester-ny-school-board-members-highest-paid-state/2092355002/

Roster 2025 Rochester City School Board

Camille Simmons, President	Amy Maloy, Vice President	Cynthia Elliot, Board Vice President	Jacqueline Griffin, Commissioner
Beatriz LeBron-Harris, Commissioner	James Patterson, Commissioner	Isaiah Santiago, Commissioner	Hazel Roberts, Student Representative

https://www.rcsdk12.org/domain/11465

Turnover in Superintendents Rochester City School District

Rochester City School District Superintendents over 22-year period (2003-2025): 13

(Since 1980: 18) Thirteen charted below: 

Manuel Rivera (interim 2002): April 2003 -April 19, 2007	William Cala (April 20, 2007-December. 31, 2007 (interim)	Jean-Claude Brizard: January 1, 2008-May 10, 2011	Bolgen Vargas (interim May 11,  2011-June 30, 2012): July 1, 2012-December 31, 2015	Dan Lowengard: January 1- January 7, 2016 (interim):	Linda Cimusz:  January 8, 2016- August 2016 (interim)
Barbara Deane-Williams: August 2016-January 2019	Dan Lowengard: February 2019-June 2019 (interim)	Terry Dade: June 2019-May 2020	Lesli Myers-Small: June 2020-August 2022	Carmine Peluso: August 2022-June 2024	Demario Strickland July 1, 2024- April 2025 present (interim)
No. 13 (LATEST Superintendent HIRE): Eric Jay Rosser (School Board elected, district hired) tenure begins effective March 2025 “Rochester City School District Welcomes Dr. Eric Jay Rosser as New Superintendent” https://www.rcsdk12.org/ WXXI News March 6, 2025, “Rosser will start with an annual salary of $280,000” https://www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2025-03-06/rochester-city-school-board-taps-poughkeepsies-rosser-as-the-districts-new-superintendent

Rochester School District’s Profile in Brief

Cost
Academic Accomplishments, Product, Performance

• Minority Enrollment: 91 percent
• Population Largely Segregated: Black Students: 48 percent; White Students: 9 percent

• Per-Student Spending: $40,155

• Rating: bottom 50 percent (ranked #1009 out of 1,015 school districts in New)

• Graduation Rate: 68-72 percent

• Academics: Grade C Minus

Proficiency Measured by Test Scores

• Reading / Language Arts Proficiency: 16 percent (average 15 percent / NYS average 49 percent))

• Mathematics Proficiency 13 percent (average 12 percent / NYS average 47 percent)

• Science Proficiency: 33 percent

Niche https://www.niche.com/k12/d/rochester-city-school-district-ny/academics/?msockid=064249a980b1653614d25a8e8137645c
Public School Review https://www.publicschoolreview.com/new-york/rochester-city-school-district/3624750-school-district

New York State Ratings

Literacy Rates

Adults Lacking Basic Prose Literacy Skills: Second (below California)

Homelessness

Second Highest Homelessness Rates (below State of Hawaii) among 50 US states

• January 2022 - January 2024, Homelessness in New York State more than doubled

• Child Homelessness increased from 20,299 to 50,773

USA, NYC, NYS

• 2024 Nationwide 771,480 people were homeless

• 2024 New York State 158,000 people were homeless

• 2024 New York City 89,119 people were without permanent shelters

2024 largest number of homeless people outside New York City

• Long Island
• Westchester County
• Counties around Buffalo and Niagara Falls

2024 Regions outside New York City with sharpest increases in homelessness

• Poughkeepsie/Dutchess County: 11 percent increases
• Glens Falls, Saratoga Springs, surrounding counties 138 percent increases

Countrywide Contributing Factors

• 2023: California, Washington, DC, and Hawaii had the nation’s highest rents.
• 2024: California, Washington, DC, and Hawaii were among the six states (Hawaii, Washington District of Columbia, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and California) with the highest rates of homelessness.
• 2024: “Mississippi had both the country’s second-lowest rents, and the lowest homelessness rate.”

World Population https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/us-literacy-rates-by-state#states-with-the-lowest-literacy-rates
USA Facts (not-for-profit, nonpartisan civic initiative making government data easy)
https://usafacts.org/articles/which-states-have-the-highest-and-lowest-rates-of-homelessness/?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ND-Economy&msclkid=6b74e15daec8115bdbfa86aa56be0247&utm_term=homeless%20percentage%20by%20state&utm_content=Homelessness%20Stats
Report New York NEWS from the Office of the New York State Comptroller January 22, 2025, “Numbers of Homeless Population Doubled in New York”— DiNapoli
https://www.osc.ny.gov/press/releases/2025/01/dinapoli-numbers-homeless-population-doubled-new-york

Lawsuits, Laziness, Loose talk Change Nothing. 

The Schooling Years—those relatively few years, the formative years of children and teenagers—must be about focus and learning to focus, rules and discipline and learning self- discipline. 

Schooling should be about moral values (right from wrong, not left versus right), correct, corrective and corrected behaviors (not preaching, proselytizing or inculcating one or another ideology, personal preference or prejudice). 

Schooling should be about learning subject matter and practice in performing and verbal arts and sciences, disciplines of reading, writing, arithmetic and rationality, objective, scientific thinking. 

Schooling should be about learning fair play and playing fair; being exposed to and practicing good examples in tone and taste and behavior; learning about people; learning, experiencing, practicing respectful interpersonal interaction, dialogue, civil debate, engagement, exchange of ideas. 

Schooling should be about exposure to others (exposure to differences in geography, nations and nationalities, cultures, kin and kind); learning humility and courage without belligerence over-the-top arrogance; learning to see through lens of open-mindedness without preconceived notions, scripted propaganda, or prejudgment.

The formative years are critically important years not to be abused or misused by exploiters, private agendas, profiteers, propagandists, and self-serving opportunists.

Society suffers the consequences of human beings’ moral, intellectual and mental weaknesses, impairment, or carelessness. For the sake of society at large—and particularly for the sake of the young—those in positions of power and influence together with members of the general public must be responsible people, studiously discerning people.

The public together with people positioned in power should stop pandering to and promoting individuals who are unfit for purpose, incompetent, demonstrably flawed in character, mind or behavior.

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Prolific Southern-Born American Writer Dr. Carolyn LaDelle Bennett focuses on People, Press, Politics USA; Domestic and Foreign Affairs (no copyright claimed in direct quotes and individual image)

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https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/

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