Sorry to hear the news, Van -- you would have made Rochester proud in the Assembly! But there's no question that the school district needs your voice and level-headed leadership in this especially crucial year.

Hasn't Van basically washed out in every job he's held? Can anyone say he's been a success at the School District? You may disagree with Gantt's take-no-prisoners style, but no one has ever said he's incompetent. The teachers unions are looking for a Useful Idiot to run against Gantt to punish him for supporting mayoral control, but they're only finding that Useful Idiots are...not that bright.

Mayoral control is going nowhere; the Senate will have none of it. (While they are at it, they should take it away from the execrable Bloomberg, who we can thank for so vividly demonstrating what a joke mayoral control has proven to be.) At least White is not one of Gantt's toadies; we've had a Gantt controlled board for some time. He even says that himself. If you don't like the Board, assign the responsibility for where it belongs. It's called "accountability."

Troll, who on the current Board would you describe as "Gantt controlled"? Aside from Cynthia, I cannot think of any of them who would be considered Gantt allies. Au contraire, I think "union controlled" would be a more apt description. Which is a major part of the problem with the school district; Adam Urbanski has been the de facto superintendent for almost 20 years.

Certainly Cruz and Campos. Although he has recently distanced himself a bit, Evans owes his Board membership to Gantt. That's four votes right there. And although she may not be in his orbit presently, Powell will not overtly alienate Gantt. That's 5 - 2 right there. David Gantt is the most powerful elected official in Monroe County and will be for the foreseeable future. And the notion this is a union board is either profoundly ignorant or delusional, or both. Anyone who has any clear connection to the district knows that. The RTA president's power pales in comparison to the Superintendent. And what is the most powerful entity of them all? The State Education Department, by a country mile.

Perhaps the School Board should be composed of a random selection of City residents who pay taxes and send their children to the schools. Also eliminated should be former teachers or anyone directly or indirectly on the City payroll. Continuing the same bureaucratic insiders' game will never "change" or "fix" the school district.

Mike Giuliano - If the concern is that "insiders" are too biased one way or another to be effective then why not eliminate ALL such influences by limiting school board membership to those who pay taxes but have no children in the city schools. Who could be less of an "insider" than that?

Cruz and Campos are no cronies of Gantt. The board until January was made up of Gantt cronies Elliot and Williams, who ironically enough, White often sided with. Evans, Campos and Cruz made up the other faction. Powell has been an odd free agent who has often acted as the swing vote. Who knows how new board member Mary Adams will conduct herself? There is a new facebook group called the Rochester Black Political Caucus, which excludes both Evans and White. Gantt has never gotten along with black leaders who have their own base. He warred with Willie Lightfoot Sr. for years and supported John Lighfoot's opponent for County Legislature in 2011.

Gantt is not known to be a terribly effective legislator, he's mostly a punchline in Albany. His attendance record is abysmal. He's chair of the transportation committee and Rochester hasn't seen much transportation booty. How much more state funding does Buffalo get? His main power is to prevent things from happening rather than getting things done like passing legislation or getting funding for local projects. Gantt must go!!!

B Sarbane

It's regrettable that you resort to name calling. "Useful idiot". Come on even bullies in the school play ground can do better than that.

You'd do better to stick with the facts. Perhaps you were not aware, but I voted against the latest union contract. Additionally, Mr. Urbanski and I took very different views of last year's budget and our differences were VERY public. Consequently your charactization of me as a "union controlled" simply can not be reconcilled with the facts.

Therefore as I am not "controlled" by the union and obviously not "Gantt controlled" , I maintain that there is only one group left that I am "useful" to - i.e. the citizens.

In that regard, when I took the oath of office at the school that I attended when I was a child (#50 School) the District's graduation rate was an abysmal 39%. I, along with a whole lot of other folks, have worked tirlessly to bring about ssystemic and programtic changes in this area.

As a result, our graduation rate is up 10% points since I took the oath of office. Additionally school violence is down dramatically as well. But I realize that there is much work to be done and I am committed to see that work through.

Perhaps with a little less name calling and attention to the problems and solutions we could all figure out a way to get the type of continuous improvement that our students, families and City deserve.

This is Gantt's Board, and anyone pretending otherwise is, well, pretending.

Aside from the obvious illegality and unconstitutionality of excluding whole categories of people from public office, from a moral and practical perspective, what is wrong with having an educator (or more) on the Board? The finest possible member of the Board in the past half-century was a former teacher, the late Cathy Spoto. Since when, outside of Orwell's 1984, is ignorance strength?

The real challenge is to groom appropriate persons to run for the Board, those who understand and value pubic education; who can be taught themselves, discarding previously held (wrong) opinions and beliefs, based on new information.

Commissioner White, with all due respect and not intending to negate your work, c'mon: who by now doesn't know that 39% graduation rate was pure fiction, Commissioner Mills' parting shot at Manuel Rivera; a pure gift for the incoming superintendent? And talk to any teacher about this "dramatic" reduction in school violence.

Dear Troll

What is your proof that this was "parting shot"? Here are the facts in the two years preceeding 2006 rate of 39%the RCSD graduation rate was on a steady decline. In 2004 it was 45% and in 2005 it was 41%. So your explanation that 2006 was the result of something Mills did to Manny just can not be reconciled with the facts. The fact is that after three years of steady declines we brought the rate of 10% points and this was done as the state has steadly increased the number of regents requirements and changed the rules respecting enrollment. and students leaving the district.

For example just last year the State changed the rules such that if a student is enrolled in your District for JUST ONE DAY in ninth grade he/she is counted against our graduation even if he never comes back for an additional day. Previously the rule had been that the student had to be enrolled for 5 months before he/she would be counted agianst your graduation rate.

With respect to violence in school, my comments were based on the number of teachers requesting medical leave as a result of violence in school, This is as reliable a method as any to gauge how many of our teachers were in harms way. Im at my home right now so I dont have the figures. But the number of claims relating to workplace violence are down SUBSTANTIALLY since 2007. If youd' like feel free to email and I will get you the exact figures. Additionally the number of violent and disruptive incidences is down as are the number of schools that are now labled by the State of New York as "persistently violent". This is the data upon which I based my previous comments.

The data which I offer is not to boast but to suggest that in the midst of all the District''s struggles and problem there is good verifiable and sustainable progress that we are making. It's important to acknowledge that progress. People who struggle need the fuel that progress provides. We should not deprive our families, staff and students of this good news. They certianly are entitled to hear some.

Troll

I'm curious given the composition of the Board over the last 4 years why u would say the Board was "controlled" by Assemblyman Gantt.

Even assuming that through their relationship with Assemblyman Gantt that Board Members Elliot and Williams (both of whom are pretty strong willed community leaders) regularly agreed with Gantt, that would not means the board was controlled by Gantt. The "numbers" just aren't there to justify that conclusion. Every other person whose sat on that board has been independent of him or Gantt has supported candidates against them when they ran for office.

One other important fact you might want to consider in the two years that Malik Evans and I ran for President and Vice President of the Board respectively both Commissioners Elliott and Williams opposed our election and/or ran against us. It's doubtful that would have happened if Mr. Evans or my views were in "alignment" with their views or the views of Assemblyman Gantt. One of the views that were not shared between Assemblyman Gantt and most of the members of the Board over the last two years was Mayoral Control. Only two Board members that I'm aware of (Elliott and Williams) supported mayoral control. In fact at least four publically and actively campaigned against it including Board members Brennan, Powell, Evans, and myself when it arose as an issue. Accordingly it would not be accurate to characterize any of those people as Gantt controlled. In the final analysis none of this political analysis or attempts to characterize people as being controlled or not makes any difference if we can't make a difference in our students' academic lives. That's what we should be focusing on. That's why I decided not to run for a seat in Albany. There still is a great deal of work to be done here in Rochester.

BTW I agree with your characterization of Ms Soto. She was a fine board member. But she was not the only former teacher. My undergraduate is in teaching (social studies) and I have taught at public and private schools.

Mr. White wrote, "Additionally the number of violent and disruptive incidences is down as are the number of schools that are now labled by the State of New York as "persistently violent". "

We are currently waiting to hear which schools my oldest daughter was accepted in, for 7th grade next school year. My first priority for any school for my kids is safety, so I am very interested in knowing which schools locally are labeled as "persistently violent." Is there a way for the public to access that database? Thanks for any information.

It's Spoto, not "Soto, and this list is not limited to her. Other excellent Board members of the past generation + would include Frank Willis, Ben Douglas, Archie Curry, Karen Grella, Marvin Jackson and definitely Daryl Porter.

I mis-wrote and apologize to Commissioner White and reinforce his assertion that RCSD schools are seeing a definite decrease in violence and an increase in civility. While uneven, something right seems to be taking place. On other topics I stand by my words, but I understand Commissioner White's defense of his fellow Board members.

Sorry for the typo on ms spoto's name. Sometimes my fingers are to big for this small key board