Is it time to begin exit negotiations with the superintendent of the Rochester City School District?

In the world of city school district inevitables, has this one rolled around already?

As the district inexplicably continues to fail to come up with a reopening plan, when it cannot support the reopening call of either the president or the governor, when 89% of the teachers denounce it in a union poll, could it be time to stick a fork in it?

People hoped things would get better when the state overseer came in. And maybe somewhere in the accounting office she has made some useful changes, but from the standpoint of students and families, the worst urban school district in America remains the worst urban school district in America.

And the stupid keeps being stupid.

And a war goes on about whether or not to actually allow students to come to school and learn. Not a war involving those students and their parents – they have keen desire to reap the benefits of in-person instruction – but a war between an all-powerful union and an administration that seems feckless on its best days.

An administration whose chief academic officer lives in Maryland and whose deputy superintendent lives in Buffalo, and whose superintendent is broadly rumored to be an infrequent visitor to Central Office.

Maybe a fish does, in fact, rot from the head.

And if this leadership team can’t OPEN THE MOTHER-FRIGGING SCHOOLS then maybe it’s time to find somebody who can. And whether that’s bringing in Shaun Nelms, the East High bigwig warming up in the bullpen, or begging the state to take over and bring in someone from some far-flung island of competence, then so be it.

And, for the purpose of this discussion, “some far-flung island of competence” would be any other district in the state. When you’re the only district in the county that can’t figure out how to reopen after 10 months of covid shutdowns, and when you’re the only big district in the state that’s still closed, the problem’s not the virus.

The problem is this district continues to be about paychecks for adults instead of educations for kids.

The continued denial of the option of in-person instruction for the young people of Rochester is a crime against them and their futures. It is an assault on their emotional, social, physical and intellectual wellbeing. It leaves hungry kids hungry, abused kids abused, lonely kids lonely, and eager kids frustrated. They can’t see their friends, they can’t learn their lessons, they can’t live their lives.

Because the superintendent can’t do her job.

A job every other superintendent has gotten done. A job they’ve figured out how to do in Syracuse, Buffalo, Albany, Elmira, Yonkers and New York City.

This has gone on long enough. The uncertainty, the flip flops, the trauma imposed on children and parents. Moms and dads and sons and daughters who don’t even have the simple assurance that there will be in-person school. People whose lives have been left adrift for almost a year, while the lives of similar parents and students all across the state and nation were able to rebound and rebuild after early covid disruptions.

This is the racism people should be concerned about. This is directly and undeniably destructive to the lives of young people who were born with the deck stacked against them. There is one ladder out of the hole of poverty and oppression, and it is education. And this failure of the Rochester City School District all but destroys that ladder, clobbering the futures of young people who are overwhelmingly black or brown. And that is racism, even if its perpetrators are black or brown themselves.

Open the schools.

Be smart enough to figure out how. Be capable enough to administer it. Be strong enough to knock the union on its ass.

Or be on your way.

That’s the message to the superintendent and her administration, and to the school board, and to the union president.

The boot of school-district incompetence has been on the neck of Rochester’s young people for too long. This year of ineptitude is just the most recent and most devastating example.

And the voice of the community to the people with the big paychecks is clear.

Get the schools open, or get the hell out.