We are learning more about Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy's plan for control of the Rochester City School District.

Entitled "Serving Children and Parents First - Implementing Mayoral Accountability," the mayor released a draft of his plan Monday that outlines some of what he is proposing.

It is the second report of the mayoral control plan – the first one outlined reasons for the change, while the second version touches on some of those changes.

It includes several plans for improvement, including:

• More after-school programs and potentially staffing schools from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. to accommodate the needs of parent
  
• An option for parents of elementary-age children to choose their neighborhood school
  
• An increase in safety measures, including an increase in Rochester police presence, school security, and crossing guards before, during and after school
  
• The need to change and evaluate the district's attendance system by implementing a stiffer anti-truancy program
  
• The appointment of a board designed to improve student success
  

Mayor Bob Duffy said this is just the beginning as the state works on drafting its legislation for the proposal.

Mayor Duffy said the point in drafting up plans for mayoral control is so that the people can know what to expect if this proposal passes.

Some people that YNN spoke to said why wait until then, when change can start now.

Mayor Bob Duffy proposed several changes he is seeking with his mayoral control plan.

"This is not something that's simple, nor is a change in governance a silver bullet for anything. It's really, it's looking at every single conceivable resource and try and do what's best for our kids," Duffy said.

Some of those resources, the mayor said, include fixing the district's broken attendance system. The plan is to create a stricter truancy program and even holding parents legally responsible for chronically truant students.

"It really is about earning the respect of children, parents, teachers, staff in the community of doing the right thing," Duffy said.

Duffy also wants to improve district transportation by proposing to change the state's existing 1.5-mile requirement.

"The bus policy, for example, he says he's going to go to Albany and help change the law. Why can't he do that now? If he sees that in the district's best interest, why wouldn't he seek to change the law just from where he stands," said Van White, commissioner of schools.

White and Rochester Teachers Association President Adam Urbanski said they can all come together now and fix many of the issues surrounding city schools.

"Some of the suggestions are good suggestions and we should explore them and we should start collaborating all of us without waiting to see how this comes out politically," Urbanski said.

"For example, the attendance issue: The mayor has been saying for the past two years that we were going to have meetings to beef up and improve our truancy effort. Those meetings stopped about a year ago and I'm not sure why," White said.

Urbanski and White raise the question of why they all can't just work together.

"Rochester is notorious for great studies and great plans, but after a while they go by the wayside if things don't change the way they should. So it should be a focus of results," said Mayor Duffy.

The mayor said that the process of getting this passed will begin once the state releases legislation. As far as a timeline, the mayor was not sure of when that will be.

RCSD
City School Governance Reform