As he completed his stint as Rochester's interim schools superintendent, Cala wrote a 48-page report detailing his observations about the district: what's wrong with it, and how we ought to fix it.

It's a scathing report, to put it mildly. While compliments are scattered here and there, on the whole, Cala's assessment is negative. He touches on nearly every aspect of the district's operations. And he doesn't mince words.

The tone of the criticism itself may lead the School Board to ignore it. And the report is so broad that Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard may be tempted to set it aside. Where would you start?

I don't agree with all of Cala's conclusions. But the report deserves study, as much for the questions it raises as for Cala's recommendations. The most important way to use Cala's critique, I think, is as a roadmap toward further investigation.

Many of the district's problems are the result of forces beyond its control, poverty and violence among them. But the district has to do the best it can to educate its students. Cala has some important recommendations for improvement. And significantly, many of them are steps the district has been trying to take for years.

One example: Cala says we need smaller schools. Numerous principals have told me that small schools are best for students - including high-school students. Cala points to a Columbia University study suggesting that creating small schools is the one reform at the high-school level that's been shown to increase graduation rates.

Cala doesn't suggest tearing down what we have and building new schools. He, like many educators, believes that small schools can be created within big buildings. The Rochester School District has done that with some of its large schools. And yet its graduation rate remains abysmally low.

Simply dividing a big school into several small ones doesn't work magic. Cala says the district hasn't given its small schools-within-schools the kind of support they need to become entirely new, different, independent schools.

Is this why Rochester's attempts haven't worked? Dividing Franklin High School into small units was the foundation of the much-touted Franklin reform several years ago. Is the district happy with the results?

Another example: Cala says the district has too many administrators - in schools and in Central Office. Maybe we do; he's not the first person to say that. But administrators are an easy target, and I've heard this complaint for all of the 36 years of this newspaper's history.

So what's the problem? Have we never had a superintendent smart enough, or strong enough, to get this right? Some School Board members had hoped that a lot of heads would roll when Cala took over. Only a few administrators were eased out. If Cala thought more needed to go, what stood in his way?

How many administrators do we need, and for what? Those questions are not as easy to answer as some people think.

There's a lot to work on in Cala's report. Some of his recommendations won't cost a penny and should happen quickly. (School Board members, he says, should treat one another and district staff members respectfully. I wonder sometimes if Board members realize the harm their behavior does to the district's reputation.)

But other recommendations will be tougher to deal with. And done right, many of them will cost money. Some of Cala's most enthusiastic supporters - leaders of the business community, for instance - won't like to hear that.

The work starts, though, with a discussion: by the School Board, by Brizard and his administrators, and by the community. Given our track record with reports and studies, though, I won't hold my breath.

Our report on Cala's report is on our website, as is the report itself: www.rochestercitynewspaper.com.