Rochester Schools Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard will unveil a sweeping plan this week that would close eight of the city's lowest performing schools, and open three new schools.

Brizard also wants to reconfigure the district's high schools by taking out the middle grades - seventh and eighth - and moving them into elementary schools.

The proposed changes would improve student performance, provide students and parents with better schools, and eliminate bad schools, says Mary Doyle, the district's senior director of school innovation.

Franklin's three high schools: Bioscience and Health Careers, Global Media Arts, and International Finance High Schools would close. Edison's four schools: Applied Technology, Business Finance and Entrepreneurship, Imaging and Information Technology, and Engineering and Manufacturing would also close.

John Marshall High School would close, too.

All of the schools would be phased out over four years beginning in September 2010, except John Marshall. Marshall's phasing out would begin in 2011.

New schools would be created under the plan. The Rochester Early College High School, an accelerated 9-12 high-school-to-college program, would be a partnership with Monroe Community College and St. John Fisher. And it would open in the fall at Wilson with 100 ninth graders.

The Integrated Arts and Technology High School would be an Expeditionary Learning School like School 58, where students learn through long-term investigations, field studies, and working in the community. It would open in the fall.

Vanguard Collegiate High School would become the district's third Advanced Placement school. The 9-12 high school would open in the fall with 125 ninth graders.

Integrated Arts and Technology and Vanguard would be phased-in on the Franklin campus. And the district is submitting a proposal to the state to open its first charter school on the Franklin campus.

Edison would be reconfigured from four high schools to two. One of the new schools would focus on the design and construction trades. The other - STEM - would focus on science, technology, engineering, and math. The district plans to add a medical billing and coding program, as well as a licensed practical nurse program to Edison. But a date for launching those programs has not been set.

The Joseph C. Wilson Foundation Academy would be reconfigured from grades 7-9 to K-8. School 19 and School 3 would become pre-K to grade 8 and K-8 elementary schools respectively.

Past structural changes to the district have been controversial. Franklin, for example, has undergone multiple changes, with limited success. Recommendations from Brizard last year to close Franklin's schools were challenged by some School Board members, and have become one of Mayor Bob Duffy's talking points in his bid for mayoral control. Duffy argues that Brizard isn't being supported by the School Board in trying to make innovative changes to the district.

Doyle says, however, that the proposed changes would have better results than past restructuring. Principals, for instance, would be able to staff their schools with fresh new talent. RCSD teachers interested in teaching in the new schools, Doyle said, would have to apply for those positions just like other new teachers.

Brizard will present the proposed changes to School Board members at the Excellence in Student Achievement Committee meeting at 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 11, at 131 West Broad Street. The plan requires the Board's approval.