At the outset of a recent community forum on Rochester schools issues, RTA President Adam Urbanski stressed that he and Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard share a lot of common ground.

But make no mistake; the areas of disagreement are still substantial.

The forum, held at Trinity Emmanuel Presbyterian Church on Monday night, was hosted by a community organization called Activists Against Racism Movement. Most of the discussion centered on the district's controversial new in-school suspension policy. Under that program, most students are no longer sent home for suspensions. They go to in-school suspension classrooms at each school, where they are supposed to be receiving more individualized instruction.

The in-house suspension program is working well in some schools, Brizard said, and not in others. Some teachers and staff, particularly at East High, claim the new policy has caused safety problems.

Urbanski agreed with Brizard that suspended students should not be sent home, with one exception - students who are "chronically disruptive and violent." These students require professional intervention and rehabilitation. But they are not, Urbanski said, candidates for in-house suspensions.

Brizard quickly noted that students who are violent and a threat to teachers and students will be dealt with appropriately, though he wasn't specific about how and with what resources.

The district's teachers can not solve these types of problems alone, Urbanski said.

The real question is: Who can? Where are the resources?

The tendency in forums like Monday night's is to blame teachers and principals for students' low achievement. But the consequences of poverty and its drag on student achievement are often minimized. More than half of the students who are suspendedare repeat offenders. District officials and the School Board have been careful not to criticize parents. Low parental involvement is rarely discussed in these meetings.

Meanwhile, students are being sent to a classroom in school instead of home - a situation critics say is only bringing the issues of street life into the school.