Comment Archives: stories: News & Opinion: Last 30 Days
Re: “Elections: Who's in, who's out”
Media Advisory
Howard Eagle & Ronald Hall Will Officially Launch Campaign To Challenge Democratic Party's, Hand-Picked Candidates For School Board
WHAT: Press Conference
WHEN: Wednesday, June 5, 2013 ... 4:00 PM ... 4:00 PM
WHERE: In Front of All City High School (180 Ridgeway Avenue)
WHY: To officially launch their campaign to unseat incumbents, and help end the status-quo.
Ronald Hall was quoted as having said: "We sincerely hope that Rochester City School District parents, grandparents, guardians, and the general, tax-paying, public is ready to join us in declaring, and proving that enough is enough."
Howard Eagle said: "We have out-worked (in the streets), and out-organized the Democratic-Party-Machine, and defeated it in the past. Indeed, we did so in 2011. It is our plan and intentions to do the job twice as well in 2013."
Re: “Feedback 5/29”
THE POUR HOUSE
You recently conducted a review on the tavern, THE POUR HOUSE in Penfield, but you forgot to include a pertinent detail. While I enjoyed my visit and the atmosphere during a recent get-together with a friend to watch a ball game, I was shocked to see Labatt's beer being sold by the pitcher for 12 dollars! Other bars practically give the stuff away for half the price, I've seen. Get with it, Pour House owner!
Re: “Rochester school board candidates see only the tip of the iceberg”
I felt the need to reply to the accusation that Tim Macaluso is somehow unfair or judgmental in his education reporting. I want to add that I have never defended anyone like this but I have been involved with Rochester education for many years and have read lots and lots of “stuff” over the years.
Rochester is a volatile place for public education and covering it has to be almost impossible to do professionally because so many people have their own interest. A writer is almost certainly going to piss someone off if they try to walk down the middle especially when extremes seem to be so popular.
Those who claim to be grassroots activists along with conservative, wealthy, business elites come out every few years but in the end they all get the same results-none. Along the way someone has to report this and they have to do it without taking sides. Given the twenty or more years of stagnation, writing about schools here has to become both frustrating and uneventful. It would be easy to raise alarm and take sides but I have not seen Tim do this.
He gives me what I want when read about schools-the facts. I am not concerned about the anger or hugs. I want to know where things stand and what steps are being done to improve things. It is unfortunate that so many people in Rochester throw stones at others thinking that this will help the kids and their families.
It is kind of like the guy who drives by kids waiting for a bus in the pouring rain. He curses the bus company for not having built a shelter but as he drives away he fails to give them the huge umbrella sitting in his front seat. He sees it but does not want to turn his car around. We gotta stop taking the easy way out.
John Bliss, 25 year city homeowner, RCSD parent, RCSD substitute teacher and former charter school founder.
Re: “Questions linger about RCSD's plan for longer days”
Mary Anna Towler, in reference to Tim Macaluso being in your opinion "without question the most thoughtful, experienced, and knowledgeable writer covering education in the Greater Rochester area" is very disconcerting and in my opinion doesn't say much for the quality of reporters that the Rochester area has to offer. As Howard Eagle noted, "The guy is obviously having problems writing clear, objective reports about the campaign, and campaigners. His steep slant is undoubtedly tilted in the direction of school board incumbents, and the Vargas Administration." As a concerned parent and community member, we need unbiased information so we are able to formulate our own opinions and make the best decisions for our children based on what is actually being conveyed by the candidates themselves and not Tim Macaluso's interpretation or opinion of what transpired.
Re: “RCSD: Longer days for an out-of-school culture?”
The BLIND continues to lead the BLIND............end of story!
Re: “Questions linger about RCSD's plan for longer days”
We appreciate the comments by Mr. Eagle and others; the crisis of public education in Rochester is one of the most serious problems - and the unwillingness to deal with it properly is one of the region's most serious failures. That said, we have no intention taking Tim Macaluso off of the education beat. He is without question the most thoughtful, experienced, and knowledgeable writer covering education in the Greater Rochester area. And, in fact, he has written several times about the problems in Superintendent Vargas's extended-day plan.
Re: “Questions linger about RCSD's plan for longer days”
With all due respect, some of us are beginning to hope that Ms. Mary Anna Towler, and the crew over at City Newspaper will seriously consider pulling Mr. Tim Macaluso off of the education beat, especially during the current, 2013 school board election campaign. The guy is obviously having problems writing clear, objective reports about the campaign, and campaigners. His steep slant is undoubtedly tilted in the direction of school board incumbents, and the Vargas Administration. This is evidenced by two recent reports, which he wrote following a May 28th school board candidates "forum to meet the non-incumbent candidates vying for a seat on the Rochester school board." The first report, in which Mr. Macaluso discussed candidates ignoring an imagined, so-called "iceberg," was written the day after the forum (see the link below --- after clicking on the link --- be sure to scroll to the bottom of the article and read comments from people who were present at the forum).
http://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/News…
In his second article ("Questions linger about RCSD's plan for longer days"), which was written two days after the forum took place, again Mr. Macaluso imagined that "there was confusion about the concept at a recent public forum to meet the non-incumbent candidates vying for a seat on the Rochester school board." Other than his (Mr. Macaluso's), there was absolutely NO "confusion" regarding the issue. The majority of candidates who addressed it said very clearly that we are skeptical (to say the least) of Vargas's so-called "cornerstone [improvement] strategy [relative to] longer school days." Indeed, Ron Hall and I made it crystal clear that we are very, very skeptical, and we urged parents and community members to also be very skeptical. The reason being that simply extending the school day by an hour or two, will not automatically translate into improved academic achievement, especially when considering that many of the students who are in need of more "instructional time," are the very ones who are chronically absent under current schedules. Since district officials are not able to significantly improve attendance for thousands of students who are currently, chronically absent, what in the world would make them, or anyone believe that they will be able to successfully, automatically get the same students to come to school earlier, and/or stay later, unless of course there will be something fundamentally different about the so-called "extended day?" Therein lies the problem and issue: Vargas, nor anyone in his Administration, or the Board of Education have provided a clear, specific, comprehensive explanation as to how the so-called "extended day" will be any different than the current school day.
Thus, it is a gross understatement that Vargas "may want to devote more time to the what and how longer school days" will be any different than current arrangements. Many of us strongly suspect that he hasn't "devoted more time" to explaining specifics because he doesn't know. All he really seems to know for sure is that people are handing out money to implement the latest education fad (longer school days).
So again, we urge parents, and community members in general, to be very skeptical, and to insist upon specific details. Other wise, it is quite likely, and even probable that, in a year or two (when the longer-school-days-grant-money dries up (as it always does) --- we will be off and running (chasing the next education-improvement-fad) --- while the fundamental issues and conditions underlying the very old, pervasive, urban education crisis, never get addressed, and long-promised change and improvement never occurs. We refer to the latter phenomenon as bamboozling, posturing, and hoodwinking --- literally at the costs of young lives.
Re: “RCSD: Longer days for an out-of-school culture?”
"The other absences were not due to playing hooky, as some have suggested, but the result of sickness, family emergencies, and scheduled personal days, according to Urbanski." Well guess what, the same could be said about students in the RCSD. So when does it go from being a plausible explanation to a lame excuse. I guess when it's a double standard that's practiced with the RCSD. If attendance is important in reference to education, let's not hold some accountable an not all. Urbanski, stop making excuses for "your" teachers and acknowledge, accept and then make changes!!!
Re: “War, policy, and Obama”
I find the selection of the subject of Obama's speech on the US and terrorism as an amazing attempt to look at this past week through rose colored glasses ...... To ignore three separate scandals with this administration over its head in defending its actions for a speech which was clearly an attempt to deflect the attention from the scandals is just amazing even for a liberal leaning paper ..... But lets take the speech, "the destruction of Muslim Extremist terrorism" is anything but close to an end. Right now the US is working on a method to cover their gun running to Syria via Benghazi and Turkey by getting multiple countries to remove the international restriction on aiding any single side to overthrow a government. The US government violated international law by these actions. Gun running is exactly why the Ambassador was in Benghazi in the first place..... Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Palestine, Syria are all being controlled / disrupted by the Muslim Brotherhood and its associates. The Coptic Christians are fleeing Egypt by the 10s of thousands due to the attacks by members of the Muslim Brotherhood there...... but Mary Anna Towler chooses to do a critique of the President's speech and describes it as " eloquent, principled and rational one"..... She references the need for an "informed public" .... I must suggest that what we need is "a more informed media" at all levels ....... then maybe we would get those who have access to this administration to start the inquiries to expose the tyrannical actions of big government , and specifically this administration.
Re: “Feedback 5/29”
Dr William Carla, "on children and protest" suggested that the business community is behind the core curriculum drive in this nation. Now, yes Bill Gates, who once was a major business player, is involved with the core curriculum program, At the same time, few in the business community who understand the major goals of Core Curriculum would support such a program . This is all part of "the fundamental change" of President Obama. The Federal Education Department has its fingerprints all over this poorly designed program to create a national indoctrination and data gathering program. It is all about increasing federal government control of our lives and Dr. Carla either knows the true sources of this diabolical scheme or has not done his homework. The most important part of any protest is knowing who and what you are demonstrating against.......
Re: “Feedback 5/29”
BEE'S DEMISE: It seems there is another possible cause of colony collapse disorder. It is the substitute provided by the commercial bee keepers to feed the bees. They use high fructose corn syrup to feed the bees and although the other possible causes have not been ruled out, the substitute food may not be activating the detox/immune system of the bees. Here is a link to a good article on the subject: http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/05/fee…
Re: “War, policy, and Obama”
"Trillions"? Hardly. But, hey, the poor have too much and the rich not enough. How about winding down the right-wing war on the middle class?
Re: “War, policy, and Obama”
"It is time, though, to wind this war - whatever you want to call it - down. It's also time to wind down the war on drugs, now, after how many hundreds of billions of dollars? "
How about winding down the liberal "War on Poverty" that has been in place since the Johnson administration? TRILLIONS of dollars have been spent on that and guess what? We seem to have more poor people than ever.
Re: “The RCSD's grant dependency”
So RCSD spends $600,000 to fund Hillside Work-Scholarship while they cut the RCSD staff that coordinate Student & Family Support Centers?? Someone's playing the politics game!
Re: “Rochester school board candidates see only the tip of the iceberg”
I attended the forum as well. Tim Louis Macaluso, maybe the reason why the "issue" of a "declining student population " appeared to have gone unaddressed may be due to the fact that "declining student population " is the focus of you and administration but not the immediate focus of parents; hence why the "issue" was not raised. Perhaps, unlike yourself and current administration, we parents are wise enough to understand that the issues that were raised and addressed are the reasons why parents/guardians are taking their children out of the RCSD and therefore leading up to a "declining student population". In actuality, the "issue" of "declining student population " WAS addressed by the candidates by them focusing on a plan to transform the current horrific condition of the RCSD, which will ultimately produce an environment conducive to learning, evidently make the RCSD a viable option for parents/guardians and students as a provider of a quality and competitive education, and will in turn improve the "issue" of "declining student population ".
Re: “The RCSD's grant dependency”
One additional dilemma faced by RCSD is the fact that city residents do not vote on the school budget like residents of suburban districts. Many residents likely vote to increase property taxes if these increases supported additional funds for the schools. The system in place in Rochester and several large cities in the state uses the elected board of education members as the proxy for direct voting on the budget by the citizens. And we all know how effective the elected board members are.
Re: “Rochester school board candidates see only the tip of the iceberg”
What the hell does a declining student population have to do with the fact that the RCSD has proven to be incompetent when it comes to educating Rochester's children? The declining population is a symptom of the problem, not the cause.
I was at the forum, and I found it to be both a robust and entertaining discussion. It's time for a new approach to educating our children. what we're doing now isn't working.
Re: “Rochester school board candidates see only the tip of the iceberg”
With all due respect to City Newspaper reporter Tim Louis Macaluso, his news report only adds to confusion, surrounding specific types of things that must be done in order to produce widespread change and improvement within the Rochester City School District, and make the District a solidly viable and healthy institution. Rather than viewing, and describing issues raised by me and my colleagues during a recent candidates forum (such as "helping students with skills training to become firefighters, police officers, plumbers, and electricians," i.e., authentic alternative education programs; "better health services for students"; "stopping [the criminal practice of systematic] social promotion"; significantly reducing "high salaries for Superintendent Bolgen Vargas’s growing cabinet"; ensuring that additional "support for students [is] being directed down to the classroom level"; making sure that "more resources [are] devoted to early childhood development"; and producing "more parent engagement and cultural awareness training") --- as representing the types of things that must be addressed in order to effectively halt "a declining student population," and the wild proliferation of (in some cases) semi-private-like charter schools, which he maintains will "fill their seats with city students" --- Mr. Macaluso made the critically important mistake of setting up a false dichotomy. That is, because none of us mentioned "declining student population," which he refers to as "the iceberg that’s sending a chill through the administration," apparently he falsely assumed that we are so "perennial" that we are not aware of "the iceberg." He is even more off-base via his simplistic, and unrealistic declaration that "whomever voters put into office better have a plan to navigate around it." It's like the guy doesn't really get it. There is no magic. We did articulate the "plan" via the issues raised above, which must necessarily be effectively addressed in order for the Rochester City School District to compete with charter schools --- the latter of which (in many cases) will prove to be no more effective than traditional schools, particularly as it relates to serving our most challenging students (well), which is why most charter schools routinely engage in "creaming" --- while lying about so-called random lotteries. Charter schools do not represent a panacea for the very old, deep-seated, urban education crisis. In fact, in many cases the corporate and wealthy forces that are behind them, are nothing more or less than sophisticated poverty-pimps.
Re: “Feedback 5/29”
“Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them?”
― Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience and Other Essays
Re: “Questions linger about RCSD's plan for longer days”
Media Advisory
Howard Eagle & Ronald Hall Will Officially Launch Campaign To Challenge Democratic Party's, Hand-Picked Candidates For School Board
WHAT: Press Conference
WHEN: Wednesday, June 5, 2013 ... 4:00 PM ... 4:00 PM
WHERE: In Front of All City High School (180 Ridgeway Avenue)
WHY: To officially launch their campaign to unseat incumbents, and help end the status-quo.
Ronald Hall was quoted as having said: "We sincerely hope that Rochester City School District parents, grandparents, guardians, and the general, tax-paying, public is ready to join us in declaring, and proving that enough is enough."
Howard Eagle said: "We have out-worked (in the streets), and out-organized the Democratic-Party-Machine, and defeated it in the past. Indeed, we did so in 2011. It is our plan and intentions to do the job twice as well in 2013."