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Updated at 5:15 p.m. A statement from the the city school district says the proposal came from School Turnaround, an organization affiliated with Rensselaerville.

The Rensselaerville Institute has responded to Superintendent Bolgen Vargas’s request for proposals for an educational partnering organization, or EPO, to turn around East High School. The Delmar, New York-based organization was formed in 1963 and, according to its website, turning around failing schools is one of its specialties.
The deadline for responding to the RFP was this afternoon. The school board will have to approve the proposal and so will the State Education Department.

“In essence, this is like selecting a superintendent,” school board President Van White said, “because the institute will serve as the superintendent for that particular school. But the timeframe we have available to us is a concern. It’s not the time we would normally take to hire a superintendent.”

The State Education Department has given Rochester school officials until mid-May to submit a plan for East. The school’s chronically low performance prompted the state to direct Vargas to select from a limited set of options for fixing the school. An EPO is one of them.

Exact details of the proposal can’t be disclosed, said Chip Partner, a spokesperson for the district.
White said that the EPO option is not the only option under consideration. The board has directed Vargas to come up with an alternative option, he said.