The Democrat and Chronicle Editorial Board recently met with Dr. Bolgen Vargas, Superintendent of Schools for the Rochester City School District. The discussion focused on the challenges facing the city schools. According to Dr. Vargas, Rochester has the lowest academic performance of any district in New York State.
The average African American or Latino student graduates five years behind in reading comprehension, and Dr. Vargas believes that more time is necessary for these children to succeed. Specifically, he is looking into models to extend the school day for the youngest students in the district. He believes local schools need to enrich students with programs in sports, art and music to “make school more interesting than the street” and address chronic truancy problems in the district.
His initial plan is to extend after school programs at 8 schools, which would account for 4,023 students. However, there are always concerns with efficiency and extending school days may require renegotiation of teaching contracts.
As many are aware, there are already efforts among local non-profit organizations such as Mercier Literary for Children and Quad A for Kids to provide engaging after school programs in the district. These programs are efficient because they do not utilize district teachers, and they also have metrics that prove that their programs have been successful in addressing district concerns over truancy and academic progress.
As Dr. Vargas considers how to approach the challenges facing the district, I hope that he considers including the community and expanding these successful, non-profit programs.