11 schools closing, 5 opening: Peluso lays out big changes in RCSD realignment proposal

Eleven schools would close and another dozen would be affected under a plan released Tuesday by Rochester City School District Superintendent Carmine Peluso, the most significant proposed overhaul of RCSD in more than 30 years.

Gone would be Franklin Upper School, the symbolic epicenter of the city's struggles with youth violence, as well as RISE Community School 106, which just five years ago was heralded as the beacon of a new era in the district. Four middle schools and a high school would be created, part of an overall grade-level realignment into elementary, middle and high schools.

The changes will go into effect in the 2024-25 school year if the school board approves them. That vote is expected Oct. 19.

Peluso did not provide estimates of the cost savings or the staff reductions that the changes would entail. Economy is not the driver, he said, but rather a need to maximize resources and ensure students have high-quality, certified teachers in their classrooms.

"We're spreading our resources all over the place, and we're thinned out," he said of the district's current structure. "We have to look at how we can maximize staff resources to fit the current enrollment."

Here is an overview of the proposed changes:

Elementary schools (K-6)

The following schools would close. They were selected based on academic performance, facility condition, popularity among families and their location within the city, Peluso said.

• Clara Barton School 2 on Reynolds Street in the southwest

• Dr. Walter Cooper Academy School 10 on Congress Avenue in the southwest

• Adlai Stevenson School 29 on Kirkland Road in the southwest

• Andrew Townson School 39 on Midland Avenue in the northeast

• RISE Community School 106 on West Ridge Road in the northwest

• Wilson Foundation Academy on Genesee Street in the southwest

There would be a special lottery for students at those schools to be placed into new ones.

Nathaniel Hawthorne School 25 and Montessori Academy School 53, both now located at the Freddie Thomas campus on Scio Street, would relocate to the buildings now housing School 2 and School 10, respectively. The building on Congress Avenue would still be called the Walter Cooper campus, retaining its connection to the still-living local civil rights leader.

Several elementary schools that currently go up to eighth grade would become K-6 under the new plan, meaning that students now in seventh grade at those schools would need to move to a new middle school for eighth grade and then a high school the year after that.

World of Inquiry School 58 on University Avenue would retain its status as the only K-12 school in the district.

School 29 is the home of the GEM program for students with multiple disabilities. That program would be relocated to Mary McCleod Bethune School 45 on Clifford Avenue.

Middle schools (7-8)

The school board last year approved a general realignment that adds middle schools across the district. Peluso's plan would finally flesh that out with a full slate of schools for seventh- and eighth-graders.

Three current middle schools would close:

• Alice Holloway Young School of Excellence on Adams Street

• Monroe Lower School on Monroe Avenue

• Franklin Lower School on Hudson Avenue

Four new middle schools would open: One at 200 Genesee St., the historic home of Madison High School that now houses Wilson Foundation Academy, and three at the Charlotte, Freddie Thomas and Jefferson campuses.

They would join two existing middle schools, East Lower School and Northwest Junior High School at the Frederick Douglass campus on Fernwood Park. School of the Arts would also continue serving grades 7-12.

High schools (9-12)

Two high schools would close: Franklin Upper School on Hudson Avenue and Northeast College Preparatory High School, which just last year moved to the Charlotte campus. A new high school would open at the Franklin campus.

Rochester Early College International High School, now at the Madison campus on Genesee Street, would move into the Adams Street building vacated by the Alice Holloway Young School of Excellence. As with Walter Cooper, the campus would still be named for Young, the first Black principal in RCSD.

When RCSD no longer needs buildings it relinquishes them to the city, which then disposes of them as it sees fit. Under Peluso's plan the district would turn over three buildings: the former School 20 building off North Clinton Avenue as well as Schools 29 and 44. It would retain the School 39 and RISE buildings for swing space, Peluso said.

The NorthSTAR Academy program for students with significant behavioral or mental health needs will be moved from the former School 20 building to the Franklin campus.

In all, fully half of the district's 47 schools will be affected, either through closure, relocation or a change in grade alignment.

"For some of our families and staff there may be some emotions around this, because our students and families make connections and have their lives planned out," School Board President Cynthia Elliott said. "These are tough decisions we've got to make, but as we look at live birth rates and people not selecting RCSD, we have to make some decisions."

Enrollment drives need for change

The state Education Department over the last five years has increasingly urged the district to "right-size" for its current and projected enrollment. It was the most persistent refrain of former academic and fiscal monitor Shelley Jallow and remains a priority for her replacement, Jaime Alicea.

Former Superintendent Lesli Myers-Small put forth a less sweeping school closure plan in late 2021 only to have it rejected by the board as ill-conceived. When Peluso took the job last year he said there would be a year of planning followed by a proposal this fall.

The driver, in brief, is enrollment. In the last 10 years, K-12 enrollment has fallen from 29,000 to about 20,000. If current trends hold, the district predicts enrollment will fall below 14,000 a decade from now.

Charter school enrollment, meanwhile, has more than doubled in the last 10 years and now stands at 7,800 students.

"There's no denying that we're experiencing declining enrollment, so something has to be done," Rochester Teachers Association President Adam Urbanski said. He added that Peluso told him he believes most of the staff reductions can be achieved through attrition and retirements rather than layoffs.

Thanks to better fiscal practices and major infusions of state and federal money over the last three years, RCSD is in a fairly strong financial position, even as it faces the prospect of losing COVID-era stimulus funds next year.

Peluso warned against being lulled into complacency by the prospect of using fund balance.

"There's a reason we have a state monitor," he said. "It would be easier for me to say, let's use this (fund balance) and keep this thing going, and then in six years it runs out and there's a new superintendent who has to deal with the problem."

Peluso and other top administrators will meet with staff and families at affected schools over the next month, he said. The plan still could change depending on how the school board receives it, but Elliott said she thinks it is well thought out and necessary.

"We're trying to get ahead of this and let the community know," she said. "These are difficult decisions, but it's incumbent on us to stay the course."

Justin Murphy is a veteran reporter at the Democrat and Chronicle and author of "Your Children Are Very Greatly in Danger: School Segregation in Rochester, New York." Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/CitizenMurphy or contact him at jmurphy7@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Peluso RCSD realignment proposal would close 11 schools, open 5