Former RCSD Superintendent Bolgen Vargas writes of childhood, school reform in new book

Bolgen Vargas's entire life trajectory, from the rural Dominican Republic to New York City to stints as school superintendent in Rochester and Manchester, New Hampshire, traces back to a fierce, recurring argument between his mother and his father -- and in particular, the fact that his mother prevailed.

As he recounts in "Let Our Children Soar!", a book released this month, the debate was renewed almost every day at noon beneath a mango tree on the small family farm.

His mother argued that Bolgen and his siblings should leave their small hamlet for the capital, Santo Domingo, to get an education and greater opportunity. His father would beseech her to stop "poisoning our children with your stupid idea that they will be better off by moving to the capital than staying here helping us work on the farm."

His mother won. Not only did the children leave their small village, but several went with her to New York City for a life they scarcely could imagine when they stepped on the plane. Vargas's father joined them as well.

In the book, Vargas uses his own personal story as an example of the potential for English language-learning students in urban schools like Rochester, if only they're provided with the right resources.

"There are so many kids in this district who are like me," he said in a recent interview. "In every district you find them."

In particular, he writes, teachers must have enough time in their days to form true connections with their students, and harsh accountability-oriented state and federal policies must be reformed. Those were challenges in 2012, when Vargas was named permanent superintendent in Rochester, and continue to be challenges a decade later.

Unfinished reforms

Vargas served as interim and then permanent superintendent in Rochester from 2011 to 2015. He followed Jean-Claude Brizard, an outspoken school reformer who clashed with the Rochester Teachers Association and left for Vargas the job of wrapping up a budget that cut hundreds of teacher jobs.

Vargas repaired relations with the RTA but fared worse with the Association of School Administrators of Rochester; a dispute with the school board over his cabinet members' membership in the union ended up leading to his departure.

Much of his message has to do with the possibilities and limitations of local reform in the face of national policies that he argues have been harmful to teaching and learning, in particular the proliferation of standardized testing and the incessant closing and reopening of schools.

The burdens associated with that theory of school reform and the concentrated poverty in urban districts, Vargas writes, conspire to rob teachers of their most precious resource: time.

"Although a teacher may have control over being patient, being well prepared for class, and making the class interesting, they often do not have control over securing the amount of time necessary to establish a positive, caring relationship with each of their students," he writes.

Some of his key priorities are still pressing issues a decade later: improving attendance, reducing suspensions and making sure children can read by third grade. He writes in the book of successful initiatives he implemented, including home attendance blitzes and a literacy program called RocREAD.

Like past urban school superintendents everywhere, though, he must contend with the fact that his initiatives did not solve the problems to which they were addressed. The attendance blitzes continue -- district employees visited more than 600 homes this spring -- and yet one in five students is missing each day, with alarmingly high absenteeism rates at high schools. Internal data from November showed 90% of kindergarteners behind grade level in reading.

Other pushes, including expanding summer learning, proved more durable. Still, Vargas called it "disheartening" to see where the district has stalled or regressed and said he has reached out to every superintendent since 2015 to offer his support.

"I have the utmost respect for anyone who is trying to do that (superintendent) job," he said. "Every day I'm pulling for them."

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bolgen Vargas writes of childhood in new book