RCSD Superintendent Carmine Peluso shakes up cabinet
New Rochester Schools Superintendent Carmine Peluso on Monday announced an overhaul of his top leadership team, removing two of his three top deputies.
Deputy Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Kathleen Black and Chief Academic Officer Shanie Keelean are out, replaced by Demario Strickland and Stephen LaMorte, respectively.
Like Peluso himself, Strickland and LaMorte are internal promotions. Strickland rose up through Buffalo Public Schools and for the last 18 months has served as chief of innovation and school reform for RCSD. LaMorte began as a classroom teacher in Rochester 23 years ago and most recently was executive director of strategic initiatives.
Deasure Matthews, a former school chief and principal at Joseph Wilson Foundation Academy, will replace Strickland as a school chief on an acting basis. Chiefs are an intermediate level of leadership between schools and the deputy superintendents and other top district leaders.
Strickland and LaMorte join Ruth Turner, the former RCSD chief and state regent who began last month as a deputy superintendent.
Black first joined RCSD in August 2020 under former superintendent Lesli Myers-Small. She gained favor for her clear presentation of student performance data but created a small firestorm last April when she said at a school board meeting that half the teachers in the district are ineffective. Keelean joined RCSD less than a year ago; she previously had worked in Buffalo and also in schools in the Midwest.
The new leaders will be tested quickly in their new roles, as the district budget is due to be unveiled March 23.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: RCSD Superintendent Carmine Peluso shakes up cabinet
