'It's a tough one': Walter Cooper, Alice Young would see RCSD namesake schools close

Closing any school is an uncomfortable action for a school district to take. At the least, though, Rochester City School District officials need not worry about offending Benjamin Franklin, Clara Barton or Adlai Stevenson, all namesakes of schools now proposed to close.

The same cannot be said for Walter Cooper and Alice Holloway Young, both of whose namesake schools are on the closure list and both of whom are still alive.

"It's a tough one," the 95-year-old Cooper said Wednesday morning.

Superintendent Carmine Peluso presented his proposed school reorganization plan to the school board Tuesday night, but Cooper first learned that Walter Cooper Academy School 10 might close from a reporter.

The Congress Avenue building that now is home to Walter Cooper Academy would house Montessori Academy School 53 under Peluso's plan, while the Adams Street building that now is home to the Dr. Alice Holloway Young School of Excellence would house Rochester Early College International High School.

Peluso stressed that the sites would still bear Cooper and Young's names: for example, Montessori Academy School 53 at the Walter Cooper campus. That is common practice at many closed RCSD schools whose buildings now house other schools or programs, like the Jefferson, Freddie Thomas or Frederick Douglass campuses.

School 10, on Congress Avenue in the 19th Ward, was named after Cooper in 2009.

The Alice Holloway Young School of Excellence, meanwhile, was christened just two years ago.

"Your name becomes the pride of our district, as we work to provide each scholar with a high-quality education," then-superintendent Lesli Myers-Small told Young at the opening ceremony in 2021.

"I think the board and the school administration is going to have to make hard decisions, and I trust their judgment when it comes to figuring out the financial realities and enrollment realities," said Holloway Young's son, Rodney Young. "But we also understand that representation really matters. Those students in those classrooms are primarily Black and brown, and they need to have examples like Dr. Alice Holloway Young to look up to and emulate."

Holloway Young, now 99, was the first Black principal in RCSD and also served for several decades on the Monroe Community College board of trustees. She was also a longtime central office administrator, meaning she often helped make difficult decisions such as closing or reorganizing schools.

She had a stroke last year but remains mentally sharp — "actually sharper than her kids," Rodney Young said.

"Honoring people who are actually still alive and still giving back to the community — that was setting a tone in the community. This is not a minor setback," he said. "But you persist."

Cooper has been a regular presence at School 10 since it was named for him; he was there most recently on the first day of school this year, greeting children.

He has often, however, expressed frustration that school and district administrators have not communicated more with him or followed through on plans he has helped arrange for students.

He helped fund field trips that the school never followed through on, he said. In other cases they did take the trips but didn't tell him about it until months later.

"It's a sin, and I don't understand it," he said. "I had gotten to the point where I thought, maybe I should give up having my name on that school, because the staff and the parents just aren’t interested in what I consider a good education for the children. ... Well, reality sinks in and now the school's closing."

"I just feel sorry for the children. The adults can go to hell."

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Walter Cooper and Alice Young, would see RCSD namesake schools close