An exciting milestone was reached earlier this year when more than 50 community members – representing interested city and suburban school district superintendents, board members and staff; BOCES superintendents; union representatives and Great Schools for All, among others – convened in a preliminary planning process facilitated by Causewave. They met to explore the feasibility of creating at least one pilot public voluntary, socioeconomically-diverse, cross-district school in Monroe County, offering thematic programming not currently available in any school district. (It is anticipated that, unlike in charter schools, participating students, along with their state aid, would continue to be counted as enrolled in their home school districts.)
Three work groups were formed to flesh out issues and develop preliminary recommendations related to: Governance and Staffing; Financing and Legislation; and Initial School Design, Themes and Student Selection. Earlier this fall, the report resulting from these work group discussions was shared with the superintendents of the Rochester City School District and each suburban school district in Monroe County. Interested superintendents have begun the process of sharing the report and opening discussions with their board members. These discussions are continuing. The full report is now also available to the public.