​Everything Wrong with the RCSD School Board

By Alexis Beach
 
The Rochester City School District is considered one of the most underperforming districts in our state. A part of the reasoning behind that is the RCSD School Board. Our school board is one of the few PAID boards of education, the issue with it being paid is that there's an underlying reasoning to why those people are even on the school board. Are they doing what they really think is in the best interest of the students? Why is their main focus money? Do they even care about the actual problems going on? 
 
The Greece school board page says on their website “The Board of Education consists of nine members who are elected by district residents and serve unpaid, three-year terms.” I wonder why for our school board they have 4-year terms and it's paid. Paying people for bare minimum duties and to look out for residents' children?  For as long as I can remember as a student in the RCSD our needs have been consistently undermined and ignored by most of the school board. I remember the teachers being cut when I was in the 8th grade because of the budget cuts and deficit that we took on. There were kids protesting, many students crying about losing their favorite teachers that they had built amazing bonds with. East High School had the third highest amount of teacher cuts with the amount of 8. Then now about 4 years later they're taking our EPO away which has improved graduation rates tons over time and has a bunch of other benefits. Along with the graduation rates increasing, the suspensions have decreased. The EPO saved East High School from being on the direction of closing, no one notices the tremendous positives that have come out of the EPO with the University of Rochester because all the school board mentions is the money and cost of it.