Rochester city schools Superintendent Carmine Peluso is leaving to become the next leader of the Churchville-Chili school district.
Churchville-Chili made the announcement Tuesday morning.
Peluso is set to start on July 1, pending formal appointment by the school board. A district spokesperson said the board would be "taking action" at a meeting Tuesday night. The district’s current superintendent, Lori Orologio, is retiring at the end of June.
The announcement surprised many in Rochester. Peluso came up through the ranks of RCSD. He was little more than a year into a three-year contract. And he has spearheaded a school reconfiguration, set to take effect in the fall, that has been called the largest reorganization of the district in its history.
He goes from a district with a $1 billion budget, 22,800 students and 45 schools plus other alternative programs to one with a $100 million budget, 3,700 students and five schools.
“I am excited to become a part of the Churchville-Chili Central School District,” Peluso said in a statement released by Churchville-Chili. “I look forward to meeting the students, staff, and families in our schools and community. I am committed to working with the administrative team and Superintendent Orologio to ensure a seamless transition.”
Peluso later emailed his RCSD colleagues that, "after much contemplation and careful consideration, I have decided this is the best decision for myself and my family." He continued that ensuring a smooth transition was important and that he would "continue to work to ensure a successful budget and school reconfiguration."
Peluso’s education career spans 25 years. He has served as RCSD’s superintendent since September 2022, when the district’s school board appointed him to fill a vacancy left by the departure of Lesli Myers-Small. He served as deputy superintendent and before that was principal of School 34 for four years.
"He's very competent," said Adam Urbanski, who as head of the teachers union has known Peluso for decades. "He's collaborative. And he's a straight shooter. And he has self respect. And so I'm not surprised that he has options."
Urbanski was with Peluso on Tuesday morning, reading to first-graders at School 17.
"And after that concluded, he told me that he will be calling me later in the morning to discuss an important decision that he made," Urbanski said. "And so he did.
"He said that he has been struggling with this for some time now .... with the lack of respect, and lack of support and interference and micromanagement and criticism by particularly one school board member and sometimes two. At the same time, he said that he had tremendous support from the board leadership and from the majority of the board."
Urbanski declined to identify the board members.
An emergency special meeting of the school board is scheduled for Tuesday night "to discuss personnel matters."
Peluso's resignation is all too familiar for a district that has seen a revolving door of leadership.
Churchville-Chili's Orologio is wrapping up 10 years on the job. RCSD has seen five superintendents come through in that time, plus a few interims.
That turnover is hard on students and families, said Rebecca Hetherington, a member of the Parent Leadership Advisory Council.
"You always have such hope that they're going to see the potential of your kids in these jobs. And it's just one more superintendent out the door," she said. "I have a fifth-grader, and he has been in the district for seven years. And we have had more superintendents than years he's been in school."
Studies show the average tenure for superintendents is about five years, and a majority of superintendents have been on the job for six years or less. Tenures tend to be shorter in districts with high poverty and higher numbers of students of color.
"Instability is a defining factor to students' success," said school board member Isaiah Santiago. "I think that it's just important, moving forward, that we are pushing with all the effort that we can as a board to ensure that we find a superintendent that's ready to fight for our children and ready to fight for our children for the long haul, to create stability in our system, to really produce more success and a pipeline of success."
Board member James Patterson said he was "stunned" by Peluso's decision.
"I am seriously concerned over the (school) board’s ineffectualness in maintaining consistent leadership," Patterson said in a prepared statement. "This has profound unpropitious ramifications for the district’s future if this trend continues."
And from Mayor Malik Evans: "It is imperative that the Rochester City School District obtain and maintain strong leadership for the young people of our city. A successful educational system is critical to the success of Rochester, and the city stands ready to support the district as it embarks on this important transition."
