The Rochester Board of Education's newest leaders prepare to face challenges as they take on their roles.
Camille Simmons was elected board president on Thursday. She’s the executive director of the nonprofit Leadership Rochester and has a background in social work and child advocacy. She was first elected to the board in 2021.
Amy Maloy, a social studies teacher at Brighton High School with international teaching experience, was elected vice president. She was first elected in 2019.
The board is currently looking for ways to close a looming $38M budget shortfall and it is in the process of selecting a new permanent superintendent this spring — perennial tasks in a district with high administrative turnover and a history of financial issues.
Simmons said she’s coming into her role with a vision to address historic injustices in the Rochester education system.
“This is an entrenched system, and we, the Rochester City School District, did not arrive here overnight,” Simmons said on Friday. “This is something that took years to get to. And this is something that will take a lot of time to work to undo what has happened. But what I will say is that simply changing leadership is not going to blindly change the education system.”
The way to accomplish that, Simmons said, is to strategically build community partnerships to address students education, which she calls “one of the largest social justice issues of our ages."
Where money goes in the upcoming budget will show where the district’s priorities are, she said.
“Sometimes we have this idea that our students ... that they are resilient, and that is very true, they are,” she said. “But when do we get to the part where we understand that we need progressive thought? That our children should not have to always be resilient, but we should be creating conditions for our children to thrive.”
She and Maloy said their priorities are in the classroom and in students’ ability to read.
“I would love to see all of our resources poured towards early childhood education and everything pre-K through third grade, anything related to reading” Maloy said. “You can't go into a ninth-grade classroom with a third grade reading level and expect to be successful and expect to graduate from high school."
When looking for budget cuts to prevent a deficit, Maloy, and Simmons expressed a focus on keeping those out of classrooms as much as possible.
“There are certainly jobs within Central Office that maybe don't have clear roles or, I'm sorry, a job description, perhaps,” Maloy said. “I would like to ensure that we don't have the redundancies that seem to be common knowledge amongst staff members.”
Those decisions will come down to the board as a whole, which has suffered from in-fighting over the years — something that has ebbed and flowed as new members arrived and veteran members left.
Simmons replaces former board president Cynthia Elliott, and Maloy replaces former VP Beatriz LeBron.
“No shade on Cynthia, but I think that Camille offers us the ability to have everyone feeling like they're a part of this governing body,” Maloy said. “she treats everyone on the board with respect and grace, and I give her that.”
