Community members are expressing outrage over potential budget cuts at the Rochester City School District.
The proposed budget for next school year would reduce district-wide counseling, social work and psychology funding by about $3 million, according to the draft budget book. About 45 guidance counselor and social worker positions are also on the chopping block.
District leadership previously pledged to bulk up student mental health support per recommendations provided by an ad hoc mental health committee that was assembled in the wake of a Rochester student’s death by suicide last year.
Melanie Funchess, director of mental health and wellness at Common Ground Health and a co-chair of that committee, said the consequences of removing social-emotional supports for students who are experiencing significant challenges to their mental health would be devastating.
“I would venture to say that this could harm, fatally, harm children,” Funchess said. “They could ‘unalive’ themselves, let me be clear. Because for some of these kids, those social workers ... those people in the school are the only caring adults that they know that they can go to with stuff like this. And to remove those people leaves our children with nothing.”
Common Ground Health recently reported that in the Rochester and Finger Lakes region, youth self-harm rates leading to emergency department visits have surged.
“The district claimed that they had a commitment to youth mental health less than 30 days ago,” Funchess said. “There has to be somewhere else that you can cut. Go to Central Office, cut there, but do not cut on the backs of our most vulnerable children.”
Another budget item that is garnering backlash is the proposal to gut funding for home hospital instruction by 95%, including a reduction of about 30 teaching positions. Students who qualify for this service receive one-to-one instruction, often due to a medical need.
“These are the neediest kids, neediest of the needy,” said Education Specialist Dan DeMarle who does not work for the district but provides evaluations for students with disabilities, "The district is required by law to provide that service. So when they say ‘We're going to cut the budget,’ they're saying, ‘We're not going to meet the law, we're not going to follow the law, we're not going to provide this service that's mandated for us to provide for that small group of kids.’”
The first budget deliberation took place this week at Central Office. Superintendent Eric Rosser said in that meeting that the decision accounts for overstaffing, with an intention to move those teaching positions to classrooms.
“As we look at the powerhouse of our teachers only having one student that they're either instructing two hours a day or three hours a day, we are not utilizing our financial resources in the most prudent way,” Rosser said. “So this requires a course for us to really dive deeper into what's happening with our home hospital program, and it may require us to make some shifts.”
If the district decides to move forward with those shifts, Rosser said that would come with a “solid and comprehensive transition plan,” to which school board member Beatriz LeBron-Harris said: “I cannot vote on something that does not exist.”
“This would be, in my professional opinion, actually, not only detrimental, but would cause unnecessary ripple drama down the line that we could literally prevent right now,” LeBron-Harris said. “In order to vote, that plan would need to be presented, clearly understood, and all parties having an understanding.”
Rosser said the budget is not finalized, but it does reflect the real fiscal challenges that the district faces, including uncertainty over how much funding the state will provide.
“This budget is shaped by constraints, yet it is also a budget shaped by priorities,” Rosser said. “It reflects difficult choices, though it also reflects deliberate investments.”
Rosser encouraged people to consider the full picture when looking at the budget, which he emphasized is not finalized.
“The Rochester City School District has been in a difficult financial position for really the last couple decades because of its declining enrollment and its inability to raise local taxes,” said Eamonn Scanlon, director of community impact with The Children’s Agenda.
“And so, each year, you're sort of in a position of like, ‘How are you going to cut back and shrink to reflect the reality that you're serving less students?’ And there are different ways to do that,” Scanlon added. “But the important thing is that you're not overly concentrating all your cuts in one area, and that you're managing that process slowly.”
City school leaders are anticipating a $60 million deficit by the 2027-2028 school year. The district is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the proposed budget at Central Office on April 21.
