If City Council members OK the proposed sale of two public school buildings to charter school operators, they would be “actively facilitating the further decline of RCSD enrollment.”
That’s according to Rochester Board of Education President Camille Simmons, who released a statement Monday laying out her opposition to the sale.
Mayor Malik Evans has proposed selling Schools 20 and 29 to buyers that are intent on opening charter schools. Enrollment declines have led to a surplus of school buildings, which are city-owned. The city last sold off vacated school buildings in 2022, with both going to charter school operators.
“This is not merely a matter of real estate; it is a fundamental question regarding the future viability of the Rochester City School District,” Simmons wrote. “While we understand the city’s desire to move vacated properties, selling these buildings to charter schools creates a cycle of disinvestment that directly undermines our public school system.”
City Council has been split on the matter and is expected to take up the sale again later this month. Evans, who previously served as president of the Rochester school board, responded with a statement that read: "The Rochester City School District divested the former Henry Lomb No. 20 and Adlai Stevenson No. 29 school buildings to the city as part of its plan to right-size the district. Any use of surplus properties follows a Request for Proposal process. The district could have kept these buildings in its inventory."
The administration has proposed selling School 20 on Oakman Street, north of downtown, to Young Women’s College Prep Charter School, which was established in 2012, and would relocate from Greece. School 29 on Kirkland Avenue in the southwest part of the city, would be sold to the Buffalo Rochester Academic Science School (BRASS) Charter School, established in 2004, which already operates an elementary school and a high school in the Rochester area.
Surging charter school enrollment in the city has resulted in an annual loss of $150 million for the district, Simmons said, as those education dollars get transferred to charter operators.
