Education

Nearly 2,900 students are returning to hybrid/in-person learning this week in the Rochester City School District.

It is Phase 3 of the district’s reopening plan.

This includes students in grades 7 to 12 enrolled at all secondary schools and students in grades 7 and 8 enrolled at all pre-K to 8th grade buildings in the district.

In January, students in specialized programs returned to the hybrid/in-person learning, and earlier this month, more than 4,100 students in grades pre-K to 6 returned to hybrid/in-person learning.

The University of Rochester said is committing to setting its minimum wage at $15 an hour by December 2022.

University of Rochester President Sarah Manglesdorf said the commitment to the $15 an hour minimum wage is an acknowledgment of the university’s obligation as the area’s largest employer and also being committed to efforts at dealing with structural racism.

Even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidance last week about in-person schooling, Greece Central School District Superintendent Kathleen Graupman says those guidelines aren’t much different from what is already being practiced locally.

A new Mars rover is scheduled to land this week, and the Strasenburgh Planetarium is running presentations about the red planet with its new Digistar projection system, which can provide images like never before.

"[It creates] an image that fills the dome, so you can feel like you are in space floating next to Mars," Planetarium Director Steve Fenress said. "We can really appreciate the size, the three-dimensional texture, zoom out and get a feel for how big the solar system is."  

The University of Rochester is reversing some of the cost-saving measures they had to implement over the last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A letter sent out to the UR community said that faculty and administrators who had salaries reduced will see their salaries reinstated to their full amount, with the exception of some senior administrators who will continue to receive a reduced salary through June.

SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras said that the state's university system is trying to expand services for students who are food-insecure.

He was in the Rochester area Friday, making a stop at the Rochester Educational Opportunity Center to talk about the expansion of a program that allows eligible students to be automatically  enrolled for SNAP benefits.  The expansion was announced earlier this month and covers about 10,000 SUNY students.

The Victor Central School District has announced that it will close in-person classes for Monday -- and potentially longer -- because of a malware attack on its computer servers.

Officials say that no personal or financial information for students and staff has been compromised. In addition, they say that student grades have not been compromised. Because of this malware attack, all internet services, including phones, are not operating in the Victor school district.

The superintendent of the Rochester City School District, Lesli Myers-Small, is asking for an independent review of the district's plan to reopen school buildings.

Myers-Small made the request Friday to Jo Anne Antonacci, Monroe BOCES superintendent and chair of the Finger Lakes Reopening Schools Safely Task Force.

Myers-Small's request is in connection with the upcoming plan to phase-in a return to the classroom for some city school students.

A regional appellate court has denied a plea for a change of venue by lawyers representing Mayor Lovely Warren and two of her campaign associates in their criminal campaign finance case — setting the stage for a trial in Rochester.