Two people tasked with helping the Rochester City School District improve its education system have resigned.
In a July 17 press release, the RCSD said that MaryEllen Elia, commissioner of the state education department, would be resigning effective Aug. 31. According to the education department, Elia is stepping down to take another position.
The announcement followed the resignation of Distinguished Educator Jamie Aquino, who was appointed to the position by Elia in August 2018. Aquino had been appointed to evaluate the RCSD and released a report in November containing 84 recommendations for the district to consider in order to improve its educational system. According to Elia, Aquino resigned to pursue other professional interests. His last day was June 7.
The RCSD submitted its action plan in February and has been working on revisions based on feedback from the state education department. In an Aug. 2 letter from Elia, the commissioner said a revised action plan that the RCSD submitted in June does provide a more cohesive vision for the improvement of the district than the original plan. However, the state education department did provide further feedback and gave the RCSD until Aug. 30 to resubmit another revised action plan.
