EDUCATION: After Brizard, what happens now?
After weeks of rumors and speculation, the nagging question about city schools Superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard's future was finally answered 600 miles away by Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel. Brizard's decision to become the next CEO of the Chicago public school system has been met with a mix of remorse, anger, and relief. And it has raised a flurry of questions and concerns about the Rochester school district's future.
What will happen to Brizard's reforms, including the phasing out of some schools and the opening of others, reconfiguring grades, and the massive $325-million plan to remodel the district's old school buildings? Will the district be able to approve its budget - closing a $76.5-million gap - by the end of the month, as planned? And most important, who will be the district's interim leader and its next superintendent? It's not even clear when Brizard will leave.
"We can't sit around and waste time being upset that someone had an opportunity and took it," says school board President Malik Evans. "As far as I'm concerned, we're still going forward with all of the plans we've
