001Good evening and welcome to the Rochester Board of Education speakers forum. Um tonight we have quite a few speakers signed up. Today is February 17, 2026 and time check it is 5:35 this evening. I do want to read a brief statement as we read before all quorums. Um that the board expects district officials and the public to conduct themselves and speak in a respectful and courteous manner so as to model proper civility and decorum for students. Shouting, personal insults, vulgarity, profanity, attacks, revealing information prohibited by law, or any conduct that disrupts the flow of business is considered to be out of order. The board may among any other steps available pursuant to law take the following actions during the meeting uh to ensure a fair and effective meeting. Uh so we may interrupt with uh
002or uh submit a warning if you will or terminate a participant statement uh when it exceeds the allotted time or is personally directive, abrasive, obscene or irrelevant. uh requests any individual to leave the meeting when the individual uh whether in person or virtually does not observe reasonable decorum or the conduct interferes with the orderly progress of the meeting and or call for a recess or any adjournment to another time when the lack of public decorum so interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting as to warrant such action. Uh so I did want to read those reminder statements that we provide and again this is our opportunity to hear from you all who've taken your time to come and speak to us. Each speaker is allotted three minutes and the board typically during these sessions
003does not respond. We are here to listen and take in the information that you are providing. Um if that's fair for you. I'm going to start at this time with the first speaker on the list and that would be Mr. Miguel Melendez. He is here on in regard to community and he is here to speak to us regarding homelessness. Mr. Melendez. Thank you, President Simmons, Vice President Malloy, uh, Superintendent Roser, honorable members of the board and the RCSD administration. I want to preface my remarks by first thanking you all for your service to our community. I know that this is very challenging work as a legislative body to do and we are appreciative of your service. I come tonight to release uh to you all hard copies of the report on homelessness putting people in
004neighborhoods first. This is a com culmination of several months of work um by me in my office with uh several of my council staff to really listen to ideas from the community around the challenges with our um homeless population and the unhoused conditions in our community. This report is not meant to be a know-it-all report. It is a series of questions and answers. It is a series of ideas that we've heard from the public to give you the cliffnotes version of this. There's an executive summary that I encourage you to read in the beginning. You can skip all the way to 89, page 89 where the recommendations are. And then we have recommendations by each level of government. But of course, I'd want you to read the whole report, but if you wanted to just
005dive right in, page five, page 89 to get started. Included in the report is also appendices of all the written testimony that we received. So we we held a day of hearings in council chambers uh from experts both with lived experience as well as service providers, community members. So all of the written testimony that we received is included in this report. Um and certainly as we all know uh it's very hard to focus in school if you don't know where you're going to sleep at night. And I think this report provides some potential solutions that RCSD could consider. I come in a spirit of collaboration to figure out how we all can do better. There's recommendations for the federal government, the state, county, city, and RCSD. So, this isn't a come at you with just
006the problem. It's thinking about how can we all collectively come together to take a piece of the solution. And is my hope that following your review of the report uh there might be an opportunity to sit down uh whether collectively or individually whatever you prefer to follow up on next steps and how we can collaborate together. I'll yield the rest of my time. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Melendez. Moving forward on the agenda this evening, we have Mr. Kenneth Muhammad speaking to us as a community member. Um the topic being staff. >> Madam President, he's out of town. Thank you. Our next person on the meeting agenda this evening is Von Collins speaking to us as a staff person and this is regarding the topic of employment. Mr. Von Collins. >> Um good evening
007uh President Simmons, all of the commissioners, Dr. the roster administration. Um, everyone here and um, everyone who's here to support me this evening. My name is Von Collins and I have served the Rochester City School District for over two decades as a teacher, as an administrator, a substitute teacher, and a substitute administrator. Also as a volunteer administrator. For the past four years, I have been assistant principal at school number 42, which is a pre-K through six um school. During that time, I have intervened in more than 200 uh student fights, and have never been accused of any any inappropriate conduct towards any of my babies, my children, and my students. I have a duty to protect all of them, each and every one of them. Just a few a little bit of background information about
008me. Um, as it relates to my assignment as um assistant principal at at 42 school, I'm an administrator in charge of the tennis team. I um supervise and evaluate teaching staff as well as other staff members. Um, I collaborate with Rock Restorative to support our students with um trying to regulate their behavior. I'm also involved as an administrator with our schoolwide reading initiative um with our students and families. Through our partnership with Shellot Community Association, myself and others were the first to establish a community garden at school 42. In the larger community, I am an armor bearer for my pastor, Mr. Roger El Love to my left. Um, I am a huge supporter of my grandkids and their schools, frequently working in collaboration with their teachers and trying to ramp up some issues that they
009have with some of their reading and and other subject area matter. In closing, I'm guided by my faith and my duty as an administrator, and I am asking you to reconsider the recommendation of my termination and provide an alternative that will allow me to maintain my current position. Thank you for your time and consideration, and God bless you. And I yield the rest of my time. >> Thank you, Mr. Collins. You're welcome. >> Next on our list this evening, we have Reverend Dwight Fowler. He is signed up as a staff person and the topic is regarding staff. Good evening to uh the board president uh Madam Simmons and to the vice president and to each of you individually to the superintendent and all of you collectively. Uh the case of another good Samaritan tenure and
010reinstatement of Mr. Von Collins, the calling of a protector, president and members of the board. I stand before you today not just as a clergyman, but as a witness to a rare intersection of professional excellence and moral courage. Mr. Ivon Collins does not merely hold a job. He fulfills a calling. I stand before you to uh expound upon that as a church uh person, armor bearer, and a Christian leader. Mr. Collins operates under the code of loyalty and protection. This is not a man of altercations. He is a man of interventions. For six years, he has bridged the gap between school 42 and the shellot community, building gardens, solving attendance crisis, and teaching our children that they are citizens before they are students. Secondly, the anatomy of an intervention. On January 10th, the good Samaritan
011was not a bystander. He was a shield in a cafeteria besieged by five simultaneous fights and critical short staffing. Mr. Collins did not retreat. He ran toward the danger. When he neutralized a physical threat to a younger student, he used a staff balance restraint. When momentum brought them to the floor, he ensured he was the one taking the weight, protecting the student from injury. Later, uh, in the nurse's office, he intervened a second time. In the biblical tradition, he protected the least of these. To penalize a leader for preventing an assault is to tell every administrator in the district that their safety and the safety of our children is secondary to optics. Thirdly, the moral and legal mandate under article 15 of the collective bargaining agreement decide discipline requires good sufficient cause. There is no
012cause here for discipline. There is only cause for commendation. He acted with transparency notifying parents immediately. He acted with professionalism following deescalation protocols under fire. He acted with consistency maintaining his character as a consummate professional. The request we do not ask for a favor. We demand justice for a proven leader. We formally request that the board allow Mr. Devon Collins to maintain a position as vice president and be be granted the tenure he has earned through trial and fire. Rochester claims to value leaders invested in the safety and academic success of our children. If this is true, you cannot discard the very man who embodies those values. Let us not penalize the good Samaritan for refusing to walk by on the other side. I strongly suggest in the words of the prophet Amos that we
013let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your time. Thank you for listening. >> Thank you, Mr. Fowler. We have next on the list uh Mr. Clay Harris as a staff uh person. That's how he's listed um to regarding regarding staffing. And may I remind everyone we have three minutes. We will hear the bell go off at which time we will ask to conclude your remarks. Mr. Harris. >> Of course, ma'am. Madam President, you you ain't suggesting I'm going to take over three minutes, are you? I >> I may Well, well, I'm not going to respond. Mr. Harris, the mic is yours. >> I'm just teasing you. Uh, good evening, uh, superintendent, Madame President, Vice President, and all school board members and everybody
014in the audience. Um, for [clears throat] those who do not know me, my name is Klay Harris and I am a very active member in the community and I have been for a very very long time. Uh, I can remember uh back when uh there was a superintendent named uh Frank to uh Mr. uh D. Francisco. And then subsequent to that, a first black superintendent, Laval Wilson, uh sat on the school board for a couple years, very active in the community, very active uh with the Rochester City School District, wanting to have the best for our students, our parents, the families, and our community. And with that type of experience, I don't I I have seen a whole bunch. >> And I know a good student and sometimes we must be patient and forgive students
015on a number of occasion, including myself when I was in high school. And uh and I know a good teacher when I see one and and I'm around one. I know a good administrator when I see one and I'm around one and I know one. And I know bad uh students and teachers and administrators and some of them we keep when we should dismiss. And sometimes we dismiss a good teacher or administrator when we should keep them. And I say to you today and submit to you today uh that Mr. Collins is a good uh administrator. He's a good teacher. He cares about uh our community. He cares about our children. He cares about our students. And he cares about uh our community. And uh you know, I can remember when uh which we might
016still do, we try to recruit teachers, particularly black teachers. We used to go down south and try to recruit teachers. uh so uh children can see uh a person that looks like themselves. And not that that in this case should make a difference, but it should because we should try to retain and help and assist particularly when it's injustice uh as many black teachers as we can, particularly black male teachers because uh our black males in this community are an endangered species. They're dying. They're suffering. They're in jail, literally on the streets, and they need role models like Mr. Collins. Sure, there might things might look like it was overaggressive, but this man is trying to save students, teach students, break up fights. So kids, these kids these days, many of them out of control.
017And a lot of teachers and administrators don't even want to get involved. They don't even want to touch it, >> Mr. Harris. >> Because of liability. So, I submit to you, thank you. I submit to you that do not terminate Mr. Collins. Y'all reinstate this man and y'all help our community be a better place to be. >> Thank you, Mr. Harris. >> Next on our list, we have Angelo Palmerini, noted as a staff person on the topic of Oracle. >> Good evening. My name is Angelo Palmini. I'm here representing the non-eing staff of the Rochester City School District. Over the past seven months, employees have experienced ongoing problems, including incorrect pay amounts, delayed payments, missing stipens, deductions that were unexpected and illegal, and now W2 issues. While we understand that large system transa trans transitions
018can be complex, the persistence of these issues can has created financial hardship, stress, and frustration for staff. Non-eing staff are often the lowest paid employees in this district. Many of many are are many of our employees live paycheck to play paycheck. When payroll errors happen, the consequences are immediate and deeply personal. Our members cannot afford system glitches. They cannot spend hours trying to resolve payroll discrepancies, submitting tickets, making phone calls, and sometimes waiting weeks for corrections that many and many tickets sit unresolved. This cycle, as the superintendent himself has said, is unsustainable. In most cases, the fixes themselves have created new errors. This is what the CFO has referred to as whack-a-ole. Let's be clear. This is no longer a transition issue. This is a s systemic failure that continues to harm every worker who
019keeps this district running. Let's be honest, if employees repeatedly fail to perform their jobs correctly, there would be consequences. Yet this payroll system continues to fail our workers without urgency, without transparency, and without accountability. We cannot we cannot continue absorbing these financial consequences of this district-wide failure. At this point, hoping for a miracle fix to the Oracle payroll system is not a strategy. It's avoidance. Continuing to wait and see is no longer acceptable. Continuing to pour money, time into the system doesn't work. It is not responsible governance. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Palminer. We Palmarini. We have Laura as the next speaker noted a staff and the topic is Oracle. Thank you. I'm Laura secretary treasurer of Bente, the union for support staff who supports students, and I'm here tonight to share an email
020with you that I received at 3:58 p.m. on Friday, February 13th. I'm going to read this. We have identified issues with your most recently issued W2 form. Your correction falls into the following category. your calculation exceeded the 457b or 403b statutory contribution limit. Please note that the W2 is not changed and if you need question have any questions or need assistance contact Laura fast. That's the what I got. If any of you had received this email, would you know what your next step should be? Would you know from reading that email that the W2 that your employer sent to you is unusable? that you have to delay filing your taxes. I happen to know this, but I can't get that from this message. This email is as empty as the promises the district continues to
021make that it will communicate clearly and honestly with us and fix the errors for which is responsible. For more than 2 weeks, RCSD withheld knowledge that it had provided incorrect, unusable W2s to a significant number of employees. And when it finally let us know, it did so with a misleading, inaccurate, and incomplete email that really said nothing. This email implies that the employee is somehow to blame for the incorrect W2, that we exceeded statutory limits, and that is simply not true. And the RCSD knows it's not true, and they put that email out anyway. This email does not state that I cannot file my taxes with what the district provided to me, but I can't. It does not state that I will receive a W2C and it does not provide me with a timeline indicating
022when I might get my corrected W2C. Again, we at Bente's office have been fielding phone calls from members asking what this email means. All because the RCSD can't come clean with its screw-ups. I'm sharing my story tonight knowing that I'm speaking for approximately 200 other employees, at least 25 of whom are Bente members. I've lost track of the number of times I've brought Oracle issues to the board. And maybe things are happening behind the scenes that I'm not aware of, but from what I can tell, neither the board nor the district has done anything to get us out of this mess. So, I'm begging you tonight, can you at least make the district communicate honestly with us and give us a timeline for when we can file our taxes? 2 to 3 minutes is very
023limiting, and I'm happy to meet with anyone at any time to discuss this at length, but from what I can tell, no one really cares. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss The next person on our speakers list this evening is Mr. Josh Mack. Dr. Josh Mack noted as a staff member and this is regarding staffing. Good evening, President Simmons, commissioners and superintendent. [clears throat] I want to I'm here to express my support for Mr. Von Collins following a proposal to terminate his employment involving an incident with a student. >> [cough and clears throat] >> I respectfully asked the district to carefully reconsider the decision and fully review all the facts. Little brief history. When I was a younger teacher, I was involved in a situation where I had a student who assaulted some other students
024and myself in the process of restraining the student. I was um suspended, arrested, got two charges and um [clears throat] the judge actually dismissed all the charges with prejudice and the district had to reverse the suspension and also reimburse me and reinstate my salary. [clears throat] Excuse me. And the judge has some choice words for the city school district. So based uh you know under New York state rules uh school staff are allowed to physically intervene when a student is of serious risk of injury. Mr. Collins stepped in briefly and only to stop a fight. Then he was doing what the school leaders expect him to do, protect students. Okay. Uh school administrators have the responsibility to keep children safe. Not stepping in during a violent incident could put students at greater risk and expose
025the district to liability. Uh when a student is being hurt, school leaders must act quickly. Uh and terminating Mr. Collins is extreme and excessive. We must be careful not to create a situation where administrators and teachers are afraid to protect students because they fear losing their job. Uh Mr. Collins is also a kidney transplant recipient and depends on ongoing medication to maintain his health. He's giving me his okay to mention this. If he is terminated, he would lose employer provider health insurance which would put his medical stability at risk. This is not a small matter. Serious health consequence. Federal and state laws protect individuals with medical conditions from unfair treatment. These protections should be considered carefully in this situation. If any mistakes were made, the options besides termination are available. Additional training, which all of
026our administrators need, uh policy clarification with the board, the district needs to make sure that they're clear on what the policy is, and professional guidance from who's ever in charge. Okay? Uh so I'm going to ask you at this point here, removing a school leader who acted to protect students should be the last resort, not the first response. Protecting students from harm is the most important responsibility our schools have. If Mr. Collie acted in good faith, keep students safe. He deserves fairness and a thoughtful cons reconsideration. I thank you for for hearing me and I respect you. I I would expect that you would reconsider this termination and pursue a balanced and reasonable solution. Thank you for listening. >> Thank you, Dr. Mack. And we have a final person listed on this evening's agenda and
027that would be Mr. Adam Oransky noted under staff and the topic being payroll. Mr. Aansky. Dr. Abanssky. Good evening. Uh first let me agree with the comments made by my bente colleagues. Our members are receiving the same form letter, the same institutional impersonal form letter about their W2s which leave them no more satisfaction [clears throat] than before. they received that letter. As a matter of fact, it leaves them worse off because the letter implies that it's their fault, their mistake. It is not their fault. It is not their mistake. It is the Rochester City School District's fault and the Rochester City School District's mistake. All of that is on top of seven months now of an absolute mess. Nobody employed by the Rochester City School District has confidence that the next paycheck will be accurate.
028Seven months. And I'll tell you the general public and the families of your students of our students are wondering if you cannot do right the very basic function of paying your employees correctly, what else can't you do right? While all this is sucking all the air out of the school system, schools remain neglected. Special education is an absolute mess and out of compliance. Safety for students and faculty is deteriorating. People are afraid to drive to school. They now carpool or get dropped off because they don't know that they'll find their car in one place. When a teacher or administrator is assaulted in school, the district hushes it up, sweeps it under the rug. There are this is all occurring at a time when there is a national teacher shortage and we now are into the
029seventh consecutive year of resignations in the middle of the school year outnumbering retirements at the end of the school year. As a matter of fact, the data shows twice as many. I'll tell you there were in the last seven year including half a year six and a half years this year there were 547 retirements and 1,14 resignations. I'm worried and I think that you should be worried too that if this continues, if this becomes the new normal, which we are not willing to accept, if communication from the district to its staff does not improve or does not begin, whatever little credibility the district has will dissipate and eventually confidence in this district will be eliminated not only among staff but among the community. >> Dr. Abansky, your time has >> the very survival of the
030Rochester City School District is at stake. >> I'm worried >> has concluded. [clears throat] >> You should be too. >> Thank you. >> With no further comments listed for this evening, that concludes our speaker forum for this evening. You have been heard. Thank you for coming out this evening.