Rochester School Leaders: 'School Is Ready to Open Next Tuesday'
Sept. 4 will be here before you know it. Here's what you need to know.
Before Rochester Community Schools can officially open for learning next week, they need to receive a seal of approval from leaders in the school district.
That's why members of the administration and members of the Board of Education took turns personally touring every school building over the past few weeks.
In the end, they declared them ready for business.
"Each year, we symbolically certify all buildings as ready to start," said Rochester's Assistant Superintendent for Business Dan Romzek. The tours finished Wednesday.
Romzek said the buildings are in great shape. Board members agreed.
"We're ready to open next Tuesday," Board President Jennifer Berwick said.
What's new?
School starts Tuesday. Students and parents will find several changes in Rochester this year. Among them:
- Physical changes: There's a new roof at Brooklands Elementary School. Hampton Elementary School got new carpet. And a new playground will welcome pre-K students at Hart Middle School.
- Curriculum changes: All-day kindergarten is the most-talked-about change this year: every elementary school has converted to the all-day format.
- Private companies in charge: In the spring, school leaders agreed to outsource custodian, transportation and partial grounds services. Durham School Services runs the busing. GCA is managing the custodians. Both companies were still hiring for the school year as of Monday.
- New administrators:
- Casey Wescott, a former social studies teacher at Adams High School, is the interim assistant principal at Rochester High School.
- Donald Maskill, an assistant principal at West Middle School, is the interim principal at Hugger Elementary School. Maskill replaces Debi Fragomeni, who was named Pre-K through 7th Grade Curriculum Director for the district.
- Wendy Darga, an intern assistant principal at Hart Middle School, will serve as the interim assistant principal at West.
- Eric Kausch, a teacher at Stoney Creek, has been appointed the Assistant Principal intern at Hart.
- Catherine Kochanski replaces longtime principal Denise Bereznoff at Baldwin Elementary School.
- And David Harwell was named to the position of 8th Grade through Adult Education Curriculum Director.
- New teachers: In all, about 60 new teachers will be among the new faces in the schools. Here's a list of teacher hires so far.
What else?
- Check out the key dates in the school-year calendar here.
- Access kids' teachers and class schedules on MyRCS.com
- And if your kids are planning their first-day-of-school outfits, the long-range forecast calls for a chance of showers with a high of 82.
In This article
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Brooklands Elementary School
490 E Auburn Rd, Rochester Hills, MI -
Hampton Elementary School
530 Hampton Cir, Rochester Hills, MI -
Hart Middle School
6500 Sheldon Rd, Rochester Hills, MI -
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West Middle School
500 Old Perch Rd, Rochester Hills, MI -
Hugger Elementary School
5050 Sheldon Rd, Rochester, MI
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Baldwin Elementary School
4325 Bannister Rd, Rochester, MI -
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KB
10:59 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
This article could not be any farther from the truth, the truth is that the schools are not clean by any standards and the staff that cleaned did not have the appropriate fingerprint or background checks because they were subcontracted by the current contractor from a "Temp Agency". NUMEROUS schools have been left unlocked and alarms not set, and there has been numerous accounts of theft. The chemicals used for cleaning were not available and staff have been using window cleaners to clean everything, and I am not sure if that is the way the Assistant Superintendant for Business saw things at his previous school district, but RCS has been cleaned properly for NUMEROUS years prior to this one. There has also been falsification of documents in which cleaning was not done but the forms showed that they were. This information was passed along to the Rochester Administration all summer and this is the report that is passed on to the community. How pathetic to lie to justify the decision to outsource. As far as I know, there have been no penalties for these items, and they are supposed to be penalized for numerous violations that have occurred.
Kristin Bull
1:46 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@KB: Thanks for sharing your concerns; perhaps the problems with the cleaning had been resolved prior to the inspections by school administrators. If the thefts you mention have been reported to police, there should be a police report we can look into.
Regardless of the accusations about the schools not being clean, the teachers that I know personally would not let classes begin until their particular classroom met their cleanliness seal of approval - even if that cleaning had to be done by the teachers themselves.
Debra Hartman
11:59 am on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Rochester Community Schools has a half day for students Grades K-5 and a full day for students Grades 6-12 on September 4.
Kristin Bull
1:40 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
Thanks for the clarification!
Will Hanson
12:24 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
A new playground for Pre-K students at Hart Middle School? Doesn't middle school only include students in grades 6-8/. Is there really a need for a playground?
Kristin Bull
1:40 pm on Thursday, August 30, 2012
@Will - Because of the switch to all-day kindergarten in the district this year, some of the elementary classrooms that were used for preschool classes in the past are now being used for kindergarten classrooms. So, some unused portable classrooms at Hart have been transformed into preschool classrooms. I have heard great things about them, and about the new playground, too. I plan to go out to Hart to see for myself for a story in the next few weeks.
Peter Griffin
8:05 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
KB sounds like a disgruntled displaced worker? I went to one of the RCS schools to meet the teachers and the school could not have been any cleaner. I think the gym floor was even coated with fresh polyurethane --- not a mark on the floor. All classrooms were dusted and smelled very clean. Even the bathrooms looked great. Not sure where KB gets their info from.
KB
5:55 pm on Thursday, September 6, 2012
NOT a disgruntled displaced worker, just someone who has extensive knowledge of the cleanliness of the buildings prior to this year. Glad to hear that the 1 building out of the 25 was up to YOUR standards but Rochester Administration that was put in place to oversee this change in workers did not pass the majority of the buildings for cleanliness this year. I am however happy to see that Rochester is continuing to pay more than 250,000. monthly without penalizing the new company for Numerous violations to the contract that are continuing to this day. Had this been the Union workers, they would have been penalized but the District wants this to work so bad, that they will NOT admit failure.
chris murray
10:58 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Don't know KB but I also heard some of the things he is alluding to. My source was currently employed people in different buildings so I'm going to have to believe what they are saying. They have to many other things to deal with to make this stuff up.