Superintendent Dr. Lesli Myers-Small of the Rochester City School District is leaving, two-and-a-half years into her four year contract. School Board President Cynthia Elliot sent a letter to district staff Wednesday afternoon confirming that the board is negotiating Myers-Small’s departure. Elliott said the board is committed to a smooth leadership transition, and regretted that word of the superintendent’s departure came out in the “Democrat and Chronicle” and on 13 WHAM before the board planned to announce it.
Rochester has had numerous superintendents over the past ten years, and the district hoped Myers-Small would end that unfortunate trend. But relations between Myers-Small and the school board worsened over the past year, with the board rejecting her school budget plan this year and bringing in outside help to craft a new one. Teachers voted “no confidence” in her in November. Her replacement will be the 8th Rochester superintendent in 12 years.