Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner
SYRACUSE -- Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner is looking at changing the way the city school district is run and possibly putting herself in charge. There are different possibilities of what that could entail. Full mayoral control would eliminate the school board but that also requires approval of the state legislature. The legislation can be introduced by the governor or a state senator or member of the assembly. The mayor also says there are other, more incremental changes she's looking at to improve performance and efficiency.
"What I have said is the end results that the school district and our city are getting with graduation rates and test scores are not acceptable so we need to change that," Mayor Miner said.
Those who favor mayoral control of school districts cite greater accountability and stable leadership. Opponents say decisions can be made with little input from others.
"I think the other places that have moved in that direction really had dysfunctional school boards," said Superintendent of Syracuse City Schools, Dan Lowengard. "It had nothing to do with the results, it had to do with the functioning school boards. We don't have that case here."
When asked if he's for or against mayoral control, Lowengard says he "Supports an amazing partnership between city hall and the school district."
"What we never want to have happen is for the running of schools to be in a political process," Lowengard said.
Miner is keeping her options open. She continues to talk with mayors of other upstate cities like Schenectady and Rochester, other cities with similar problems in their schools.
"Nothing is going to be off the table and the status quo is not working well for anyone, particularly in education, so we're looking at all ideas, mayoral control is one idea," Miner said.
The mayor is also looking at possibly consolidating financial services between the city and school district and also consolidating information technology between the two.
