Mayor Duffy released a statement today sticking by his endorsement of Cynthia Elliott, who caused an uproar when she called her fellow school board members dumb
m*****f*****s during a public meeting.
Here's the statement (my additions added in italics):
I have been asked by members of the media in the past few days whether I am going to withdraw my support of Cynthia Elliott in her re-election bid for the Rochester City School Board due to her use of profane language at a recent school board meeting. The answer is "no." I stand by my endorsement of Cynthia. That being said, I do not condone the use of such language - either publicly or privately. That sort of language has no place in public discourse, much less at a meeting of educators. I reject such vulgarity and have said so to Cynthia.My support of Cynthia Elliott remains because I know that her entire focus since joining the school board is on children and their educational success. While others may worry more about adults, elections and special interests, it is clear to me that Cynthia is driven by concern for our kids and not politics. The attacks on her now seem to be more about political endorsements and promoting other candidates than about what truly matters - the success of our children and graduation rates. (The mayor is possibly referring to a write-in campaign that began today for outgoing board member Tom Brennan, who has been very outspoken against Duffy. Brennan once referred to Duffy as “His royal royal highness.”)While others are scoring political points on Cynthia's use of obscenities, what is really obscene is spending $23,000 per student and having more than half of them fail to graduate. What is truly obscene is that 73 cents of every city property tax dollar - more than $119 million - is mandated to be paid to the school district without any City oversight whatsoever. An educational system that puts adults, jobs and politics ahead of student performance - that's obscene.(Cynthia Elliot has said she is open to the idea of mayoral control. Duffy has never said he wants to take over the school board, but has said he would like to appoint a few seats on the board. Duffy is a very vocal opponent of the Maintenance of Effort law, which requires the city to give the RCSD the same amount of money each year, even though other upstate cities give their districts far less.)We are in the midst of a terrible economic crisis and the City is bracing for a mid-year budget cut in excess of $7 million and a structural shortfall next year in the tens of millions. One of the biggest challenges we face is our schools. Most of the people committing crimes in our city are high school dropouts and we continue to produce more dropouts than graduates.
I fully support Superintendent Jean Claude Brizard, who must deal with the educational failures of our system in the midst of all of this political wrangling. This must change. He deserves a board that is focused on improving education and not on political grandstanding.(The unwavering support for Brizard is interesting, given the mayor’s blasting of district spending. In addition, Elliott is a harsh critic of Brizard and has called for more fiscal accountability.)While I am extremely disappointed in the language used by Cynthia Elliott and I recognize that it sets a bad example, I know what is in her heart. She cares about the well-being and educational success of our children. I would only hope that those who have spent so much time and effort demonizing Cynthia would spend more time on what is really important - graduation rates and success in school for our children.
