Rochester School of the Arts (SOTA) Save our school!

[lovelplants]

well great school :)

[goeatpancakes]

:D

[goeatpancakes]

I'm happy that the budget cuts not exactly fully happening but I'm VERY afraid for the future. The band lessons have already been cut and some other things along those lines such as drama classes. Come on RCSD, we can save SOTA. We're an amazing school :D and you can see that by just coming to see our plays and concerts. We bring Rochester a bright future and seeing how much of the world today is slowly losing track of what is right, let us be the leaders. Art is my love and my passion.

[lennistreet]

u dont need two yers experience to auditiin, u just have to be able to play ur instrument (whether it be a trumpet, a paintbrush, lighting, your voice, your feet, or your pencil) and be pretty good at it ( bc thats the point ) :D good luck if u audition

[xSHIKUYO]

I want to go to SOTA but is it a MUST to learn something for two years then you can audition for it? PLEASE REPLY!!! Thanks(:

[cathelinmack]

As a SOTA alumni who is so very proud of who she and her fellow alumni have accomplished and become as adults, I'm outraged at anyone who thinks moving to a suburb will fix the issue or that neglecting the arts in education would have any benefit. I'm proud to have grown up in the city of Rochester, and would undoubtedly not be the person i am today if i hadn't. If a city doesn't work to raise and support its kids right, the only option is failure. Get it together Roc.

[lol2allmiih8trs]

i love sota!!!!!

[The890147532]

I like this video. I go to that shool and support it.

[trombone1mt]

Brizard is the worst leader in the RCSD history. He talks out of both sides of his mouth. On one hand, he tells the administrators to cut MILLIONS of dollars from their budget and the next day he says..."Oh, I don't want to hurt our flagship schools, or make cuts to the arts programs. Why would I do that!!?" He lies, he looks only for what makes himself look better to the public! But oh, I forgot.. everyone believes Brizard is doing a great job! Huh??

[sotarochester]

Google Rochester School of the Arts on channel YNN to see news story from last night.

[sotarochester]

Brizard's response to the video: "No one is looking to lose SOTA. It's one of our flagship schools. We know how important it is to our city. It's a pride for us, to have a school like that. For us to look to decimate and kill it, would be completely backwards. And honestly, if we were to do that, all of us should be fired, all of us," superintendent Jean-Claude Brizard said.

[trombone1mt]

@sotarochester Brizard is the worst leader in the RCSD history. He talks out of both sides of his mouth. On one hand, he tells the administrators to cut MILLIONS of dollars from their budget and the next day he says..."Oh, I don't want to hurt our flagship schools. Why would I do that!!?" He lies, he looks only for what makes himself look better to the public! But oh, I forgot.. everyone believes Brizard is doing a great job! Huh??

[UMgirl79]

@sotarochester Four board member are up for reelection this year. We can make that possible, starting with them.

[aqcroce2010]

@sotarochester Let's go! Let's hold him to it!

[trombone1mt]

I'm not saying I want the kids to move.....I'm saying that if the deficit is what the district claims it is, the only thing to cut are the non-mandated subjects. I know....music is very important to me (and my students) but the state and the superintendent look at what the states says you HAVE to teach! Unfortunately, that means only those classes that have state tests.

[jskillz8695]

Save our school wats the point if we work so hard to make us acheive, but now if the budget goes through our school will be nothing no arts diploma no nothing we attend this school to help our life later on, so please speak up for this budget cut not to go through, FLC 10th grade we will not give up lets go SOTA

[mradney8]

Save the arts, fight the power,

[lov37u]

SAVE OUR SKOOL!

[trombone1mt]

At some point, someone has to say to any parent of a child in the RCSD, if you want your child to be able to participate in the arts (dance, music, visual arts, theatre, etc.) you will have to move to the suburbs. The RCSD does not CARE about what is important to you or your child! There are too many employees who do NOT work with students and THAT is why we are in our financial crisis. If you have a choice, MOVE! It's the only chance your child has!

[DSCH12345]

@trombone1mt Unfortunately, your solution is only going to be a short-lived one at best. As our government gets increasingly involved in "reforming" public education (ie., administering more and more pointless standardized tests), the arts programs in suburban schools are going to face similar fates. Actually, many of them are already...

[JewtemalanTM]

whoever shot this video looks like a transcendentalist masterpiece..

[The890147532]

I like the video. I go to that school to.

[marychome]

The principals are handed grossly underfunded budgets and told to figure it out for themselves so Brizard & Co can lay the blame for the cuts on the principals. I don't think it is any coincidence that this new "Equitable School Funding" was imeplemented when the budgets were going to be in troulbe. The principals were given an impossible task and are now going to be blamed for the result. And Brizard will duck the criticism ... quack quack

[marychome]

I teach in the city at another school. I agree that SOTA's strength is in its arts focus, the only place in the district where kids can excel in their talents. To lose over 50% of the arts program is devastating! It needs to be pointed out that SOTA is not being targeted unfairly. These cuts are being implemented at every RCSD school!

[MelissaLuvlyness]

This is amazing I graduated in 2009 and I am so glad you guys put this together. I hate the fact that they are doing this. The only thing that makes Sota bearable sometimes is the fact that they let us express ourselves in artistic ways. They open our eyes to different possibilities. Without the arts in sota we would never be able to strive to follow our dreams.

Who was the teacher that helped do this?

[MelissaLuvlyness]

This is amazing I graduated in 2009 and I am so glad you guys put this together. I hate the fact that they are doing this. The only thing that makes Sota bearable sometimes is the fact that they let us express ourselves in artistic ways. They open our eyes to different possibilities. Without the arts in sota we would never be able to strive to follow our dreams.

Who was the teacher that helped do this?

[hyperionmax]

I graduated from the School of the Arts in 1997. It was an incredible experience to attend a school where creativity and individuality was fostered and encouraged. I realize now just how FORTUNATE I am to be a part of SOTA's rich history. Rochester School of the Arts is truly in a class of its own. No other school in the city can offer its students the gifts they can receive from attending the School of the Arts.

[kestrelmas]

@hyperionmax I also graduated in '97... what's happening is a damn tragedy.  I posted this link on the Rochester City School District's Facebook page, as did someone else. And you're absolutely right. There is no other school like SOTA in Rochester, SOTA has the best graduation/continuing education/college/attendance rate in the city, and RCSD wants to gut them. Absolutely disgusting.

[afigz1]

this is unfair . we tried everything singing paper , we wanted to protest .

YOUR taking EVERYTHING important to us AWAY ! we came to this school to become something . we have the highest graduation iin rochester city school district . !!! there is nothing wrong with are school for you to be doing this !!! SAVE SOTA . - one of its students .

[bigrara22]

um hello...its all about money...if we generate money we would be fine...we as in SOTA...when we were there we hustled...da kids there now r not focused...dey have shows here n there...but it seemed liked we made a name for ourselves...idk...i love SOTA but we do not attend SOTA nor work there...how can we contribute n make a change???...

[pandaattack69]

I can't believe this. I went to SOTA from 2001-2005, and later decided to graduate from a different high school for other reasons. However; SOTA was hands down the door that opened me to a whole new world, a way of looking at things, and thinking. I would hate to see the arts programs go. :(

[Floydfan101]

@DSCH12345 ...the problem worse, concentrating it. it's terrible :(

[DSCH12345]

Brizard's goal has always been to improve the RCSD graduation rate. So, why attack a school that has a HIGH graduation rate? SOTA certainly isn't without its flaws (primarily, administrative and problems stemming from lack of parental involvement), but with the highest graduation rate in the district, clearly SOTA is doing something right. It makes no sense to set up roadblocks to prevent them from succeeding.

[Floydfan101]

@DSCH12345 and here's the thing (in response to your "problems stemming from lack of parental involvement)... most of the parents who were always getting involved are now getting their students OUT of the district. everyone with the money will send their kids to private schools, leaving us with the children whose parents just don't care, or who are too impoverished to have an alternative. this group is the most at risk out of anyone, with the lowest test scores, etc. it'll only make ...

[clatoski]

It appeared to have been flagged. Sorry I get a little heated when I realize the first thing they always cut is school budgets. So many better ways to save money. I feel like we're raising a dangerously inept generation, even more inept than mine (scary) and SOTA appears to be one of the few islands of serenity in an otherwise grim landscape.

[clatoski]

Furthermore, in the last 20 years have proved that billlionaire plutocrats will never "voluntarily" support any type of program that benefits urban kids.The days of philanthropists doing their noblese Oblige impressions are gone.Golisano built a hospital 4 the 40 million dollar tax write off, not out of any concept of giving.Support our schools, and support your children's future security and safety as well; whether they go to the Westchester institute for millionaire babies or Marshall.

[aqcroce2010]

Great video. I support you, SOTA!

[clatoski]

@cmeisenzahl wow dude... let it burn right? This isn't spam first and foremost. This is a project supporting our proudest and most succesful public school within 80 miles. Most of us can't pay for our children's arts schools, so they should be deprived of the right? Don't sell out your fellow Americans in the name of the Almighty dollar. So what so you can have lower taxes? It almost comes across as pseudoracist, the conservatives ire toward public schools, b/c as u know the pop is 75% minority.

[cmeisenzahl]

@clatoski ...

>> "So what so you can have lower taxes?"

No, this is about not stealing from others.

>> "It almost comes across as pseudoracist"

That's ridiculous and a cheap shot. Nothing racist about this discussion whatsoever. I strongly wish you wouldn't make baseless implications or accusations like that.

>> "the conservatives ire toward public schools"

I'm not a conservative, I can't speak for them.

>> "u know the pop is 75% minority."

No, I didn't know that, it's irrelevant.

[clatoski]

@cmeisenzahl I wouldn't ever say that you as an idividual are bigoted, but the conservative ire towards public education certainly is. Closing SOTA would be a catastrophe for the RCSD, you'd be taking all the most sensitive artistic kids in our city and basically throw them into the fire. Regardless this is absolutely not Spam I knwo some people who worked on this, they are high School kids worried about their future.

[cmeisenzahl]

@clatoski

>> "I wouldn't ever say that you as an idividual are bigoted,"

Thanks, because that would very offensive. And not true at all.

I don't doubt that they are worried about their future. I am too. I wish the public schools weren't such wasteful disasters that keep failing these kids.

Not sure why you mention the spam thing? I never said it was spam?