ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A Rochester city school that struggled with low student performance is on the upswing.

School No. 19 is exiting receivership after five years of intensive remediation. The announcement came during Tuesday’s Rochester City School District board meeting.

New York State law requires schools that are identified as struggling or failing, to be placed in an intensive accountability category called receivership. These schools must make significant gains in student achievement. If they fail to meet state targets, an outside receiver will be appointed to take over these schools.

Presenters recognized the work Principal Moniek Silas-Lee put in to improve the school. Silas-Lee says she couldn’t have accomplished this without the dedication of her team.

“I couldn’t do it without Beth Cross, Quanda Fields, Carla Querri, and David Dowd. So again I recognize that I am only as strong as my team. My team has been there. We have been there through the tough times — through the wonderful times,” Silas-Lee said. “Also a special shout-out to Dan Hurley and his team. And also our wonderful school chief. Who pushed me at every turn. Thank you so much Chief Moryin and thank you board for your support as well.”

The Rochester City School District has 45 schools in total. Twenty-four of those are performing in the bottom 10 percent compared to all public schools across New York State.

Five schools are still in receivership: School No. 16, School No. 28, School No. 33, Monroe High School, and Edison High School.

Although these schools are seeing improvement, they’ll have to wait until June 2026 for their next chance to exit receivership.

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