«You have to show sensitivity and openness, and at the same time not be so sensitive and so open that you are promoting something that certain portions of your parent population and students would be opposed to.»

«It makes it even worse. It is really a tone-deaf response to the crisis. It is a real grab to get an ideological position across that they haven't been able to achieve under normal circumstances.»

«As children are growing up in an increasingly diverse world, they need to have exposure to people different than themselves. I'm not saying it can't happen outside the public system, but it happens easily in the public system in many cases.»

«The hill will be higher for the school to climb than the kid.»

«(Students) have rights that have to be protected, but they also have responsibilities. We spend a lot of time talking about rights, but not much time talking about responsibility. Maybe these are opportunities to teach a lesson, not issue punishment.»

«Manny Rivera represents high-quality leadership in our nation's public schools. Since his return to Rochester, Manny has focused on raising achievement standards ... Despite pervasive poverty ? Rochester ranks 11th in the nation in child poverty ? the district has achieved dramatic improvements in the number of students passing the statewide exams in the past three years.»

«The results clearly prove that his leadership has been successful. The (Rochester) district has achieved dramatic improvements in the number of students passing the statewide exams in the past three years.»

«Manny Rivera represents high-quality leadership in our nation's public schools. Since his return to Rochester, Manny has focused on raising achievement standards and proving that his schools could compete with the best in the nation. He rallied his district and community, business and government leaders to systemically improve preK-12 instruction and achievement and build a local social infrastructure to support the learning process. The results clearly prove that his leadership has been successful. Despite pervasive poverty - Rochester ranks 11th in the nation in child poverty - the district has achieved dramatic improvements in the number of students passing the statewide exams in the past three years. AASA is proud to have him represent the best of the profession in 2006.»

«This kind of thing distracts energy and resources for defending yourself. Sometimes there are important precedents to be set, but sometimes people are just trying to have their way with the districts.»

«We definitely didn't put it on the schedule because we thought it was going to be an easy win. We knew we were going to have our hands full but we played them very competitively.»