City Newspaper in Rochester, New York, recently published an article about their soon-to-be-ex superintendent, Jean-Claude Brizard. As a native of Rochester, and someone who has had the privilege of working with Jean-Claude in the Rochester City School District, I wanted to highlight this article. I think it does an excellent job of laying out some of the challenges facing urban districts -- and urban superintendents -- today.

Under Brizard, Rochester City Schools had an opportunity to emerge from decades of mismanagement and a "blame the child" culture. One of the first things that Brizard did when he arrived in Rochester was to make it clear that it was the district's job to educate every child -- no matter how disadvantaged her background or impoverished her home. The plan for transforming the district was called "Every child is a work of art. Create a masterpiece."

Brizard also shook up the leadership at Central Office and installed a Office of Strategy Management to implement the plan. He almost completely turned over his cabinet and had placed incredibly talented people in the ultra-critical roles of School Chiefs. He also started revamping the curriculum and closing underperforming schools.

Did he try too to do much? Was he too impatient with mediocrity? Almost certainly. But his sense of urgency was because of his commitment to the students of the district. Days lost on kids are lost forever. There's no way to get them back. So he tried a lot of things and put in place a lot of things -- like the Balanced Scorecard -- that were working well.

Ultimately, Brizard's loss to Chicago is a blow for the city schools and the underserved children of Rochester. But Rochester still has a chance to maintain momentum and keep the reform going. As the changes started under Brizard, if they can be kept up, provide a strong foundation for future administrations.