Colleagues, The Rochester City School District’s fiscal woes continue. Part of it is due to lower registration of kindergarten and pre-kindergarten students. Another reason is that the District continues to find discrepancies and miscalculations in their existing budget. But the biggest  reason, by far, is the recent decision by the New York State Division of Budget to withhold 20% of scheduled aid to all school districts in New York State because of the state’s own $14.5 billion budget shortfall. The impact on the RCSD would be devastating. For some of our colleagues, the layoff notices have already begun. The presidents of all four unions representing employees of the RCSD (BENTE, RAP, ASAR and RTA) have already sent a joint letter to Superintendent Lesli Myers-Small and to the RCSD Board of Education urging them to delay any layoffs. The NYS Division of Budget’s action could be affected, or even averted, by the passing of the HEROES Act - the Federal fiscal stimulus bill...