By Eileen Buckley
Buffalo, NY – Buffalo Schools Superintendent Marion Canedo says she will leave her post at the end of the current school year. Canedo tells Channel 2 News she's been thinking of stepping down for about three months. The Board of Education will discuss her departure at tomorrow night's regularly scheduled meeting.
Before she announced her decision, Buffalo Teacher Federation President Phil Rumore says he had heard talk that Canedo would leave. He recently spoke with Canedo, and says he did ask her to "stay."
"We all realize is it is going to be very difficult to try and get a new superintendent here," Rumore said. "We've got a control board that has frozen wages, close to 200 to 300 teachers and administrators are planning to retire, the districts unions are negotiating and there is severe under-funding. I don't know what kind of a superintendent would come in here and risk his or her reputation into a situation like this."
One report speculates that Canedo was not happy with the make up of the new school board elected just last week. But Rumore says that is a question only Canedo can answer.
"I don't think anybody knows what has gone into her decision," Rumore said. But knowing Marion, it is a decision that is based on what she feels is best for her family."
Canedo retired from the district in 1999, but then in 2000, took over as the first female city schools superintendent with the departure of James Harris.