As Superintendent of the Rochester City School District (Rochester, New York), Dr. Manuel J. Rivera leads an urban school system serving more than 35,000 students in pre-K through grade 12 and 11,000 adult students. He is responsible for a budget of $455.9 million and oversees a professional and support staff of more than 5,000 employees.

Dr. Rivera began his career in education with the Rochester City School District in 1975 as a teacher and later served as both a school and district administrator. He was named Administrator of the Year in 1988 and was honored for his leadership in bilingual education by the New York State Association of Bilingual Education in 1992.

In 1991, he was first named Rochester Superintendent of Schools, a position he held until entering the private sector in 1994. That year, he joined Edison Schools, Inc., the country's leading private manager of public schools. Dr. Rivera served on Edison’s management team, supervising all Edison-partnership principals, overseeing school finances and budgets, and designing and implementing the company’s professional and leadership development team. In 1998 he was named Executive Vice President for Development, responsible for developing partnership and management agreements with new clients.

He returned to Rochester in 2002 to accept the position of Interim Superintendent for school year 2002-03. After a national search, the Rochester Board of Education named him permanent Superintendent of Schools, a position he has held since April 1, 2003.

Dr. Rivera has initiated and overseen a number of innovative programs that have advanced the Rochester City School District’s progress in academic achievement, fiscal and organizational management, and quality, service, and accountability. Among these are the following:

• A school redesign plan establishing pre-K through grade 6 elementary schools and grades 7-9 secondary schools, giving students greater stability in their school environment, fewer transitions between schools, and extended relationships with teachers.

• Establishment of small secondary schools with support from a $5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, offering a more specialized curricular focus and greater individual attention for students.

• Development of a three-zone elementary school choice system to offer parents greater choice in the schools to which they can send their children.

• A strategic plan outlining aggressive goals for the District, aligning those goals with school improvement plans, and establishing an accountability system for school performance.

• Integration of technology into instruction, using student performance data to drive school improvement.

• Initiating the development of a long-range facilities plan to modernize schools and provide state-of-the instructional resources for students.

• Strengthening of the District’s financial management and oversight practices.

Dr. Rivera earned both his doctorate in education in Administration, Planning & Social Policy and his master’s degree in education from Harvard University. He also holds a bachelor of arts degree in Urban Studies from Brandeis University

Click here to e-mail Dr. Manuel Rivera.