SCHENECTADY — Schenectady City School District could soon be in search of a new head of schools for the second time in five years.
Current Superintendent Anibal Soler Jr. is one of the finalists to become the next Yonkers Public Schools superintendent, according to the Westchester County school district just north of New York City.
“As a district committed to transparency and integrity, we want to assure our community that the national search for our new Superintendent has been conducted with the utmost diligence and respect for procedural protocols,” said Akeem H. Jamal, communications officer for the Yonkers district.
“While we near the end of our search, we can share that Mr. Anibal Soler Jr. is one of the finalists,” Jamal said.
The district declined to comment on who the other finalists are or how many there are.
“Out of respect to the other candidates and at their request we are unable to disclose their names,” Jamal said.
Yonkers is the fourth-largest school district in the state, with nearly 23,000 students in K-12, according to state Education Department data from the 2021-22 school year.
Soler has not returned a request for comment. However, Schenectady school board president Bernice Rivera said the board is aware of the situation regarding Soler’s candidacy in Yonkers.
“The Board is committed to transparency and communication with the SCSD Community,” she said in an emailed statement. “It is our understanding that Superintendent Soler was recently recruited by Yonkers Public Schools (PS) and the board is aware that Yonkers PS has recently confirmed that Superintendent Soler is a finalist. We do not have details or any additional information to share at this time.”
Questions of Soler’s departure started swirling when the Yonkers Voice, a self-described news company, posted on social media Sunday that the Schenectady school leader is expected to be named the city’s next superintendent of schools.
The district has been seeking a new leader since Edwin M. Quezada left the position in July 2023. His salary was $297,974, according to 2022 data.
Soler was hired in Schenectady just two-and-a-half years ago in July 2021. His base salary of $221,450 and $2,555 in unused vacation equaled the highest earnings in the district last year.
Rooted in his #SchenectadyRising mantra, Soler's vision has been about lifting up the struggling school district. That includes remaking the district's aging infrastructure through a $300 million capital project and implementing a community schools philosophy designed to change the culture in Schenectady. The ultimate goal, of course, was to boost academic performances in a district that has long dealt with sagging test scores.
A job change would mean he would not see through the massive capital project district voters passed by a roughly 5-to-1 margin last spring, which is scheduled to begin work this summer.
The project will provide $126 million for high school renovations and $25 million apiece for Central Park Middle School and the Steinmetz Campus, which is set to be converted to the district’s Freshman Leadership Academy Campus in 2025.
The work that's been done
During his time in Schenectady, Soler has implemented a number of new programs and initiatives.
In December 2022, the district began allowing students at five elementary schools to take advantage of extended after-school hours in an effort to turn the sites into community hubs. Each participating location has after-school offerings that last two-to-three hours each school day, with students receiving a hot dinner before the schools close at 6 p.m.
More recently, the district launched a literacy awareness campaign aimed at increasing the ability to read and write among students. The district showed modest gains in state test scores for English Language Arts (ELA) in 2022-2023, recording a 3.96% rise in proficiency among grades 3-8, with 24% of pupils earning passing grades.
However, a majority of students in grades 6-8 tested three or more grade levels below standard in the first quarter of the 2023-24 academic year.
Soler has said the district remains transparent in its testing scores and is working with those students that are behind.
The district earlier this year also changed its grading policy, moving from a numerical system to a letter-based one, and doesn’t penalize students who hand in late assignments with lowered grades for those tasks. However, the tardiness of assignments will be noted in separate comments on a pupils’ report card, pertaining to effort and behavior.
Yonkers had a 90% graduation rate in 2021-22, according to state Education Department data, while Shenectady was at 80%.
While at the helm of the district, Soler has also dealt with some controversial issues, including the decision to have more community engagement officers in the district. In May 2022, the school board approved the program, which placed six city police officers in schools over three years at an annual cost of $600,000 — split evenly between the district and city.
Prior to being hired in Schenectady, Soler was the superintendent of the Batavia School District for 18 months. He was previously the associate superintendent for Buffalo Public Schools, leading that district’s Strong Community Schools, and a principal and teacher in Rochester City School District.
During his time in Buffalo heading up the Strong Community Schools, he led the work of moving schools from the designation of “struggling” or “failing” to “good standing.” As a high school principal in Rochester, he was honored in 2014 as a White House Champion of Change.
Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy praised Soler during the 2023 mayoral election’s Democratic primary debate in June.
"The current superintendent in the district has gone through a couple of shifts in leadership,” McCarthy said. “He's a remarkable individual. He's a driving force where he is changing the perception of that district and mapping out a plan that is going to, I believe, produce real results for the community as a whole in those kids that today may have fallen by the wayside and really not graduated or met their full potential."