The Utica City School District is a

public school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public Primary school, primary and Secondary school, secondary schools in various nations. North America United States In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as uni ...

coterminous with the city of

Utica, New York Utica () is a Administrative divisions of New York, city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The List of cities in New York, tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is a highly diverse urban district, having 69% racial minority students and 17% students who are English language learners in 2017. It is part of Oneida-Herkimer-Madison BOCES and the Conference of Big 5 School Districts, a conference of the largest urban school districts in

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

History

In 2010, the two Utica schools Proctor High School and Donovan Middle School were evaluated for restructuring by the

state Department of Education A state education agency or state department of education is the state-level government organization within each U.S. state or territory responsible for education, including providing information, resources, and technical assistance on educationa ...

in response to consistent underperformance. The Utica City School District was party to the case ''Maisto v. State of New York'', also called the "small cities" case, with seven other districts in the state. This suit alleged that the state's Foundation Aid formula, which was initiated in 2007 but frozen in the 2009–10 legislative session and cut in the 2010–2011 session, did not provide adequate funding to provide a basic education to students in these districts. In 2021, on appeal, the

Supreme Court of New York The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

ordered the state to revise its funding to adequately provide for these districts. State aid accounted for about 80% of the Utica City School District budget in 2021. In 2013 the Utica Academy of Science charter school, run by the same group as the Syracuse Academy of Science, was established. The UAS diverted a few million dollars in state funding from UCSD's budget. A second charter school was denied permission in part due to concerns over further reducing the UCSD budget. In 2016, the border between the Utica City School District and New Hartford Central School District was identified by the non-profit EdBuild as the 12th most segregating school district border in the United States. In December of 2022, superintendent Bruce Karam was placed on administrative leave by the Board of Education following complaints from two district employees. A legal battle between Karam and the board followed.

Refugee student lawsuit

In 2015, the Utica City School District was the subject of two lawsuits pertaining to its treatment of

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

students. Both suits were the result of a statewide review of compliance with ''

Plyler v. Doe ''Plyler v. Doe'', 457 U.S. 202 (1982), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States struck down both a state statute denying funding for education of undocumented immigrant children in the United States and an independent school distr ...

'', which prevents schools from asking about the immigration status of students. The first suit was filed by the

New York Civil Liberties Union The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is a civil rights organization in the United States. Founded in November 1951 as the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, it is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization with nearl ...

on behalf of six refugee students, and the second by the Attorney General of New York. Both suits alleged that refugee students older than 16 who were perceived to have poor language skills were denied enrollment at Proctor High School. They were instead diverted into weaker alternative programs that focused solely on

English as a foreign language English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EF ...

and did not lead to a diploma or adequately prepare for a high school equivalency exam. Students in these programs were allegedly segregated from other students and not allowed to mix with their peers for lunch or extracurricular activities. These suits were settled in 2016. For the first suit, the district agreed to reach out to individual school-age refugees as well as refugee communities in Utica to notify them of their right to attend school. For the second suit, the district was required to revise its enrollment policies and hire internal and external compliance monitors. It also required the district to offer compensatory schooling for students whose admission was denied or delayed, and to raise the standards of future alternative programs. The district did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlements. Although Utica was the only district sued as a result of the state's review, a similar lawsuit was filed against the School District of Lancaster, Pennsylvania later in 2015, and similar incidents were reported elsewhere in the state and country.

Schools

Elementary

There are ten elementary schools in the district: Albany, Columbus, Conkling, General Herkimer, Hughes, Jefferson, Jones, Kernan, MLK (built in 1955), and Watson Williams (built in 1992).

Middle

The district's two middle schools are James H. Donovan Middle School, named for New York State Senator James H. Donovan, and John F. Kennedy Middle School, named after the former president.

High school

Constructed in 1934 as a

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

project,

Thomas R. Proctor High School Thomas R. Proctor High School is the only high school in the Utica City School District in Utica, New York. The school was built in 1934 with funds from the Works Progress Administration and Thomas R. Proctor. It opened its doors on September 9, ...

is the district's only high school, with 200 full-time teachers and 2,600 students. Utica Free Academy closed in 1990.

References

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School District A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations. North America United States In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, wh ...

School districts in Oneida County, New York