WASHINGTON, June 29 Rochester City School District Superintendent Clifford B. Janey becomes chair of the Board of Directors of the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of the nation's largest urban public school systems, for a one-year term, effective July 1.

   Dr. Janey will preside over the national education policy and research organization that represents 57 big-city school systems.  The governing body is composed of the superintendent along with a school board member of each Council district.

   Other new Council officers are Manuel Nunez, board member of California's Fresno Unified School District, who becomes the chair-elect, and Houston Independent School District Superintendent Rod Paige, who replaces Nunez as secretary-treasurer.

    As the new chair of the board, Dr. Janey succeeds Becky Montgomery, a board member of the Saint Paul Public Schools in Minnesota.  The head of  Rochester schools in New York State also serves as co-chair of the Council's Task Force on Achievement Gaps, which was launched last year to find strategies to close achievement gaps among students of different racial, ethnic and language backgrounds.