Auburn School Board fully complied with Open Meetings Law

(May 14, 2020) – On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, the Auburn Enlarged City School District’s Board of Education conducted a budget workshop prior to its regularly scheduled board meeting.

The budget workshop was held in executive session, not open to the general public, because board members needed to discuss confidential personnel-related information regarding specific employees.

New York’s open meetings law states that executive sessions are allowed for discussion on “the medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation.”

“We talked about the employment history and performance of employees, which makes that executive session permissible,” said Jeff Pirozzolo, Superintendent of Schools.

After the budget workshop, the board held its regularly scheduled board meeting. At that meeting, a budget was not presented to the board because there was not a budget to present at that time.

“The reason we did not present any of the budget at the board meeting was because we do not know what our budget numbers are yet,” Pirozzolo continued. “We only want to present accurate information as opposed to presenting scenarios that may never even come to fruition.”

Governor Cuomo is supposed to release school budget numbers by Friday, May 15, and the board is set to vote on the budget at a livestreamed meeting on Tuesday, May 19.

A livestreamed public hearing is set for Tuesday, May 26 at 6:45 p.m. The budget vote and board election is June 9, 2020, and all voting will be by absentee ballot.

Absentee ballots will automatically be mailed to qualified voters in the district with postage-paid return envelopes. Additional absentee ballots may be requested by any other qualified voters in the district by contacting the District Clerk, Shelly Major, by email at MichelleMajor@aecsd.education or by calling (315) 255-8850.

 
Finger Lakes Daily News: Pirozzolo Disputes Open Meetings Law Violation Claim

FingerLakes1.com: Superintendent Pirozzolo clarifies cause for executive session, says performance will be considered as part of cuts