Prudently Pause the Rushed Procurement of Electric School Buses in Pittsford CSD
The Issue
To the Members of the Pittsford Central School District Board of Education and Superintendent Shana Cutaia,
We, the undersigned residents, parents, and taxpayers of the Pittsford Central School District, petition the Board of Education to utilize New York State's recent 5-year legislative extension and immediately pause the procurement of electric school buses and their associated charging infrastructure.
While we support long-term emissions reductions, rushing into unproven electric vehicle (EV) bus technology right now exposes our community’s hard-earned tax dollars to severe financial and operational risks.
Our community faces significant economic challenges, and we must steward our tax dollars with extreme caution. Rushing this transition ignores three critical realities:
• State-Approved Flexibility: New York State has pushed the zero-emission purchase deadline out to 2032. Rushing to buy infrastructure and vehicles today ignores this fiscal breathing room.
• Harsh Winter Range & Reliability Deficits: Real-world data from local transit systems like RTS have proven that electric buses suffer massive battery range degradation in Rochester’s severe freezing winters. Rushing this technology risks disrupting reliable, on-time student transportation.
• Significant Financial & Operational Strain: Rushing to build specialized high-voltage infrastructure and buying vehicles with massive capital costs—before technology matures and external subsidies stabilize—threatens to burden our district's budget at the expense of educational programs.
We ask the Board and Superintendent Cutaia to exercise their duty of fiscal stewardship. Let us pause, leverage the state's 5-year extension, and wait until EV bus technology is reliable, cost-effective, and fully subsidized before moving forward.
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⚠️ NOTE TO SIGNERS: After you sign, Change.org will aggressively show a prompt asking you to "chip in" money to promote this petition. PLEASE IGNORE THIS PROMPT. 100% of that money goes to Change.org, not our local cause. Rushing this petition to victory costs zero dollars—all we need is your signature!
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28
The Issue
To the Members of the Pittsford Central School District Board of Education and Superintendent Shana Cutaia,
We, the undersigned residents, parents, and taxpayers of the Pittsford Central School District, petition the Board of Education to utilize New York State's recent 5-year legislative extension and immediately pause the procurement of electric school buses and their associated charging infrastructure.
While we support long-term emissions reductions, rushing into unproven electric vehicle (EV) bus technology right now exposes our community’s hard-earned tax dollars to severe financial and operational risks.
Our community faces significant economic challenges, and we must steward our tax dollars with extreme caution. Rushing this transition ignores three critical realities:
• State-Approved Flexibility: New York State has pushed the zero-emission purchase deadline out to 2032. Rushing to buy infrastructure and vehicles today ignores this fiscal breathing room.
• Harsh Winter Range & Reliability Deficits: Real-world data from local transit systems like RTS have proven that electric buses suffer massive battery range degradation in Rochester’s severe freezing winters. Rushing this technology risks disrupting reliable, on-time student transportation.
• Significant Financial & Operational Strain: Rushing to build specialized high-voltage infrastructure and buying vehicles with massive capital costs—before technology matures and external subsidies stabilize—threatens to burden our district's budget at the expense of educational programs.
We ask the Board and Superintendent Cutaia to exercise their duty of fiscal stewardship. Let us pause, leverage the state's 5-year extension, and wait until EV bus technology is reliable, cost-effective, and fully subsidized before moving forward.
***
⚠️ NOTE TO SIGNERS: After you sign, Change.org will aggressively show a prompt asking you to "chip in" money to promote this petition. PLEASE IGNORE THIS PROMPT. 100% of that money goes to Change.org, not our local cause. Rushing this petition to victory costs zero dollars—all we need is your signature!
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Petition created on October 7, 2026