We, the undersigned, believe the resignation of Kristin Bull, Rochester Community Schools Board of Education President, is warranted and should be acted upon immediately.

Our reasons:

1) Kristin Bull has failed to understand and represent the community. During this time of disruption to education, she has not taken necessary steps to survey her constituents on issues experienced during remote and hybrid learning, virtual learning, and in-person services. She has failed to determine the wishes of the community in regards to the percentage of families that would like to return to in-person school and has instead placed her opinions over that of her constituents she is sworn to represent.

2) Kristin Bull has dismissed the provided input of the community. When attempts are made to address the Board of Education via emails or public comment, the concerns of the community do not make it into BOE discussion. By not including them, she has disregarded the needs of students who are not learning adequately, parents struggling to work and provide for their families, and those who need more robust remote learning.

3) Kristin Bull has allowed the superintendent, Dr. Robert Shaner, to proceed unchecked and without adequate oversight from the Board of Education. The Board of Education is to be a voice of the community, not the superintendent, but her actions have removed power from the people’s voice and transferred it to the superintendent; have allowed the superintendent to make critical district decisions without immediate board input, oversight, or vote; failed to seek clarification or improvement from the superintedent when his remote learning decisions have been detrimental to students; and have removed vital public discussion between superintendent and the BOE into private school administration decisions.

4) Kristin Bull has acted inappropriately and hostilely towards members of the community that have disagreed with her or pointed out when she has failed to act appropriately as a public servant. This has included censorship and bias against their public comment time, public reprimand of an applicant for BOE trustee, failure to address an inappropriate email by the superintendent alleging misconduct by a member of the RCS community, & condoning the use of Cease & Desist letter to intimidate parents that disagree with her positions. 

5) Kristin Bull has abused her position as president to ensure that disagreement among BOE trustee positions is not public, but confined to work sessions; that votes are unanimous and not representative of true views of the trustees; that BOE trustees selected to replace resigned trustees hold views aligned to current BOE trustees; and that diversity of opinion is not present among BOE trustees.

6) Kristin Bull abused her position during the July 2019 BOE meeting when she allowed for information to be used as the justification for appointing Scott Muska to the BOE that was not fully available to all BOE Trustees. That information was not covered in the interview or listed on Scott’s application.  

For these reasons, we call for the immediate resignation of Kristin Bull, RCS BOE President and an official recall election if she elects to not resign.