Foster's email article needs some clarification

David Yasenchock (Courtesy photo)

To the editor:

I would like to respond to the recent article in Foster's Daily Democrat dated October 1, 2021, by Karen Dandurant, in which Paul Lynch speaks out about the Rochester School District email incident.

To clarify, I was asked by Kyle Repucci, Superintendent of the Rochester School District, to see if I could find any evidence of collusion with a document that was presented by members of the Rochester Federation of Teachers Union regarding a list of COVIV-19 concerns with the opening of schools in September of 2020.

Saundra MacDonald, assistant superintendent, was present during this conversation. Repucci and MacDonald stated the request to look at possible ethical violations was the directive of Paul Lynch, Rochester School Board Chairman.

I was asked to search the emails of two school board members (Karen Stokes and Thomas O'Connor) and two union members (Carrie Feyler, union president and Jennifer Ford, union vice president) to look for any evidence of collusion surrounding this document. I was also given four separate sticky notes with the personal emails of these individuals to see if I could gain access to their accounts. I was also asked to data mine to see if any other board members might have been in collusion with these two union members. I did track the history related to the document in question and accessed school district emails (up to the previous 30 days as requested), but elected not to try to go into personal accounts as I believed this to be illegal.

I personally handed Kyle (Repucci) a hard copy of these documents, as well as emailed him an electronic copy. I was present when Kyle Repucci and Saundra MacDonald reviewed copies of these emails and the tracking information. Kyle and Saundra mentioned they were meeting with Paul Lynch later that day to review the documents.

- David Yasenchock,

Rochester

former chief technical officer at Rochester Schools