Morning News Briefing
Written by Michael Baldwin on September 17, 2020
The are no current COVID-19 cases impacting staff or students in the Batavia City School District. The state school tracker, updated daily, shows that among the total school population of 1,500 in four schools, zero have tested positive. The tracker however does show one positive this week in the LeRoy Central School District. That district has two schools with 736 total students and staff. Meanwhile, there are zero cases reporting in the Oakfield-Alabama, Pembroke and Byron-Bergen districts.
A couple from Rochester is facing multiple felony counts after deputies say they allegedly committed crime in Le Roy and Batavia. 29-year-old Jennifer Abrams and 47-year-old Tarus Fluitt have been charged with burglary, two counts of criminal mischief, attempted burglary and two counts of conspiracy…they’re all felony charges. The sheriff’s office said in a press release that early Wednesday the pair attempted to break-in to the Kwik Fill on West Main in Le Roy. They weren’t successful. They were, however, successful at forcibly entering Crosby’s gas station on Clinton Street Road in Batavia. A sheriff’s deputy caught the pair inside the store in the process of stealing $3,500 in cigarettes. They had also caused more than $1,500 in damaged. The pair was apprehended in a wooded area after they fled. Abrams was jailed on $10,000 cash bail. Fluitt also remains in custody. The Sheriff’s Office is continuing to investigate this and similar incidents within recent weeks.
The Pavilion Central School District’s Board of Education has named three finalists for the district’s next superintendent. The school board president said she is pleased with the high-quality candidate pool and enthused about the potential the three finalists have to offer. The three finalists are Mary Kate Hoffman, Timothy McArdle and Paul Kesler. Hoffman is the principal of York Elementary School; McArdle currently serves as the principal of Le Roy Junior Senior High School and Kesler is the principal of Batavia High School. Stakeholder groups and the BOE will conduct the final round of interviews with the three candidates on Sept. 29 and 30 at the Pavilion Central School District. The BOE hopes to appoint the final candidate by early November.
Movie theaters are still waiting on reopening guidelines from New York State. Theaters have been closed since March and were expected by many to be part of phase four of reopening in late June. During a news conference Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state’s COVID-19 infection rate is still close to 1% to continue reopening more businesses. The governor says he understands the frustration.
A Rochester man has pleaded guilty in federal court to sex trafficking minors for cash. 26-year-old Quondall Davis entered his plea and now faces ten years to life in prison when he is sentenced November 18th. Prosecutors said the man, who is known as Hotdog, recruited two minor children to engage in commercial sex acts. The kids each engaged in commercial sex acts and gave a portion of the profits the defendant. Davis knew that both victims were under the age of 18.
New York State United Teachers – announcing – it has filed a lawsuit against the state over reductions in state school aid for districts across New York, seeking the release of money withheld in July, August and September and an injunction against future withholding of or delayed school funding payments. The lawsuit filed in Albany County Supreme Court challenges the constitutionality of the unilateral executive budgetary powers provided for the state Division of Budget as part of this year’s state budget process.
Contracts for school resource officers at the Byron-Bergen Central School District and Genesee Valley Educational Partnership (BOCES) were approved this week by the Genesee County Legislature’s Public Service Committee. The committee endorsed memorandums of understanding that place county sheriff’s deputies in the schools. During its meeting, the committee also approved allocating $28,900 from the 1 percent sales tax fund to advance a capital project for improvements at the Genesee County Animal Shelter.
