Olean Schools Accountability Project

09/03/2026

Top district administrators were found responsible for serious violations of state and federal law, and board members who promised to restore accountability to administrative offices watched the storm intensify for months while apologizing in private. Accountability must go beyond the promises on a candidate’s yard signs and mailers. It has be on the record.

09/03/2026

Finally got the (late) notice that NYSED ordered them to send (and they say bitching on Facebook doesn’t do anything), but there’s one issue…

“The district was notified of the alleged improper disclosure in the June 17, 2026 decision.”

Why is lying the default response for these people?
The district was notified on January 9th when I emailed District leadership a formal complaint following my discovery of Jenny Bilotta’s illegal disclosure, before I found out through an Article 78 Appeal in court that Superintendent Genelle Morris herself authorized the release to one individual (Which would still have been a clear violation of state and federal law, but was made worse when Bilotta sent it to two people).

Also - “The district is appealing the June 17, 2026 decision.”

The New York State Education Department already considered your likely reason(s) for appeal in their decision but I still gave NYSED additional information, so good luck with that 😉

09/02/2026

09/02/2026

Well - there goes the district’s argument to the New York State Education Department that I previously shared some similar information about MY child with the recipient of the student information. I never spoke a word to the second recipient in my life up to this point.

But before we even get to Jenny’s proven unlawful outside disclosure, there’s a more basic yet serious question: why was Jenny Bilotta accessing these records at all? NYSED’s own determination says student PII cannot be disclosed EVEN TO DISTRICT EMPLOYEES who have no educational interest in accessing it. So if the District admits these emails were pulled for “work related” reasons involving ME, and not for any educational purpose involving the students, what legitimate educational interest did Bilotta have in digging through, retrieving, and reviewing those records in the first place? A Superintendent’s permission does not create a FERPA exception that does not exist.

Sounds like a separate unlawful disclosure by the Superintendent, if you ask me. 🤷🏻‍♂️

But even then - going back to their stated defense that I shared some information about MY child with one of the TWO recipients in the past - I can’t waive FERPA rights on behalf the OTHER TWO STUDENTS and their parents/guardians that you shared information about.

On the topic of other students being involved in the illegal disclosure: NYSED told me “The district has expressed its intent to challenge the June 17, 2026 determination in court instead of complying with the directives therein.”

If you are not complying with State Education Department’s directive, does that mean those two families are STILL waiting to be notified about what you did? Almost a year after you disclosed their child’s sensitive information in an attempt to come after me and they STILL haven’t been notified? Because, spoiler alert, I didn’t notify them - that’s your job. You are bound to FERPA, New York Education Law § 2-d(6)(b), and 8 NYCRR § 121.10(e) - not me. 😬

Honestly, Jenny, it might be best to try and salvage your reputation and career and resign at this point. Maybe go to a district 30 or so miles from here if you can’t retire yet. The Superintendent commutes like 80 miles so why not? Maybe you can both find something together? Seems better than wasting even more taxpayer money trying to take the State to court over your illegal conduct. 🙂

"The primary increase on the administrative budget is an increase in the liability insurance that we have, and increase in legal fees" - Jenny Bilotta, 4/21/2026.

Because wasting taxpayer money is exactly what you will be doing if the district follows through on their started intent of taking the New York State Education Department to court over their determination that:

“The district violated FERPA and Education Law § 2d by forwarding complainant's emails containing student names and allegations of inappropriate physical contact to [X] employees. Emails from a parent to a school that are directly related to a student and maintained by the school are education records covered by Education Law § 2-d and FERPA. Although the district and [X] are both educational agencies, they cannot transmit student PII from education records to each other absent parent consent or the applicability of a FERPA exception. Here, there is no evidence that the emails were forwarded for an educational purpose. While the district maintains that the emails were forwarded for "legitimate work related purposes," FERPA contains no such exception. Moreover, complainant's previous disclosures of similar information to [X] did not constitute a waiver of his FERPA rights.”

And also… this line:

“The district indicates that it forwarded the emails because it was concerned that complainant was sending disparaging communications during his work hours”

I sent you FOIL requests about how Mr. Martin handled a series of events involving my child. The district considers FOIL requests to be “disparaging communications” now? 😂

And don’t ignore that 10:46PM timestamp on that FOIL request 😉

08/31/2026

As we head into a new school year, it’s important to know your rights as parents or guardians when it comes to ensuring your child’s information is protected, as required by state and federal law.

You can learn more about the federal statute, FERPA, here: https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/ferpa

You can learn more about New York State’s law protecting student data here: https://newyork.public.law/laws/n.y._education_law_section_2-d

You can learn more about New York State Education Department’s determination that Olean City School District violated both of these through Superintendent Morris’ authorization of Jenny Bilotta’s subsequent unlawful actions here:https://www.nysed.gov/.../data.../olean-decision-6-17-26.pdf

08/30/2026

The blatant disregard for federal and state student privacy laws, and a New York State Education Department directive by Olean City School District’s administrators continues.

In NYSED’s report, they ordered “The district is directed to file appropriate incident reports) with my office and notify the parents or guardians of the students in the forwarded communications that a data incident occurred pursuant to 8 NYCRR 121.11.”

Yet, no such notification has occurred for at least one set of parents/guardians.

NYSED’s full determination of Superintendent Genelle Morris and Business Administrator Jenny Bilotta’s unlawful conduct can be found here:https://www.nysed.gov/sites/default/files/programs/data-privacy-security/olean-decision-6-17-26.pdf

08/30/2026

Yet another violation of state law by OCSD administration 🫩

On June 17, 2026, New York State Education Department determined that the Olean City School District violated the Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and New York State Education Law § 2-d when Superintendent Genelle Morris authorized Business Administrator Jenny Bilotta to disperse personally identifiable information concerning my daughter and other students to multiple individuals outside of OCSD who had no legitimate educational interest in receiving it.

In their publicly posted determination, NYSED directed OCSD to file appropriate incident reports and notify every affected parent or guardian. Despite that directive, I received no notification by the district of their violation.

The 60-day clock tied to that notification process ran out, at most, about 2 weeks ago.

I’m not sure if the other affected families were notified, but the apparent failure to notify me constitutes a separate potential violation of Education Law § 2-d(6)(b) and 8 NYCRR § 121.10, as well as apparent noncompliance with NYSED’s corrective order.

Absolutely wild that Cathy Young & Friends, and the State for that matter at this point, continue to allow the same people to repeatedly violate state and federal law 🫩

08/05/2026

Keeping with the focus being on Former State Senator turned Olean City School District Board of Education President Cathy Young.

In November, I informed the Board that someone from the district had been injecting themselves into my place of employment. The who and extent was unknown, other than it being a "she." Cathy Young privately emailed me back saying she would look into it (thanks!). Then a few weeks later, she called me. As you can hear below, she sought legal advice from an attorney not connected to OCSD and the general thought was they "shouldn't be doing that." She then apologized for how it affected my reputation and status at work at the time.

In January, I informed the Board that my FOIL showed Jenny Bilotta, the district's Business Administrator, had seemingly been the one doing it, and sent confidential information of three students/families to my employer in the process. I outlined how this was likely a violation of multiple laws, and was retaliatory in appearance. Seemingly no accountability followed. Only silence.

Then, following additional "complaints," I lost my job just two short weeks later. Again, nothing.

In May, the New York State Education Department ruled completely in my favor while dismissing every attempted defense that the District had. NYSED determined that District did in fact violate the Federal law FERPA, or Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, and New York State Education Law § 2-d when (not so super)intendent Dr. Genelle Morris authorized Jenny Bilotta to pull the records and send them to my employer.

Not only did no accountability follow, but Jenny Bilotta would later go on to seemingly mock my employment status on Facebook (before taking it down).

Cathy - you knew of the conduct, you sought legal advice that told you it shouldn't be happening, and you seemingly allowed it to continue. As President of the District's oversight body, you are just as to blame for the District being sued for retaliation, defamation, and abusing their government authority to go after my job. All while Jenny Bilotta knowingly violated state and federal student privacy laws to do it.

08/04/2026

*insert “We’re waiting” GIF here*

But really - for the first time in Olean history, funds from a political party were brought into a non-partisan school board race. Young and company funneled potentially up to a record $27,000 from the New York Republican State Committee in their win last year. That’s 50 times more than the average OCSD candidate spends. Only to not fulfill one of their primary goals: replacing the Superintendent.

The same political money, albeit much less of it, was used this year despite the two candidates running unopposed. We will see if now a Young-backed and funded majority can fulfill her stated goal 🤷🏻‍♂️