Pine-Richland board elects officers, approves 2025 schedule and committee appointments

The Pine-Richland School District Board re-elected Phil Morissette as school board president and completed a series of officer elections and committee appointments at its reorganization meeting Tuesday, Dec. 3. The board also approved its 2025 meeting calendar, authorized facsimile signature stamps for board officers, and designated the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as the district newspaper of general circulation.

The reorganization included contested ballots for temporary chairperson, president and vice president. After ballots were collected, Ms. Brusalis was selected as temporary president, and Phil Morissette was elected board president. Ms. Hillman was elected vice president. Ballots were collected and read aloud during the meeting; the chair announced the continuing and newly elected officers after tallying votes.

The board unanimously approved the district's 2025 meeting schedule as presented and voted to designate the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as the district's newspaper of general circulation, both routine reorganization items that were called, seconded and approved with no additional discussion.

The board also approved a motion permitting the board secretary to obtain stamps bearing the signatures of the 2025 board officers and to affix those officer-stamp signatures in lieu of handwritten signatures on original agreements, resolutions and other board-approved documents.

Several committee and representative appointments were filled. Leslie Miller was elected the board's legislative representative to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA). Miller was also chosen as the representative to the A.W. Beattie Joint Operating Committee. Ashley Fortier was appointed to the food service advisory and wellness committee. Ms. Turchick (first name not specified in the transcript) was reappointed as the representative to the Pine Township Parks and Recreation Board. Chris Jeswick was identified as the district's voting representative to the Allegheny North Tax Collection Committee, with Mr. Cassidy named as alternate.

During the public comment portion, one resident, Ms. Baer, who had signed up to speak online, criticized a bloc of five board members and their recent conduct. "I feel strongly that 5 of you, Mr. Morissette, Mr. Weisshorn, Ms. Miller, Mr. Cassidy, and Ms. [name given as] Sohman have no business even serving on this board, let alone serving in leadership positions," she said. Baer also criticized the board's handling of a prior library policy discussion and singled out Weisshorn's conduct, saying his public reading of a graphic excerpt from a book "without context" showed a lack of regard for librarians and staff. She urged the board to place people willing to consider others into leadership positions.

There was no formal board action in response to the public comment. After completing the reorganization items and appointments, the board adjourned the meeting.

Notes: The transcript records ballot tallies read aloud during the meeting; vote counts were announced verbally (for example, several contested ballots were reported in sums that the chair read as "5-4" outcomes and a 6-3 outcome for one appointment). The transcript does not list mover/second for all motions (most routine motions were noted as "made and seconded" without attribution).