It was anything but.
Instead, Pekel and the school board were confronted with a raucous, occasionally angry and jeering group of people venting a range of complaints and criticisms.
The gist of those complaints focused on critical race theory, which Rochester Public Schools does not teach. But they also directed their ire against mandatory mask wearing and a recently passed board resolution classifying statements such as "Black Lives Matter" and "Stop Asian Hate" as "government speech."
In a meeting with the Post Bulletin editorial board on Thursday, Pekel said he was OK with people expressing their opinions, but raised concerns about the "tenor and tone" of some of the commentary. It wasn't clear whether the attendees were parents of students in the district, though they do have a right to comment publicly, he said.
"There were people who were angry and very concerned, but not carrying signs that, for instance, had a swastika on it. And then there were other people who were expressing their concerns in a way that (the PB reported) were traumatizing and triggering to some other people in the room," Pekel said.
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He said the district needs to find a way to explain to the public what is being taught in its schools. But the challenge of Tuesday's meeting was disproving the group's insistence that critical race theory is being taught in Rochester schools when it isn't.
Critical race theory is an area of legal scholarship that seeks to examine U.S. law as it intersects with issues of race. But critics see it as Marxist theory that divides people into "oppressors" and "oppressed."
"What was interesting was the passionate thrust of the conversation, (which) was: It's your job, the school district, to prove to us you are not teaching critical race theory. And I'm like, 'Wait. You're walking in with the accusation that we're actually teaching critical race theory.' And there was no sense that it was their responsibility to have any evidence that we're actually doing it," Pekel said.
He said the district is committed to equity, defined as meaning that every RPS student is challenged academically and cared about. Equity is a concept that often enrages conservatives, because they believe it is used to displace equality. But Pekel said equity means taking a holistic approach with every student.
"Doing that requires differentiating across lines of race and culture," he said. "We're not blind to race and culture ... We all have other parts of our identity, not just our race. So to reach a kid who's a developing human being, it requires being attentive to the whole person."
Pekel said Tuesday's meeting did get a "little statewide attention." He said he was on call with the state's education commissioner and other superintendents, and the commissioner brought up the Rochester meeting three times. But Rochester is not alone in encountering such tempestuous meetings.
"We definitely have had other districts have board meetings with similar types of public comment, experiences," he said.
Asked if there would be new rules governing future meetings, Pekel said he didn't know, but that discussions were focused on the issue. He said the decision not to televise the public comment portion of the meeting was a policy made years ago, long before Tuesday's meeting.
"It wasn't reaction to this criticism that (broadcasting) was not done," he said. "And that's continuing to be our practice."
Pekel said such meetings raise safety issues for him. One unidentified person came into the Edison Building meeting room with a rifle, but was told by a school resource officer that he couldn't bring a weapon into the room. The rifle-toting man complied.
"Thank God, he was somebody who did have respect for law enforcement, because he was immediately compliant," Pekel said. "But he could have chosen not to be. So when I say maybe we should have recessed the meeting, I also know there's a safety issue that we need to be cognizant of."
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New Rochester superintendent faces tension-filled first meeting - PostBulletin.com
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