Tonight (2017-02-28) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE), and before that the Program Budget Advisory Council (PBAC).
Full disclosure: I sit on the PBAC, so some of these Observations aren’t exactly from the Audience.
This budget study session was back in the BoE room (which is in the High school). Agenda was the presentation from K-12 Art, Special Special Education Review, and Central Office. They each spoke on what greatness they had done over the past year, and what they wanted to change for next year.
As part of the PBAC, there is some information made available before the meetings. Generally this information is also available to the public, if not always before the meetings. I bring this up, because the information on the Art program left me a bit baffled. In particular, how was implementing instruction in technology part of the art program. All was explained.
If I counted right, there were four art teachers, and three students there to present. The teachers talked about the various art offerings at the various grade levels. It was when they showed a chart of the courses offered that I got the technology component. They teach students how to use Photoshop, and are planning to teach the use of Illustrator and InDesign. Bit Adobe centric for my tastes, but it does make sense.
The art program also makes use of Instagram. Whether you (or your kids) are in the High, Middle, Manor, or Lima school, there is an Instagram page for your building. Isn’t quiet a Cougar Creations, but it is readily available.
At the end of this presentation, each of the three students game a speech about what made art important for them. The first two were decent, the third was…. difficult to describe. The student was clearly impacted immensely by art, and apparently for the better. But I couldn’t shake the feeling art was being used as an allegory for something else. Either way, well done presentation.
Next up was a Special Education Program Evaluation (SEPE?). Stephanie (Pupil Personnel Services) started this off, but she had about a dozen other staff with her. Maybe half standing with her, the rest in the audience.
Special Education does an impressive job getting those with extra obstacles to reach the same goals the rest of the student body does. To such an extent, I have heard the worry expressed that people come here just for the Special Education. Which, in and of itself isn’t bad, but if done at scale could have negative side effects. On the plus side, the data offered tonight says the percentage of Students With Disabilities (SWD as they called them) has been pretty consistent, at least for the past few years.
They showed a video during this presentation, which showed people with disabilities that had managed to overcome them and gone on to other things. In acting, politics, that sort of things. I didn’t note anyone in any sort of manufacturing field though. It was famous celebrity type people. I wonder if there was any correlation there, or if those inclined to be in the spotlight wouldn’t mind another excuse to shine.
Last presentation for the evening was the Central Office. If these presentations were graded, I’d have to say Central Office cheated. Between their position as last, and that the group contains mostly administrative staff (the same staff running the meetings and interacting with the board), they tend to leverage earlier feedback to their advantage. But since it’s not a graded exercise, it’s fine if they have a well polished presentation.
Gene (Superintendent) did much of the speaking, in part due to technical difficulties. But he also had (one of) the student board representatives, Bruce (Business and Operations), and Cindy (Technology Services) helping him. The big item here was really ‘Technology’. Directly, in the desire to have a device (laptop, tablet, whatever) for each student. And indirectly, in training the staff how best to use those devices and communicating (in general) with the people in the district.
Communication came up as something that has been changing. It seems more people are using Twitter/Facebook/etc to communicate with the school. At least for quick and timely information. The necessity of the website was questioned, although no changes were announced. I suspect it will be much like the paper newsletters that go out a few times a year. Not the most timely, or most effective, but another form of communication that never really goes away.
The other indirect technology impact is teaching the teachers how best to use the new toys. Professional Development it’s called. Again, this makes sense. If the world is going to change, forcing the addition of all this equipment, so that the students can learn to use it, the teachers will need to know before they can teach. Having tried, I can tell you it’s difficult to teach someone how to do something when I don’t know myself. Unfortunately, it takes time (and money) to have this training. Which to some extent, I don’t understand.
It sounds like nearly all of the teaching staff have much (but not all) of the summer off. Yet many of them asked for more time to collaborate with fellow teachers. Not always on the topic of using their computers, but that has come up. Far be it for me to tell someone how to use their time, but it seems to me they could easily find some time over the summer to get together. In pairs, small groups, whatever they decided they needed. Should those asking for more time actually care, the problem appears to be solvable. By them, without anyone’s assistance. But what do I know…
And that technical difficulty mentioned earlier? The YouTube video didn’t want to cooperate. They carried on well enough, but this is far from the first time I’ve seen a video misbehave in a presentation. Which is sad. It’s not that hard to have the video open in a local movie player, and when the time comes, alt-tab to it. When the movie is done, alt-tab back to PowerPoint (or whatever). Which, unfortunately, illustrates the point about teaching teachers.
As sometimes happens, this meeting went a bit late, so I opted to write this in the morning. Hopefully the delay led to a more coherent Observation.
Also, as tends to happen, the BoE had finished their agenda by the time I got back from the PBAC discussion. So no Observations on the Board of Education meeting for last night, just the Budget Study Session that came before it.