Tonight (2017-09-12) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
At the meeting where the various buildings report on how well the start of school has gone, the process for next years budget also begins. When is it budget time? Apparently, anytime staff is around (ie all the time).
Apart from that irony, opening week appears to have gone well. Principals reported their various opening activities, and student representatives chimed in as well. I didn’t hear any complaints.
Most of the agenda items were the standard sort of formalities. Approving already budgeted and planned expenses (buses, healthcare contracts, that sort of thing). Reviewing plans for upcoming activities (budget, other meetings, etc).
Big item of discussion was a video on the Urban Suburban Program. The district has been dancing around this topic for the past few years, and that is continuing. For example, a meeting seeking public input will be held on September 21th (next Thursday).
My thoughts on the program are mixed. On the one hand, helping others is commendable. On the other, the logic feels flawed and it takes focus/time away from those already here.
I haven’t yet managed to articulate why/how the logic feels flawed, but I have a jumble of thoughts:
There seems to be a focus on equality. Which raises the question of equality of what? Outcome? Opportunity? Or at creation?
If Rochester has the worst and poorest schools in the state (as claimed tonight), is this program an attempt to treat the symptoms instead of the underlying cause? ie, aspirin for the broken bone, instead of a cast.
Does solving the cities problems fall under HFL’s jurisdiction? If there is no cost to the district (also claimed tonight), is this a case of ‘taxation without representation’ (as nonresidents are apparently paying for it)?
So no real answers on my part, just a general sense that this doesn’t seem like what the school should be spending it’s time on. Hopefully I can come up with a better way to frame my thoughts by next weeks meeting.
On a more positive note, I have an answer to a question I have been pondering for a while. What do you call an event where an elected body (board) seeks to have a discussion with the public? Open/Public Forum. As the district is attempting to reword the verbiage of their forum, it’s come out they are looking more for ‘comments’ then ‘discussion’. Leaving aside whether that is appropriate, at least now I have a name for the process.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the September 12th, 2017 meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education.
As has become the norm for this group, Agenda’s and similar information can be found at HFL’s BoardDocs page.