Tonight (2018-05-22) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
The most interesting topic of the night, was also the last. Which was a shame, as by that point the group clearly wanted to call it a night.
Back at the early part of the meeting, we heard the school election results, although they were available through other methods before now. The budget passed, as did the bus purchase. Mike Shannon will be off the board, and David Ghidiu will be filling the position, the other two retain their seats.
There was an exit survey after the election, which I had missed that day. Apparently I wasn’t the only one, as ~5% of voters filled out the survey. That data shows most of them get their school election information from the school newsletter (76%), and none of them get it from the BoE meetings (as I didn’t take the survey, that isn’t a surprise). Most (55%) felt security was adequate, yet also wanted a school resource officer (ie guard), while 42% (plus 31% undecided) didn’t want to pay for it.
On that topic, there was another presentation on security, in the form of a Public Hearing on the District Emergency Response Plan. I wondered why ‘cyber attack’ was listed with a bunch of ways to die, as a threat to be prepared for, but other then that, from a content point of view, it was pretty good. It was even stated that we shouldn’t lose sight of HFL being a school first and foremost. Yet, in the discussion afterwards, there was talk on increasing the priority assigned to security. Until/unless there are people on campus ready to use lethal force in response to those that are directing lethal force at students, all of this is mostly ‘security theater‘. While general preparation for disasters is good, we mustn’t let fear cause us to forget the reason for the organizations existence. Hint: It’s not keeping kids safe.
There was also another Public Hearing regarding the Code of Conduct for next year. Apart from a minor verbiage change regarding nicotine, the only change of note was a rewrite of the “Academic Honesty” section, and the addition of a “Cheating” section. In and of itself, barely worth noting. But later in the evening, the topic of lying came up again.
Which is probably a good a time as any to mention how the school seems to play fast and loose with their Public Hearings. Despite reading the standard blurb (…hear all interested parties…), I didn’t Observe any part where the public was asked to comment during the hearings. Mind you, it’s not like there was anyone there to comment (besides me, and I know how to make a fool of myself when necessary). Still, struck me as interesting, especially in comparison to how the Village and Town handle Public Hearings.
The annual Alumni Hall of Fame Nominations were approved. I believe I know one of them, but as names change when people get married, I can’t be sure. Year is about right though. I can’t say who though, because everyone present was asked to keep it secret for a few weeks. Despite it being a public meeting, and the information already being available online…
There were some technical difficulties with BoardDocs (the website the BoE uses) tonight. Yet again pointing out the inherent flaw of becoming too dependent on the internet. If the original copy of the PDF was made in the building, a website being down should have no impact on viewing the document in that same building. They persevered, which is good. There just shouldn’t have been a need.
There was a TEDx event at the High School over the weekend, theme was ‘Glass Half Full’. I heard that videos will be available, so it may be worth looking for those in a week or three.
Which brings us back to the end of the meeting and it’s excitement. Put bluntly, a board member expressed displeasure with unofficial communications about the election. Which just goes to show, all politics are local politics. As we saw with the last presidential election, there are ways to use ‘Fake News’ to deliver messages. Is it enough to influence election results? No idea. But the existence of our communication infrastructure, in combination with the freedom of speech, creates opportunity to share untruths (aka lies).
At the core of the discussion, was the idea the union may (or may not) be unfairly leveraging their advantages for political gain. And if so, what, if anything, can the BoE do about it. While the words weren’t used, this was almost the idea that public unions are a conflict of interest. I thought the conversation was great to hear, even as it was acknowledged that the BoE really can’t do anything about it. People will say what they want, generally acting in what they perceive as their best interests. So it is only to be expected that members of a group that exists to protect it’s members, will say things to support people they believe will help the group. That such actions may not be in the best interests of the public at large is unfortunate, but also not unexpected.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the May 22, 2018 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.