Tonight (2018-08-28) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
The board room had been redecorated since the last meeting. The old interior window was gone, walls had been repainted, large screen was added, and the lights had been adjusted. It was amusing to watch adults play with light switches, which just goes to show it is the small things in life that matter.
I noticed a minor procedural change tonight. The board seemed to be making (and seconding) all actions before the relevant discussion/presentation. It fit well enough, as that is how Robert laid out his Rules, but previously the motion/seconds were after the discussion. Big picture, I don’t see it mattering here, just so long as everyone is playing by the same rule book.
The shortage of school bus drivers was mentioned. In particular, how Bill (Transportation) was on the news recently. Apparently, it’s so hard to schedule the Commercial Drivers License exam in New York State, he schedules placeholder spots in Pennsylvania three months before he hires drivers. Just so he can be sure they are licensed when he needs them.
The CougarTech team gave their annual report and robot demonstration. As usual, it’s an impressive display. Although the newest of the presenters had a habit of standing directly in front of the display. I’m sure he’ll learn, and stand off to the side like the rest of the group did. To their credit, the kids ran the show. There was an adult supervisor there, but she stayed to the back.
I noted Gene (Superintendent) taking a picture during the presentation. As he often does at these sort of things, he posted it to Twitter. Fresh paint and new screen are also visible in the picture.
Another annual event was the approval of purchasing school buses. The voters approved this at the previous election, but now the Board shuffles the money around to pay for it. Sounds like it is another year of paying with cash, instead of debt, which I approve of. Debt is bad.
The tax rate for the portion of Rush that is in HFL was adjusted. While the exact cause was unstated, the way it was not said has me thinking it was related to the executive session before the meeting. I could speculate further, but who knows.
Much like the Town a few weeks back, HFL decided not to join in the States tax games. As the IRS sounds like they don’t like these games, I think it wise to sit out for the time being.
Much was discussed on a Code of Ethics for the Board. Watching group wordsmithing can be entertaining, in much the same way watching cars collide can be. Made even more so in that what one person thinks is ethical is rooted in their world view and philosophy. Everyone remained civil (as the draft Code required), but there were clear differences in world views. Perhaps not as much as their should be, for a group this large, but there was some.
Although, the whole thing could be summarized as “Don’t be a jerk“.
At the question/comment portion of the meeting, I did suggest they avoid making the enforcement of their code too strict. Tossing people off the Board could be interpreted as overruling the will of the voters, which is generally a bad idea under a representative government (like ours). Good to have everyone in the group agree on how to conduct their business, bad to toss elected officials if the voters still want them there.
As it was brought up multiple times: next week (9/4) there will be another BoE meeting. A list of expected meeting date/times this year is available on the school’s website, for anyone interested.
And to follow up on the previous meeting, and it’s unusual time of 7AM: I asked multiple people why the time change and got multiple answers. So either there is some secret conspiracy, or most don’t know why. Ockham says that means there was a good reason, and I’m sure I was even told it. But as we are all foolish mortals, those I asked either didn’t know or hadn’t bothered to remember. Fair enough, it wasn’t that important.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the August 28, 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.