Tonight (2018-11-27) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
Surprisingly few people at the meeting. Normally there is a decent number of staff there. Principals, department heads, etc. Tonight that crowd was not in attendance. There were a pair of students though. Apparently it’s AP Government meeting attendance time again.
During the ‘Public Comment’ section early in the meeting, I pointed out Dave not being present at the previous meeting. Again asking the question of what exactly a violation of the Code of Ethics leads to. No answer, but then again I didn’t expect one (as it is comment time, not question time). Worth noting, Joe was not at tonight’s meeting. So that’s makes two Board members who have obviously violated the Code of Ethics. Again, not faulting the people in question, I’m sure they have good and valid reasons. More questioning the system and it’s enforcement (or lack thereof).
Had a report from Monroe 1 BOCES. Perhaps the most amusing part being the BOCES Superintendent sharing the name ‘Dan’. Other then that, nothing really jumped out at me. If you are interested in more, a short video was made available.
The bulk of the meeting was the people that had gone to the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) Convention reporting on their experiences. Not much to say, as a summary of a report of a presentation doesn’t have much left to it. Two tidbits did stick out to me though:
About 25% of the students from Mineola Union Free School District that had gone to college between 2009 and 2013 were no longer enrolled and had NOT received a degree.
The ‘Blueprint For Building Collaborative Educational Makerspaces‘ considers ‘Digital Citizenship’ the same as ‘Global Citizenship’.
Make of those tidbits what you will. If the event sounds of interest to you, more information is available at their website.
Sounds like the Board and the HFLEA are working on improving their teamwork skills by trying to do a project of some sort together. While nothing is set in stone yet, looks like they are going to be arranging some sort of forum with students. As everyone involved has to work together, it is commendable that they are taking steps to improve.
And lastly, the newest Board member (Dave) took a round about way of asking for a item to be placed on a future agenda. This led to two issues: the process for adding agenda items and the requested topic itself. Was amusing watching the Board navigate that one. Long and short of it, to paraphrase his request, Dave wants all the information that could be made available to the public, to be made available. In essence, preempt any request for it by making it available early. In theory, this shouldn’t be that hard, as the District is required by law to have a list of all FOILable information. In practice, I think it’s unlikely to be that simple. Still, it was a good idea, and I was glad to see mentioned. I’m looking forward to the eventual discussion.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the November 27, 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.