Tonight (2018-12-18) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
There was a student to speak during ‘Public Comment’ time. Not exactly rare, although always welcomed. Surprisingly enough, he spoke in favor of more math classes, in particular AP Calculus BC. I say good for him, more math (and the science it leads to) can only help.
Yet again, Gene (Superintendent) took the bulk of the meeting with his report. And yet again, this was done through nesting other reports inside of his. He did acknowledge this though, which was a humorous touch.
First presentation was an update on the capitol project. Apart from pointing you at the slide show itself (and it’s included pictures) there isn’t much to say. Work has started, but much more work is still to be done.
The next presentation was an overview of the upcoming budget season (no link to the slides, as that does not appear to be available at this time). Projections for enrollment seem to show a slight dip for the next few years, before leveling off. That’s overall. Middle and High schools appear to be where that drop will be happening, while Lima and Manor are relatively stable already.
I need to preface this number with it being early and tentative, so nothing is set in stone. Having said that, those early projections expect the 2% levy limit to be 3.17% this year. While it is about four months too soon to be sure what the actual number will be, Bruce’s (Business and Operations) guesses tend to be in the ballpark. In theory, that could be the increase in taxes, but that is a different discussion (which is also too early).
Third presentation was on the Urban-Suburban program. To the districts credit, and as to be expected, implementation has gone well and all involved seem to be thrilled with the program. Which is where I’ll point out I disagree with the program on jurisdictional reasons, not implementation.
That disclaimer out of the way, I had a sense of exploitation from the conversations tone. While, yes, the benefit to the students from the city was mentioned, the focus seemed to be elsewhere. The financial gain to the district (~$25k for three students) and the ability to soften low enrollment (importing students on demand) appeared to be the driving forces for the program.
While I don’t think my existing opinion on the program is a factor here, I can’t rule out the possibility. I think we have a good implementation of an inherently bad idea. But don’t take my word for it, do your own research and decide for yourself.
And the last presentation ‘High School Program of Studies 2019-2020‘. Which was on why certain electives won’t be offered at the High school. Or if they are offered, less often. Which is where the students comment at the start comes back in. He was speaking in favor of an elective that (most likely) won’t be available after next year.
While the report claims the underlying issue is enrollment, and provides some data to support that (expecting to lose ~100 student over the next 5 years), I’m inclined to think it’s really a case of letting kids choose whats for dinner. Ice cream may taste best, but you shouldn’t plan your diet around it. Instead of letting the students choose what interests them, instead focus on what is most important to learn. Which would inspire discussion on what exactly that is. As the overwhelming majority of these kids will be going on to college, I would think that simplifies the list as well.
Related, it was brought up that for the prerequisites to play out properly, students have to be in the 7th grade ‘advanced’ math class to have the option of AP Calculus BC. Apparently, there is only one section (class) of this offered, and the suggestion was made to add a second. Sounds like a great idea to me, although I’d suggest going even farther. Try moving the whole grade to that curriculum. Sure, many (perhaps even most) won’t pass the class, but it should give a better sense of who can do the work. And failure is actually a good thing here, as better to fail in 7th grade then high school (or college). More importantly, the sooner you can learn how to keep going after a failure the better. As a poster in one of the classroom’s says: Failure is inevitable, learning from it isn’t. Where better to learn then school?
Which brought an end to the superintendent’s report. And while there were other items on the agenda, none of them really seem worth commenting on.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the December 18, 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.