Tonight (2019-05-14) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
There were two items of any length, the presentation on the capitol project and the committee updates. The rest of the items were individually rather short, although they did add up.
According to David (High School Principal), we are the 1%. Personally I’d say that’s a good thing, but there are those that would disagree. Ironic, as statistically speaking, there is likely decent overlap between ‘school staff‘ and ‘thinks the 1% are bad‘.
~95% of the senior class has already declared intent to go to college. I believe a 4 year college, but some details on this were unclear. What was clear, and the reason this point was even mentioned, was that in most other districts that number is ~60% at this point. So we have more students already committed to go to college. See above for why this does not surprise me.
A short presentation on the budget was made, none of which should be news to anyone reading this. A recent tweet from Gene (Superintendent) illustrates why the polling station will be moved for the upcoming budget vote.
Which brought us to the longest part of the meeting: the presentation on the capitol project. I suspect it was so long because the previous few were skipped/presented as paper, due to timing constraints in producing a budget. Regardless of the reason, there was much to go over here. While you can go read all the details of the report, there were a few tidbits that I found interesting.
Apparently, the path between Manor and Middle schools is closed. I’ve heard this before, but the last few times I’ve walked it to test, it’s seemed pretty open. The last ten feet or so are fenced off, but there is grass on the side so it’s easy enough to walk around the fence to the parking lot/school. Mind you, with the current weather that means walking through the mud. Which is probably the problem: students are tracking their muddy feet all over the place. I can’t blame them for walking, it’s what I did when I was a student there. And we do want them to exercise, right? So amusing to hear the path is officially closed, when the ‘boots on the ground’ clearly disagree.
A turf field is being built next to the Middle school (hence the path being closed). This shouldn’t be news to anyone, as this expense was approved a few years back. But the field is all that is being done in this project. No seating, lighting, dug outs, etc. Which doesn’t prevent any of those things from being added in the future, just that they aren’t part of the current project. This one is just a field and the fence around it.
When the students come back after summer break, the High School B-gym will be used as the temporary cafeteria. The rebuilding of the current cafeteria will take most of the school year, although it should be done by the time kids leave in the spring. I’ll have to make a point to visit sometime, it will be interesting to see how the gym works as a cafeteria.
With the end of that presentation, it was on to the rest of the agenda items, most of which aren’t even worth commenting on. But a few…
Some textbooks were reviewed for next year, and the process felt more opaque then previous years. I can’t comment on the books as far as content goes, but in previous years more of the evaluation process was included. In the end, I don’t think it matters. If a teacher wants a text, and it’s in the budget, they should be able to have it. After all, if they don’t get it, they’ll still teach the subject matter somehow. The more important matter to review is what the teacher is teaching. A textbook being ‘bad’ (by however you want to define that) could indicate a teacher has lost their way. Although it shouldn’t be the only check that is being done (nor do I think it is).
A handful of policies were reviewed for potential future changes (none were made tonight). I found the contrast between two to be rather ironic, if sad. There is a policy on child abuse, and how bus drivers were being added to the ‘mandatory reporter’ list. And right before that was a comment about how a gender identity policy will be coming for a future review. So on the one hand we talk about how to prevent (or at least report) abuse of children, while on the other we talk about how we will be abusing them (or not, depending on your beliefs). Reminds me of the quote about making sausage.
Which put us at the committee updates, of which there were a decent number. Really only one item worth mentioning here though. Which was a draft from the Monroe County School Boards Association on the federal role in education. The content was interesting enough, but it was the ending line that illustrates much of what is wrong with public education. “MCSBA OPPOSES any funding streams – such as vouchers, education tax credits, and charter schools – that divert funds and distract attention from public education.” No experimenting, no trying new ideas, no nothing, unless it goes through the current public education system. Strikes me as one of those clear signs the organization doesn’t exist for it’s stated purpose. If public education really wanted the best education practical for the students, you’d expect them to favor experiments on the side. Then take what works and make it standard. Instead, trying new ideas is only allowed when run by the same people that did the old ones. Which is the sort of thing I would expect from a group primarily interested in their own power.
In closing, three of the Board members were most noted by their absence. Which by my count leaves us with only one member of the Board that is not in obvious violation of their Code of Ethics.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the May 14, 2019 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.