Tonight (2019-05-28) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
The start of the meeting was delayed slightly, due to Gene (Superintendent). Apparently he was being evaluated by the BoE in executive session. From moods, I would guess the evaluation went well enough and we don’t need to look for a new superintendent quiet yet.
Agenda item 7 is a secret and I was politely asked not to talk about it (yet). Instead I will point out John Recketenwald was not at the meeting, as he volunteers with an ambulance. So someone else was having a bit of a crisis, and John was helping. Or so was speculated.
It was time again for the annual Code of Conduct Public Hearing. It was summarized as “don’t do stupid things”, but that won’t be what it actually says. Unfortunately. Most of the discussion here was about actually saying what you mean, and going after that, instead of other ‘offenses’. In particular, skateboarding and loitering. Are those offenses worth enforcing? Or is the potential damage that could come from them what should be enforced? Other then that, was mostly minor wordsmithing, when compared to last year. Was not approved tonight, as this was the presentation for feedback.
There was also a Public Hearing for the District Emergency Response Plan. I have to wonder how often it’s referred to as DERP? Again, like the Code of Conduct, incremental improvements. Although, having read about other municipalities lately, I have to wonder how they would handle cryptoware?
Which is a good a time as any to point out, that much like last year, they did not ‘hear all interested parties’ during the Public Hearing. As a named thing (you can tell by the capitol letters), it has a defined meaning and usage (at least in regards to public meetings). Part of that is asking if anyone wants to say anything on the topic, usually after the presentation on the topic (ie between C and D in the agenda). Considering the audience, I can’t really fault them, even if it was technically not proper procedure. I pointed it out at the ‘question’ part at the end of the meeting, and it was noted down. In general, they are good about correcting this sort of thing, so we’ll have to see how next year goes.
Which brought us to Gene’s report on the greatness that has happened since his last report. Always alot going on, and you are welcome to read the report yourself. What stuck out to me the most was the debrief on the budget process at the end. He did a nice activity where everyone in the room offered pluses, minuses, and questions on how they think it went. Which led to a variety of interesting comments and discussion. I expect some form of this to end up in the BoardDocs library area, although it may be a few weeks. Two comments did stand out to me.
The first, was that we can predict a gap of ~2% in next year’s budget. As most of the factors are predictable (levy cap, staff raises, state aid, etc) this estimate can be made. Surprises may happen, but there we go, we have a target to work around. With a years warning to figure out what to ‘cut’.
Second was the comment that the meetings should be recorded and shared online. In part to get more people involved, but also improve transparency with the public. The sort of thing that I would only expect is practical if there was already infrastructure and staff in place to manage such a task… Oh, wait, there is. Then it must be because no one has ever proposed this idea? No, not that’s happened too. Then it must be part of a massive conspiracy? Eh, probably not. I expect the BoE (or at least parts of it) are just camera shy. Which is ironic, with how many cameras they have approved to install on campus.
As this is the internet, for those that missed it: the paragraph above included sarcasm.
After Gene’s report was a bunch of quick items, taking us to the end of the meeting. Only one of which I think is worth noting, and that was the raises for the secretaries. First, going to say I have no opinion either way on the secretaries and their worthiness of these raises. But, the raises are for 3.1%, in a year when the levy limit was 2.8%. So something else had to be cut to cover that 0.3% difference. I’m sure similar numbers applied across the rest of the staff. Which is why I think the current public education is unsustainable (to steal a word from the cultists). After all, as wiser men then I have said, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop“. I would rather a solution be found before reaching that ‘stop’ condition.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the May 28, 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.