Tonight (2020-01-14) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE), and before that the Program Budget Advisory Council (PBAC).
Full disclosure: I sit on the PBAC, so some of these Observations aren’t exactly from the Audience.
As the first PBAC meeting of the season, the meeting started off with a short presentation on the process. Good to go over, especially this year. I counted 18 PBAC members, of which I believe 16 are new to the process. Good to have the new people, and good to have a larger group, but I am wondering if maybe the group is too big right now. Eh, time will tell.
An acronym list was provided. Not the first time this has been done, but I can remember presentations being interrupted to get those acronyms explained. Much better to have them available upfront.
First budget presentation was Bill from Transportation. Feel free to look over the presentation or numbers if you want. Highlights I took away was that they are having difficulty filling all the staffing positions, yet are still doing what is necessary to get the kids where they need to be. Looking at creative ways to make that work. To such an extent, it sounds like they are looking to add a part time position to fill some of Bill’s office tasks, so he can drive more. Because it’s easier to have someone else do some of the Director’s tasks then find someone to drive a bus.
Apart from staffing shortages, biggest points were about continuing the bus replacement schedule and continuing the roll out of past improvements (radio in particular). Nothing flashy, which is for the best. Keep it boring.
Second budget presentation was Aaron from Facilities, again feel free to look it over if you want. He made a point of mentioning his first budget presentation a few years back, and in contrast how this will be his last, as he is leaving the position soon. Always sad to see such a dedication person leave. But the job still needs to be done, so…
Much like Transportation, Facilities wants to continue their replacement plan for vehicles/equipment. Although, in attempts to mitigate their own staffing issues (also like Transportation) they are looking to purchase various automated vehicles. Small lawn mowers, floor scrubbers, that sort of thing. Having tested them out previously, now they are looking to purchase.
Both of these presentation highlighted how they are different then other parts of the school, in that failure isn’t an option here. They have to get the students to the building, and they have to keep those buildings functional. It is unfortunate if a particular student fails a particular class, for whatever reason. But failing to deliver the students or failure of the building itself is a more significant problem. Maybe this is preying on fears, or bragging about accomplishments. Support services are best when they aren’t noticed, as they get the job done (day after day after day). And from where I’m sitting, both these departments do that job well.
After the presentations, the PBAC went to the ‘new’ art room to discuss among themselves. I thought the location was a nice touch. We got to see the status of the project, and how parts of it are finishing up, and returning spaces to the students.
When I rejoined the BoE meeting, it was part way through the capitol project update. As usual, pictures are available at the bottom of the report for those interested. Perhaps it was fitting the art room was used by the PBAC, as part of the discussion was on those parts of the project that are ‘complete’ and the challenges that had to be overcome to get to that point. As the saying goes ‘no plan survives contact with the enemy‘. From the sounds of it, even with hiccups, things have been going pretty well.
There was also talk about how the project would continue without Aaron. Sounds like there is both a plan, and concern. The first is good to hear, the second to be expected (to a degree). Transitions tend to be where things go wrong. Still, it sounds like they are as prepared as they can be. Which is really all that can be asked.
Before closing out, I’ll leave you with a picture of the construction site. It’s a door frame, which has had it’s door and wall removed. Yet the frame still stands. Don’t know what the plan is here, but I found it amusing enough to take a picture.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the January 14, 2020 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.