Tonight (2020-02-11) 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.
Before either of the budget presentations, Bruce (Business and Operations) gave a quick summary of the overall schedule. Nothing that interesting, as the dates haven’t changed. But there was one slide about the percentage of the budget spent by various parts of the district. What stood out to me was that Special Education was ~13% of the budget. Larger then the other areas listed, which included Transportation, Facilities, Lima, Middle, and Capital. Manor, High, Athletics, and District-wide were not listed.
Accordingly the first presentation was from Special Education. By content, their presentation seemed pretty evenly split between Co-teaching and Social Emotional Learning (SEL). Other things were mentioned, but those two felt like the bulk of it. On the other hand, questions to them were almost all on the Co-teaching side of things.
At first glance it sounded like there was an intent to put two teachers in every classroom. That was quickly corrected, and it was explained that only those classes who had a student that would require the extra staff would be using this teaching approach. So it becomes less of doubling up on staff and more of better utilizing the staff that is already required to be there. In that sense it becomes reasonable. But looking at that percentage of budget, it does leave me wondering if maybe the requirement is too high. As that doesn’t come from the local school, not much can be done about that here.
Social Emotional Learning was the other side of this presentation. Having heard about it elsewhere (including the previous meeting), I had done some research beforehand. Nothing that was said tonight disabused me of the conclusion I had reached. Which is to say, SEL sounds nice and all, but at it’s core it is religious training. Which isn’t so bad if you support the religion in question, but if you don’t? Then it’s state sponsored indoctrination.
Having expressed my concerns above, I will freely admit I have insufficient information to confirm there is a problem. Enough to be suspicious, but not to prove. For whatever that is worth…
Second presentation was for the Middle school. When past test scores were brought up, I did find it interesting how the changes over the years were tracked. In particular, when the ‘opt-out’ movement and computer based testing came into effect. The impact was big enough, that iReady sounds like a more reliably measure at this point. Although, to be contrarian, it’s also possible those are merely excuses.
As an aside, it is interesting when you believe someone, despite evidence to the contrary. And when you don’t, again despite evidence. People are just strange that way.
An ‘Air Racer’ project was mentioned. Sounds like the Technology class was building what looked suspiciously like overgrown paper airplanes, and then racing them. Decent enough project, I can see learning about aerodynamics and such here. But as a twist, they also worked with the Art class to decorate their racers. From an art point of view, I have no opinion here. But from an engineering point of view? At the scale they were working at I could easily see the decorations changing the balance, wind resistance, etc. I wonder if that came up during class? Reminded me a little of the pinewood derby car I made years back that was ‘wrong’ from a racing viewpoint, but was ‘aesthetically pleasing’ (at least from my point of view).
And yes, SEL was in the Middle school presentation as well, but I spoke on that already tonight. Instead, I will point out how there are pencil vending machines in the Middle school. Stick in a quarter and get a pencil (or 4, I didn’t look that closely). That they exist means there is enough demand for them. So is this a case of the school trying to save every last cent, but not providing them to students? Teach the kids to take care of their possessions, as they will have to pay to replace them? Or something else altogether?
Which was the end of the presentations, at which point the PBAC went off for discussion. When I returned to the BoE meeting, they were discussing food. Something about how ‘students aren’t allowed meals like these’. Or some such, coming in at the end I missed most of that conversation. While I could wildly speculate here, I won’t. Instead I’ll mention how this is, at least in my mind, the worst part about being on the PBAC: I miss BoE discussions. As with so many things in life, if this is the worst of it, things are really going pretty well.
There was a short report on the capitol project. And by short I mean, ‘the Capital Project Update is self explanatory, go read it on BoardDocs if you want’. Not an exact quote, but close enough that I have now used more words on this topic then were used during the meeting.
I don’t know if it’s confirmation bias, but there seem to be alot of retirements/resignations of late. Either way, Larry Young has left this Board. I did not hear a reason stated. Regardless, I hope he does well in whatever adventure he is off to next.
This does leave the BoE having to fill the seat. As amusing as it would be to watch Rhonda try to handle a special election, I suspect someone will be appointed for the remainder of the term. Which, by the time the ‘how’ of that process is sorted out, will likely be down to a month or so. If anyone had asked me, which they didn’t (nor was there any reason to), I’d say roll it into the regular election in May. Not a perfect solution, as it leaves the seat empty while the budget is finalized. But making it a May choice means the discussion is on how to pick which of the newly elected starts the day after the election, and who waits. Assuming Amy and Caralyn run again, odds are it will be a non-issue. And even if it is, flip a coin or something. Seems better for the remaining BoE members to focus on the budget, then figuring out how to fill an empty seat just in time for an election to render their action moot.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the February 11, 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.