Tonight (2020-08-25) was (presumably) a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
Despite the meetings scheduled start time of 7PM, it did not appear to have started by 8PM. I’m inclined to think there were technical difficulties. Either that or they forgot to stream it, as the Board was supposed to be meeting in person. Either way, I cannot offer observations on the meeting itself. However, I can comment on some of the agenda items.
Gene’s report included a variety of interesting items.
The various preventative actions being taken remind me of a story I once heard about Japan. No idea how accurate it is, but the general idea is that they demolish most of their buildings every generation. Then rebuild, often an exact copy. Doing this ties up a portion of their economy in this constant rebuilding. Are we doing something similar in our actions now? In the name of keeping the scary virus away, are we sinking a significant portion of our resources into ‘medical theater‘. Creating the illusion of keeping people safe, while increasing costs, and offering no actual benefit.
Tonight was the annual robotics team presentation. As this includes a demonstration of the robot in action, tends to make for a good show. I did see the team preparing before the meeting, so I suspect they presented.
Tax rates were (presumably) slightly adjusted. As I am not a tax expert, my evaluation may well be off. Having said that, it sounds like Pinebrook got their assessment lowered enough that everyone else had to pay more to compensate. Looks like an average rate increase of about 6 cents. This does highlight the downside of a levy system for taxes: anyone that gets their bill lowered, pushes that cost onto everyone else.
Authorization for funding on the school buses was (presumably) approved. As expected, looks like this will be paid for out of ‘cash’, and not increasing debt. Which is good. The verbiage on it has me thinking it’s taking money from the Capitol Project though. Hopping back to last years bus purchase, the verbiage is almost identical. So I guess this is just how it is worded. This does show off a nice side effect of BoardDocs: can look up previous actions easily.
Annual pizza contract was (presumably) approved. Salvatore’s will be paid about $30k to make pizza for the school this year. Price per pizza is pretty good, but I find it amusing the school buys that much pizza. Not surprising though.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land (such as they are) for the (presumed) August 25, 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. While a recording of the meeting will likely be available soon.