Tonight (2020-11-10) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
We had a student join the meeting through Zoom, to comment on the hazards of blue light. While she didn’t directly say it, I think she was criticizing the district’s heavy reliance on computers. In contrast to in person lectures, written materials, etc. Regardless of the topic, I was glad to hear from the student at the meeting. Who knows, maybe we’ll have more on another topic next time.
The state is declining to reimburse for transportation aid from March-June 2020. Which was the time frame schools were ordered to be closed, yet also required to provide various other services. Total cost to the district is ~$500k. On the one hand, refusing to pay for something after the fact is just rude, if not immoral. On the other, relying on Albany is unwise. Or put differently: While I think it is unfortunate that this happened, I expect more of this from the State government as they continue to act like headless chickens.
While HFL is not (currently) in a ‘Yellow Zone’, there was much talk on this topic. Which brought up a number of amusing (and depressing) tidbits.
These zones are a replacement for the previous method/plan, and came from ‘Executive Order 202.68‘. I want to highlight the ’68’ part here. This is the 68th time the governor has reworked order 202. Which is to say, he didn’t get it right the previous 67 times. And, if the trend continues, he’ll revise it again within the next 4 days.
Yet each of these executive orders have the weight of law in the state, as the legislative have abdicated their duty to the governor. Ignorance of the law should be no defense, but when it’s been revised this many times? You could be acting in good faith on last weeks version, while whoever is enforcing it is acting on yesterdays, when today’s has obsoleted both versions. Unless the intent is to push blind obedience, it seems like a recipe for chaos.
It was also pointed out that the contact tracing rules say if you were in the room with an infected person for more then 60 minutes, masks/distancing/etc are not factors in you having to quarantine for two weeks. In other words, you are required to hide your face and stay away from people, because it will keep you ‘safe’. Yet if someone is sick, neither of those are considered factors in evaluating potential spread.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you are in the medical profession, testing positive is NOT a reason to stay home. Apparently the shortage of qualified medics is so great that a sick nurse is better then no nurse. At least to the point they can work through their sickness.
All of which points me more towards the idea that this is, fundamentally, just another flu. And as we are entering ‘flu season’ cases go up. Yet life goes on, the job (whatever it is) still needs to be done. So if you are sick, but functional, head to work. You may infect some people, but we haven’t shown an ability to stop the spread of flu’s, so better to be productive then have everyone do nothing. Civilization cannot surviving the chaos of random and long term shutdowns. We can survive a flu, as demonstrated by… all of human history.
Alternatively, if it’s not ‘just another flu’? Then we’re back at headless chickens, and this whole process looks rather ‘Arbitrary and Capricious‘.
Which may well be why people are getting fed up with the current state of affairs, as was brought up tonight. While the view of the Board seemed to be we have to increase our devotion to the rules, I can’t fault people for refusing. When you are being told things that don’t add up, constantly change with no apparent reason, and are required to do things that are harmful to yourself and others, frustration is to be expected. While the details are different, a disturbing number of indictments from the Declaration of Independence seem to be apply today.
The rest of the agenda items aren’t really worth talking about, but at the end of the meeting they got a bit off in the weeds again. Which isn’t a complaint, I think the discussion was a good use of time. The focus (to the extent there was one) was on what the likely secondary impacts of the current panic will be. In particular, how the computer/online changes may ripple out. Tele-nursing, end of study hall, etc. No actions taken, but talk about what may be changed in the future.
Even though the Board is back to meeting (mostly) in person, they still stream out the meetings. I think this is a great practice, and am glad they do it. Unfortunately, technical difficulties still occur. While I believe it got sorted out, something was wrong at the start of the meeting. Which contrasted with the discussion at the end of the meeting. When our devices work, they can be leveraged in a variety of amazing ways. When they don’t, nothing compares to being there in person.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the November 10, 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.