Tonight (2021-03-09) 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.
Tonight’s presentations were from the Middle School and the Central Office. You are welcome to read or watch them yourselves. Don’t let the 96 slides in the Middle School presentation scare you, it’s mostly pictures.
During the Central Office presentation David (Human Resources) made a point of bringing up the bus driver shortage. As he asked us all to share this with others, I’ll echo him here. If it’s the kind of task you could see yourself doing, the school would like you to drive their buses.
The Board itself is back in the Board of Education room, which has been refurbished since the last time I’ve seen them in it. I am looking forward to the next in person meeting, when I will be able to more closely look at the changes. In the scale of things it’s rather minor, but it is a shame we can’t be in the school that often to admire the results of the construction our tax dollars have been spent on.
Concerns were expressed about the potential long term trauma this panic is inflicting on the students. Definitely worth bringing up, as it will need to be addressed. The next few years will have their unpleasant aspects. If/when the panic ends, then we have to go about recovering from the wounds we have inflicted on ourselves. Not just the students, but the adults too. The sooner we start working on that the better.
There was discussion about exempting veterans from the school property tax. The school has been receiving requests to take such action. To such an extent, they will likely be issuing a formal response in the near future. To summarize the discussion: Any action would need to be taken before March 1, so it’s too late for this year. And the Board is hesitant to tax one group of residents more, in order to tax another group less. Even as they are thankful to the many veterans (which happens to include the Superintendent).
It is anticipated that the budget vote will occur as normal. Which is to say in person and on campus. But that may be changed before May rolls around.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the March 09, 2021 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.