This morning (2021-08-10) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
Another morning meeting, but also normal meeting length (more or less). Start of a pattern or just something different? Time will tell.
There was also a surprising number of people in the audience. A couple commented, a couple were there to speak on the capitol project, but that left another 5 (or so). I’m all in favor of more people paying attention to what government is doing. In general, but also to children (as they are the future, for good and bad).
Three comments from the public were made to the Board. I won’t even try to get the names right, I’ll let the future minutes handle that. But to oversimplify the comments:
First one wanted masks to be a parental choice, speaking against mandates. Mentioning data on the death rate for children due to covid.
Second one was pro science, pro gay, pro diversity.
Third pointed out health issues masks have caused with her daughter, and the difficulty getting the school to recognize this.
It feels to me like we all want what’s best for children. There is just disagreement as to what that is. How we manage these contradictory viewpoints says alot about us as a people. Do we find a way to coexist, as difficult as that is at times? Or are those who follow the ‘wrong’ ideas pushed out of civilization altogether?
Repaving of the bus loop at the High School (west side of building) had been delayed, but now that the change order has been approved, should be happening soon. Tomorrow was mentioned. As sometimes happens when excavating, surprises are found that have to be addressed. By the sounds of it, the soil wasn’t right to support the parking/driving, so it has to be replaced (hence the delay). In any case, it should be all ready in time for school opening.
Due to previous low bids on the capitol project (2.5, for those keeping count), there was enough money to do some of the skipped items. In this case, project 2.5c was approved. Essentially renovates the District Auditorium and various windows at the Middle school. Odd combination, but that sometimes happens when matching limited resources with limitless wants.
24/7 online tutoring to be offered through Paper, thanks to a federal grant. By the sounds of it, it’s text based (although supporting uploading files as well). Not audio/live streamed. Is an interesting idea, and I look forward to seeing how this experiment turns out. It sounds like the grant should cover the cost for 3 years, which should be enough data to decide if this is worth continuing. I wonder if such a method might be able to phase out the existing ‘brick and mortar’ model of public education.
Salvatore’s won the bid for pizza provider for the district again this year. Last year this was worth ~$28k. Which is a good sized number of pizzas. Worth noting, these are not Iranian pizzas. Because that apparently matters.
At the end of the meeting a question was asked about the number of positive covid cases during summer rec, when campers were allowed to be unmasked. Gene (Superintendent) gave an answer of zero (0). He pointed out a number of them were sick with various things, but none of them tested positive for covid. Yet another data point supporting the idea mask wearing is more about personal preference then medical necessity.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the August 10, 2021 meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education.
Agenda’s and similar information can be found at HFL’s BoardDocs page. A recording of the meeting is also available.