Tonight (2021-09-14) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
I missed the first few minutes of the meeting, for reasons that are probably best left for elsewhere. But first thing I heard was the committee updates, which was a surprise.
Previously these come towards the end of the meeting, so for a minute I thought I had missed more then just the start. But looking at the agenda there had been some shuffling. I think this makes sense from a procedural standpoint. These updates often have useful information to be shared, and having them at the end of the meetings could lead to them being cut short. Personally would have put ‘public comment’ before them, as commenters may wonder when their turn to speak is. Or be leaving directly after speaking. But looks like an improvement.
As for tonight’s updates: Stephanie spoke about a recent speaker (Anthony Muhammad), and how we should follow up to continue the work that has been done. Chris spoke about the same event and moving from a culture of ‘me’ to ‘we’. Caralyn spoke about a CRT explanation event and how it is graduate level, so not at HFL. And then pointed out how the critical thinking portion would still apply.
While there were fewer of them then last month, there were still a good sized number of people who offered comments. Two of whom expressed a need to increase the wages of paraprofessionals.
The rest (5 by my count) spoke against the mask mandates in various ways. Pointing out the collective focus, over that of the individual. The lack of long term data, while what studies have been done show no benefit to speak of. And even the direct harm inflicted on some children. In aggregate, I think the comments did a good job illustrating how child are being abused.
In all fairness, it wasn’t all criticism. Gene was thanked for making graduation last year work as well as it did.
As the school year has just started, Gene’s Superintendent report focused on that. Everyone is back to school, all 2035 students. He gave a good summary of his role, and that of the Board’s. Pointed out how many people are currently working at home, and the challenges in preparing students for that lifestyle. Then gave the principals a chance to speak about how well the start of the year went, even as they overcame challenges.
Fall weekend will be October 2nd. Parade 12:30PM, football game 2PM, Hall of Fame induction 4:30PM, and soccer game 6PM. Mark your calendars accordingly.
Universal Pre Kindergarten still has slots open. So if you’ve got a child in that age group, and aren’t already signed up, might be worth looking into.
The district is joining a lawsuit against the maker of e-cigarettes, Juul. Sounds like they are looking for reimbursements for expenses to combat this drug. Discipline, counseling, etc.
As the Board Retreat wasn’t that long ago, they reviewed their goals for the year. While it’s not the only goal, the big focus seemed to be on improving communication with stakeholders. Meanwhile the policy committee will be looking at controversial curriculum. Will be interesting to see how they progress through the year.
They are planning for the first (of three) Board Workshops to be on 11/9. Expected topic is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Also penciled in other topics, but acknowledged the history of needing to amend these plans as the year goes on. I wouldn’t be surprised if a special meeting or two ends up being called.
First review of a number of policies. For the most part, pretty straightforward. ‘Cannabis’ was added to the list with alcohol and tobacco, and they can’t seem to find enough people to form a committee to look into naming rights for district locations.
Then discussion on policy ‘3220 PUBLIC EXPRESSION AT MEETINGS’, but the decision was the information was too new, so punting back to the committee. Feels like this is an outgrowth of general mood of other commenters nationwide. Is government afraid of the people? Or are steps being taken to ensure we the people remain afraid of government? Or am I reading too much into this? Regardless, no action on this taken tonight.
Then back to the public for questions. Most of which seemed to be around wanting more information. Which I thought was great to hear, the more the public is involved the better. One person made the comment of it being difficult to hear people speaking in masks. Reminded me of the Open Meeting ruling that the public can get as close to the Board as they need to in order to hear them conduct public business.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the September 14, 2021 meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education.
Agenda’s and similar information can be found at HFL’s BoardDocs page. While a recording is also available.