The evening of 2022-02-01 was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE), and Program Budget Advisory Council (PBAC).
Quick overview: There was a budget presentation from Manor and Pupil Personnel Services (PPS), discussions on tax exemption for first responders and covid. Other tidbits too, but that was the bulk of the meeting.
Tax exemption is the same one that has recently come before the Village and Town. Does the school give emergency services an exemption for a portion of their personal property tax? I believe the number is 10%, but that almost doesn’t matter. There was some back and forth expressing a number of good points. Bruce (Business) confirmed this has no impact on the overall levy, just how it is divided over individual tax payers. So in order to lower the tax bill of emergency service volunteers, everyone else has to pay more. In all fairness, the dollar amounts are rather small.
I fully agree those who put their lives on the line to defend us from various threats deserve our respect and support. I just don’t think this is the way to do it. This approach seems to redefine the word ‘volunteer’ such that it now includes monetary compensation (if indirect). And further divides us through the tax system, creating yet another qualifier where some are treated differently under the law. Neither of which are what I would consider good things.
Despite it being a budget meeting, I think the most interesting part was the discussion around covid. In particular, the results of a recent Thought Exchange. 609 participants (344 being parents/guardians), 908 thoughts. ~60% were pro-choice, while ~40% were pro-mandate. Another data point showing we aren’t a democracy, otherwise the immediate issue would be resolved. Considering the number of people responding here, in comparison to the number that regularly vote, this may have interesting outcomes in the next school election.
Gene (Superintendent) made it clear masking (or not) was not a decision HFL could make for now. But he expects it will be in the future, thus gathering data now. He points out (all apparently from Dr Mendoza) that masking is lower on the mitigation scale, washing hands is still most important by far, vaccination will stop covid, and omicron is less then the flu.
And made the comment that, having asked for the masks to be optional, we should respect individual choices. Which is to say, if I decide to wear a mask, you shouldn’t hold it against me. Which I think is fair, so long as people can still be identified when necessary. Life is full of situations were people make choices I would rather they didn’t. But I acknowledge their right to do so, is what a free society is all about. To a point, as the saying goes ‘the right to swing your fist stops at my face’.
In the end, as a number of the comments pointed out, I think masks are a distraction. They shouldn’t matter, yet we focus on them (perhaps because of how blatantly in our face they are). Instead of focusing on what should be more important issues.
Such as Social Emotional Learning, which was primarily in the PPS presentation, but also touched on in Manor. From listening to this being talked about over the years, and what research I’ve done, this sounds like a useful toolkit for bringing children in alignment with a particular philosophy. Tools being neutral, the question is what is it used for? What is presented sounds good at first glance, but something about it feels off. Nothing I can point at and go ‘ah-ha, there’s the problem’. Just a feeling, which is ironic considering the name.
There is plenty of concerning data from other districts under this name. Where it has been used to indoctrinate in various ideologies (critical race theory being just one example). I can’t say this is also going on here, I’m not in the classrooms to find out. All I have are concerns, nothing to either confirm or deny them. But other actions in the past couple years have shown the district values compliance higher then any other stated goal.
Those issues aside, a number of tidbits in no apparent order:
~20 more ENL (English as a New Language?) students in the last two years. Expecting another 10 by the end of this year. There’s a story here, I wonder what it is. Does this tie into illegal immigration? Mess in Afghanistan? Something else?
All continues to mean all. From context, appears to mean ‘all the staff’. Looks like Manor is asking for 6 more people next year (but only 4 full time equivalents?), while PPS wants more co-teachers (which would show up under individual buildings staff numbers?).
Vaping continues to be a problem, although a recent initiative seems to be curtailing that. From the sounds of it, a particular group of kids picked up the habit while in middle school, and have brought that with them to high. With no new group at middle, this issue may just age out in due time. Or it may be back to normal, as kids are always doing stupid things. Thus a percentage will always be on drugs of one form or another. Not saying we shouldn’t take the initiative, just acknowledging when we were young and foolish we did similar things.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the February 01, 2022 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.