The evening of 2022-03-01 was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE), and Program Budget Advisory Council (PBAC).
Once again the bulk of the meeting was budget presentations. This time it was the Middle School and Central Office. Plus all the regular sort of things that make it into a BoE meeting.
In light of the State (mostly) ending the mask mandate for schools, the District’s Code of Conduct was modified (or overruled, depending on how you interpret the verbiage). Masks are now optional, neither required or forbidden. Although there appear to be exceptions around having tested positive. Which brought up the student that has apparently tested positive for 14 weeks, yet shows no symptoms. Illustrating the problem with one size fits all punishments. In any case, this seems like the logical move to make at this juncture. Now leads to the bigger question of will we (the people) take steps to discourage a repeat? Or quietly carry on?
During the discussion on next years calendar, there was talk about graduation. I didn’t hear anything on this years graduation (ie ~3 months from now), but it looks like HFL will be back at RIT in 2023. Which I think is a shame. Nothing against RIT’s facilities, I just think a graduation should occur within the community that it serves. After all, we are HFL, not RIT. Still, it is amusing when the topic that originally brought me to BoE meetings comes up again.
Urban-Suburban was back again. This time looking to add 7 new students, although it was acknowledged that may change before being finalized. Currently 9 (at least that’s what I think I heard, supported by the documents provided). It was interesting to hear about the logistical difficulties, especially as I recall them being predicted before the program started. Probably why districts are shaped like they are, to minimize travel for all involved. Considering the discussion on class sizes, a cynic might think students are being imported to maintain teaching staff. Alternatively, they don’t want to overburden the District while helping the disadvantaged. All depends on how you look at it.
First presentation was from Middle school, primary presenter being Shawn Williams (Principal). At the risk of oversimplifying: Last year was about survival, not education (although education happened too). This year is about recovery and looking forward to tomorrow.
Along those lines Response to Intervention (RTI) was the big focus of the presentation. Feels like a variant of the Social Emotional Learning discussed at the other presentations. I got the sense it was aiming for equality of outcome over equality of opportunity.
Looking to implement a team based setup for 6th grade. As I recall, this continues the trend from what has been done to 7 and 8 in the past. Can’t say I’ve seen evidence of effectiveness, but it seems plausible.
Was an interesting comment about grades not mattering, long term. But State tests do. Make of that what you will.
Second presentation was from the Central Office. Gene (Superintendent) had an interesting intro where he pointed out he is directly employed by the Board. And then worked around to saying how he effectively works for everyone in the District. Also highlighted how the budget process is year round. While the details were different, this portion reminds me of previous presentations. Which isn’t good or bad, information can stay relevant as time goes by.
Renee (Curriculum & Instruction) shared that it is now possible to get an Associate degree by the end of High School. Is the logical progression of earning college credits early. Does raise question about college though, especially in light of the current employment situation.
Which was a problem mentioned, yet again. From the way it was presented, there are barely enough employees to keep the organization functional. Reminds me of the headline I saw about restaurants merging. When there isn’t enough staff to keep things running the way they used to, then it’s time to look into alternatives. Not sure what that would look like here, but it sounds like staff shortages will get worse before they get better. So now is the time to explore solutions.
Was an amusing little video that goes over the computer replacement plan and similar. It had the feel of being part of a series, so perhaps ‘HF-L Oversimplified’ will have more episodes.
Looking to hire ‘Student Support Partners’, which from description are some sort of security staff. I found this interesting as I recall the idea being rejected previously. Has the situation changed? Or did I misread hiring former police as being security?
Next years budget is currently looking to be ~$57 million, with an expected tax cap of ~1.98%. Also sounds like ~$1 million in federal grants will be used, primarily to fund evaluating potential changes before implementing them at scale (or not, depending on the results).
Perhaps more interesting then the budget numbers, was that there isn’t a gap this year. Most years there is a multi-million gap between projected income and expenses at this point in the process. There isn’t this year. Which is so unusual it was pointed out. As was the potential impact of inflation down the road.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the March 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.