The evening of 2023-07-11 was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
Once again time for the annual Reorganizational Meeting.
Caralyn Ross was selected as Board President, and Christopher Neff Vice President. They were sworn in to their positions, along with two of the three new/returning Board Members. The third was absent, but should be at next weeks meeting and will likely be sworn in then.
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out I like the idea of consolidating motions at this sort of meeting. Something along the idea of ‘same as last year, just the year changed’, ‘mostly the same’, ‘not the same’. But I can see a downside in that if something is incorrectly categorized, what then? An agreement got put in the ‘same, just year change’ pile, but it was actually a significant change. Does that mean it wasn’t approved, because it was incorrectly filed? Or it was, and not noticing falls on the Boards shoulders? Which is one benefit to the current method, everything stands alone. Even as I think many should be grouped together…
Having said that, and while most of the motions were the straightforward kind these meetings are known for, I think it was the most discussed reorganizational meeting I’ve seen. There were a number of points where they had to double check they were following the proper process. Nothing big, or contentious, so it almost doesn’t matter. On the other hand, following the rules, and making sure to do it right, might well be why it wasn’t big or contentious. Either way, I do find it amusing when this happens.
The price for the Internal Auditor was discussed. If I heard right, the price doubled, but was also cheaper then it could have been. In any case, questions were raised about doing due diligence for such a significant price increase. Prudent to ask, although I got the impression there weren’t really any better options.
At many Village and Town meetings there are budget transfers. I’m not sure if I’ve observed any at BoE meetings, but if so they are rare. Found out why tonight. Item 14G gave the Superintendent and Board President the authority to approve these. At least in some situations, it sounded like there were some restrictions. Which makes sense, both for limits and as a general practice.
There was discussion about continuing with New York State School Boards Association. Long story short, HFL decided not to. The primary point of contention seemed to be around if it was worth it. The main benefits were advocacy and training. Monroe County School Boards Association was cited as offering similar enough training, so there was no need to duplicate that function here. As for advocacy, to paraphrase one comment ‘if we aren’t heard, there is no point to being a member’. Personally I found this stance hopeful. If you don’t think the group you are part of is acting in your best interests, and you don’t think they are listening to you, leaving is probably the best course of action.
A couple of items were tabled and such for next weeks retreat, including swearing in the last Board member. If I heard right, there will be a short business meeting at the Middle school at ~8AM, before the retreat on July 18.
In any case, reorganization was followed by a regular meeting. Which I have very little to say about.
Salvatore’s won the pizza bid, for ~$35k worth of pizza. I’m not the only one that finds the annual pizza bid amusing.
Kiwanis Club gave the school $2k for Summer Meals Program. Good of them to do this.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the July 11, 2023 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 will likely be available soon.