The evening of 2024-05-28 was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
There was a Public Hearing for next years Code of Conduct. The bulk of the discussion here was around cellphones. Or, as they called them, ‘Personal Electronic Device‘.
In a general sense, I suspect the solution here is like many: lead by example, model ‘proper’ behavior, and others will follow. Of course, to do that we need to a) figure out what ‘proper’ means in regards to cellphones, and b) be actually willing to do that ourselves. Which is easier said then done, on both accounts.
Incidentally, this is why I still carry scrap paper with me. Sure, I could take notes/etc on a phone. Yet when I’ve done just that, the people I’m with seem put off by it. But when I pull out a piece of paper and start writing? They seem to like that. Perhaps because I just demonstrated that whatever they were saying was important enough to make a note in the first place…
Gene’s (Superintendent) report included a graph on budget votes in past years. What really stood out to me was the spike in 2020. Pretty sure that was the year of mandatory mail-in ballots (as we were all panicking). While the total voters increased that year, the percentage voting for/against the budget wasn’t significantly different. Which could imply those who regularly vote form a representative sample of the total population.
Gene also pointed out how some positions are being abolished (was a later agenda item). As he put it, this was being done to bring the current staffing in alignment with the approved budget. Which is to say, was both expected and planned. One retired, one moved to a different position.
As it is now behind us, the Board discussed how they thought the budget process went. Overall, felt more like optimizing what is mostly working, then making significant changes. Which is good. Both that the current system is considered well working, and that due diligence is being done to see what could improve it.
As I was on the PBAC this year (and may be in the future), I may be directly impacted by any changes they make. Which is fine. At the end of the day, the process they use to put together a budget is there to assist them in doing just that. Having said that, it was interesting how often the suggestions they came up with mirrored ones PBAC members also had.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the May 28, 2024 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.