The evening of 2024-08-13 was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
There was a presentation and Public Hearing for the District’s Emergency Response Plan (DERP). Sounds to be substantially the same as last years. Biggest change mentioned was around details of drills. If you would like to read the 187 page document, by all means do so. I expect the Board will adopt this at their next meeting.
Tonight was also the annual Interscholastic Report. Long story short, we continue to be amazing and are proud of it. Yet there are challenges for the future.
First, how NYSED is changing the way boys participate in girls sports. While these words weren’t explicitly used, it sounds like the concern is that ‘girls’ sports will become ‘boys who pretend to be girls’ sports. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, not just a local issue. But this is what you’ll get when you forbid discrimination based on sex or gender.
Second, shortage of athletic trainers. It sounds like the requirements to become an athletic trainer have been increased, thus fewer people are going through the process. This reminds me of a similar situation with fire fighters. Regardless, it only makes sense that the harder it is to accomplish something, the fewer people will manage it. Doesn’t mean we want unqualified trainers. But if the alternative is no trainer?
On a related topic, HFL is looking for substitute… everything. Teachers, paraprofessional, bus drivers, cleaners, nurse, etc. If you, or someone you know, is interested, goto work4hfl.org to apply. Between this and last night, I’m tempted to look into it myself. A shame I probably wouldn’t meet the requirements.
Property tax rates were approved. Effectively the same numbers as approved in the last budget vote, but now have the details to apply them to the towns. Interestingly enough, for the majority of the District, it looks like their school tax will go up ~1.5%. Despite the overall levy increase being ~3%. I won’t claim to understand the math to make that possible, but that was what the presentation sure seemed to be saying.
The Board adopted their Code of Ethics, as they’ve done for the past number of years. One of these days I should offer opinions on each item…
Bids were accepted for most of Capital Project 3.B, totaling ~$14 million. Roofing is still pending. Construction is scheduled to start August 26, and looks to finish the end of March. At least for this project, I’m sure another one is just around the corner.
There was a workshop where the Board went over their goals for the year, both as a group and for their sub-committees. Advocacy was a reoccurring theme here, to such an extent it sounded like that is the overall Board goal for the year. Which I interpret as meaning government is too big. Mind you, I think that in most situations. But when a local entity (the school) decides it’s primary goal for the year is not to provide the service it exists for, but to argue their case with another governmental entity (the state)? Sure sign something has gone wrong.
To be clear, the above isn’t saying HFL isn’t still focused on education. Just talking about the Boards goals for itself. And to be fair, this was a draft, with no documents available to read. I could well have misheard and/or missed the other goals. I’ll get to find out next meeting, when I expect they will adopt their goals, and share documentation with the public.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the August 13, 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 is also available.