The evening of 2025-06-24 was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
Had some technical difficulties with the Zoom aspect of the meeting. But they persevered and made it work (more or less), which is the important part. By the looks of it, the larger group HFL has their Zoom account through changed something. Which complicated matters. But if you were watching the recording, it shouldn’t have been more then a momentary distraction.
Graduation is Thursday 7pm, at RIT. Likely to be live streamed and/or recorded. For those of you who, like me, will be unable to make it there in person.
This meeting marks the end of the year, from a School Board standpoint. Next meeting will be the reorganization meeting, on July 8th. Per the meeting dates approved tonight, the meeting after that will be on August 12. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a 5 minute special meeting during some part of the retreat on July 15.
A parent commented on the upcoming phone policy. I missed her name, so I can’t try to reach out and give her some of the information she was looking for. But on the slim chance she finds this: Next years Board of Education meeting dates approved, so you can plan attending to make future comments. The draft Internet-Enabled Devices (ie cellphones) policy, which was discussed, but not adopted (yet). And how the ‘Requesting an Exception’ section on page 2 may give you the next steps to take.
It was Brian’s (Athletics Director) final Annual Interscholastic Report. Led with heartfelt words by Gene (Superintendent), and ended with similarly heartfelt words by Brian. As always, time marches on. Even as we will miss people once they are gone. With that as a backdrop, I have nothing to say on the report itself.
Also time for the Annual School Lunch Report. Sounds like the program is operating at a net loss, but the books aren’t closed out yet. While it wasn’t explicitly said it may balance out, that seemed to be the implication. It would be nice if this program was self sufficient, as it has been at times in the past. But we can’t always reach our ideals.
Next years lunch prices are going up 10 cents. Somewhat irrelevant as lunches will be ‘free’ to students. Not truly free, but that’s a separate topic. Apparently the State won’t allow more then a 10 cent increase, and there is no guarantee the lunches will remain ‘free’. So they are increasing the price, on paper at least, just in case. While I think the whole thing is rather silly, if your hands are tied you do what you can within those constraints.
Various discussion on some policies that were up for review (not adopted, yet). Apart from the cellphone one, they seemed straight forward enough. The cellphone though, raised a number of questions that will need to be considered. Which I’m sure will come up again at the next meeting. And likely at the retreat as well. But at the core, the State is forcing this on the District. Another case of having tied hands, and doing what you can. Which is another way of saying yell at Albany and Washington. Get them out of education as much as possible, so that those of us closest to the situation (ie parents and teachers) have the flexibility to do the job with minimal interference.
And Verizon’s desire for a cellphone tower was discussed again. While there was interesting discussion, the bottom line is the Board wants more information before they feel comfortable approving or denying the request.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the June 24, 2025 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.