The evening of 2025-11-18 was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
There was a crowd in the seats tonight, because the CougarTech robotics team was there to present. While the group was mostly students, there were a handful of adults too. As one of the students put it: the students run the program, the adults are just there to make sure no fingers get cut off. While I’m sure that statement was intended for working on the robot, it is amusing to think it could also apply when presenting to the BoE.
While the robotics team did give their annual presentation as usual, unfortunately the robot demonstration didn’t go as planned. I will give the team credit for rolling with the technical challenges. Part of the team filled the time with entertaining information while the rest tried to get the robot running. Even though they didn’t get the robot working, I thought it was a good presentation overall. They even included a clip from an actual competition.
Having said that, I do have one concern here. They passed out pins, and the one I got included a pride flag as the background. Call me old fashioned, but I don’t think high school students should be having enough sex to have formed sexual preferences. And even if they did, it shouldn’t come up as part of a robotics team. At best it’s a distraction from the teams goal (robots), at worst it’s child abuse. A pin is a minor thing, and hopefully this is just me making a mountain out of a molehill.
There was a Public Hearing to Amend the District Emergency Response Plan. Looks like the State passed a new law, requiring this amendment. It adds page 47-48 to the existing plan, covering Sudden Cardiac Arrest Preparedness.
Finishing out the rotation, the High School gave their presentation. It covered a variety of events at the High School and how they are doing on their goals. As to be expected, sounds like things are going well here. Of note, the usage of Instagram was highlighted and the request you ‘follow’ HoneoyeFallsLimaHS was made. If you go there now you can even find a picture of the robotics team presenting.
And gifts were received from 7 groups to cover the High School National Blue Ribbon Recognition Luncheon. Congratulations to the High School for that, but also a thank you for those supporting the party.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the November 18, 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.