The evening of 2026-01-13 was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE), and Program Budget Advisory Council (PBAC).
Full disclosure: I sit on the PBAC, so some of these Observations aren’t exactly from the Audience. Before the budget presentations a variety of items were covered, which really only had two tidbits that stood out to me.
First, Sports Boosters have the Chow Hut setup for winter activities. But would really like you to sign up to help run it.
Second, school shootings are down. Which I think is great to hear. Hopefully that trend will continue, until it reaches zero. Remember when school shootings just wasn’t an issue? Wasn’t a perfect time, but that aspect was rather nice.
As for the budget presentations, there were three of them. Districtwide, Facilities, and Transportation.
During the Districtwide one it was mentioned the budget gap is expected to be similar to what it was last year. Which was ~$2 million. But the focus is currently on the expense side, and the review side calculations require some State numbers that aren’t out yet. So the actual budget gap isn’t known yet.
In any case, the big budget issue was around health insurance. With an increase of ~9% for current staff, and ~19% for retired staff. Complicating the matter, BOCES has to deal with the same problem, and are passing along a 9% increase to HFL.
Which lead to a number of questions on BOCES accountability. The Board managing HFL is elected by the residents. Who also vote on the budget, which has a tax cap. Does BOCES operate under similar constraints? While the answer wasn’t clear, it sounds like they don’t.
Highlight of the Transportation presentation was what wasn’t in next years budget: Electric Buses. Still in the planning phase here, so no direct budget impact… yet. Besides that, the big financial impact is the regular bus replacement plan. Which isn’t a direct budget item, as it’s a separate item on the ballot. Which we still vote on, as it’s all taxpayer money in the end.
Biggest standout on the Facilities presentation was the snowmobile. Which is used to groom trails for nordic skiing. Which alright, I can see that. And they do win awards from time to time. Besides that, Bob was told to be brief. Even tried jumping to the question slide, skipping the rest.
And as is usual, the PBAC spent so much time discussing among themselves that the BOE had finished their meeting. But thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I can watch the recordings and say…
The Board had some good discussion on the presentations. Alot of which overlapped with the PBAC’s thoughts. But some topics didn’t. In particular, the Board focused more on security, and related staffing.
A reminder, it’s illegal to pass a bus when the lights are flashing. Even if the bus happens to be stopped in the school parking lot.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the January 13, 2026 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.