The evening of 2026-03-24 was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
Despite having some procedure dressings, this was a budget workshop masquerading as a regular meeting. Which isn’t a complaint. Just a recognition of the reality of the meeting.
Long story short, the bulk of the meeting was looking at the hard decisions that will be need to make the budget balance. I won’t say ‘everything was on the table’, as there were items Gene (Superintendent) said he was NOT going to recommend. But he made a number of suggestions to confirm the Board was ok with considering those. And while they didn’t come across as thrilled, I didn’t hear any categorical refusal.
As an aside, for those of you who haven’t been to one of these before, the Board seating is arranged in a U shape. Well Gene used the space to get in the middle of the Board for discussion. I thought it worked well here, providing better engagement with the group. Instead of the normal sitting off to the side, he was out in front.
And gave us at least the broad strokes of what the future budget could potentially look like. And with the caveat this isn’t final and ideas might well change, the following were the main points that I recall:
Removing some positions of retiring staff. In other words, don’t refill with a new hire. Shuffle existing staff to make things work.
One of those positions is an English language teacher, since immigration has apparently stopped. Considering some past discussions on federal actions related to funding, this feels incredibly ironic.
Another position (x3, if I heard right) was interventionists. Since our students are so well behaved, we might not need quiet so many of those positions. Still retain a number, just not as many.
And the last position was a music teacher. Due to the pupil/teacher ratio, there was an upcoming plan to review music staff. Maybe take action, maybe not. But since, as one Board member put it, ‘the iron is hot’, now could be a good time to do that by not refilling.
Increasing the usage of reserves and fund balance. Even as it was acknowledged this can complicate future years. Especially if they are even worse, budgetary speaking. Although, on the plus side, since a number of the reserves generate a noticeable amount of interest, some refunding of them is not necessary. Of course, that means the reserves won’t be as big as they could be. Hence there also being a plan to review the long term target here.
Paying for buses with Bonds, instead of cash. Which is a savings short term, but the additional debt raises total long term costs. So not ideal.
Explicitly pointed out as NOT recommended (at least at this time): increasing class size, firing current staff, or exceeding the tax cap (this year…).
Having listed those, this is where I remind you this is the idea phase. None of the above is set in stone… yet.
Now we wait three weeks (4/14) to have Gene’s formal recommendation to the Board. Which may be adopted at that meeting. But it sounds like the next week (4/21) could have a special meeting, if further tweaks are needed before adopting. Because there is a deadline, so that we all can vote on the budget in May (5/19).
Before the budget workshop took over the meeting, there were a few items of note.
The Cinderella musical happened, and went over well. Not that anything else was expected, but it is good to hear all the same.
There was a student panel on AI. Where a group of students aired their thoughts and such to a variety of people. And their opinions were apparently all over the place on the subject. Which has me hoping a recording becomes available, because I would be interested in what they said.
As an aside, the former Town Supervisor drove the students to the panel event. Noting because, to paraphrase how Gene put it, you too can retire and drive school buses.
There was an update on the capital project, with a nice summary of all the work that has been done so far. And future planned work remaining in this project.
In the meantime work continues. Which also caused an accidental fire drill at Middle school. By the sounds of it, was a timing issue. The construction workers asked for the fire alarm to be turned off, as their work would trigger it. Then either they started early, or the alarm was turned off late. Either way… oops. Still, on the scale of mistakes to make, rather minor.
And after the budget workshop allowed the meeting to return to the regularly scheduled items, there were a few more items of note. But not many, as they were quickly gone through since I suspect the group was ready to call it a night.
Contract as part of the capital project was approved for abatement in windows in Lima. Discussed during the report before the workshop, but approved after the workshop.
Next year’s calendar was approved. In case you want to plan events around it or such.
First legal notice for the Budget vote was approved. Along with election inspectors.
SEQR was approved for the Capital Outlay Project that is expected to be part of the upcoming budget. Sounds like they are replacing a number of doors in the Middle school.
At the end of the meeting I used the question time to request clarification on a detail mentioned during the budget talk. The school bus portion of the budget vote is to take out a loan. I thought I heard it said that, even if that is voted down, the school can still buy buses if they can pay for it without a loan. Seemed like a simple yes/no question. Well after the meeting, from what I heard, there is some uncertainty on that fine detail. I’m hoping I can get a clear answer before the budget vote.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the March 24, 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.