The evening of 2026-09-08 was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
Today was the first day of school, and everyone reported it having gone well. Although, to paraphrase one of the principals, that means everyone showed up, and everyone went home. Because that is the bar for the first day of the year. Tomorrow the bar gets higher.
Gene (Superintendent) reported that school issued devices block social media for students. While I’m not a fan of censorship, there are a number of things we prevent children from being exposed to for good reason. And as I think social media is generally more harmful then beneficial, I approve of this action. But, as Gene pointed out, the kids have probably already found a way around the blocking. I’ve certainly got a few ideas that might work.
Kim (Community Programs) gave her annual report. Total participation is up, which she attributed to more classes being offered.
As it was the first day of school, I found it amusing the budget was already being amended. In this case, because Nexamp gave the school $60k as part of a previous agreement. Which the school then turned around and spent on furniture. Which was one of the requests that came up in budget discussions, so good to see they found a way to replace at least some of that.
And since it’s always budget season at HFL, next years budget calendar was reviewed.
Monthly capital project report as well. Progress is being made, with the overall project around 90% complete. But some of the bathrooms were delayed. I believe I heard September 30 as an expected completion date for them. As usual, the report includes pictures. The cafeteria in Lima sure looks odd without it’s seating.
There was a regulation regarding Student Immigration Status. By the sounds of it, the State is requiring this, and have set a deadline of tomorrow. Which means not enough time for the normal process. So Gene did what he had to, and the Board will review and adjust as needed in the future.
Having said that, my read of it would summarize the regulation as this: Bring HFL a court order and they will comply. Bring administrative documents or similar, and they won’t.
Which makes sense to me. If the executive branch wants to interrupt the school day, get the judicial branch to agree. Otherwise, wait until before/after school.
But since the topic of responding to law enforcement came up, I did ask what the policy is for other agencies. For example, if the DEA showed up looking for drugs, or ATF for firearms, or so on. Are all law enforcement agencies treated the same? In other words, HFL complies with court orders, but otherwise go away. Or are some agencies treated differently? Which would make this political posturing.
Unfortunately, as this came from the State, it seems like the later. Even if it sounds like that was in response to actions at the Federal level. It would be nice if we could resolve our issues without using children as pawns. But that’s apparently not how people work.
On a more pleasant note, the Sports Boosters apparel store looks to be open. At least until 9/14. So get your HFL sports fanwear while you can.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the September 8, 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.