The evening of 2026-10-13 was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
This meeting was held in Lima, as part of the annual rotation between the school buildings. Which I like, for a variety of reasons. It provides a good opportunity for the buildings to share their accomplishments, with an academic focus. Thus allowing the budget discussion in a few months to be more focused on finances. And it’s nice to see how the space has changed since my last visit.
In this case, what I noticed the most was how much smaller the cafeteria is. The kitchen area has gobbled up a quarter of the cafeteria (or thereabouts, I don’t have actual numbers). The ceiling mounted projector also stood out, and the cage containing it. Either way, good evidence of the capital projects progress.
On that note, during the monthly capital project report, it came up that we are into the punch list phase of the project. So things are wrapping up as a December deadline approaches.
Tonight was also Board Appreciation night. Which meant a nice video and cupcakes.
During Committee updates, summaries from the MCSBA School Law Conference were shared. From which, three tidbits stood out to me.
A comment that transgender regulations are murky. Which amuses me, as from what I can tell, most everyone agrees the answer is obvious. We just have radically different opinions on what that obviousness is. Murky regulations perfectly reflects that contrast.
There was a projection that the tax cap limit may be removed. While nothing concrete, this could have interesting implications. Even if it happens, likely won’t be soon enough to impact the next budget.
AI not be allowed to replace teachers. Which brought to mind that scene with a young Spock. Also, if legislation is needed to prevent technology from replacing the job, what does that say about the job?
Gene (Superintendent) gave a nice speech on the proposed Copperfield development. I would summarize it as two points: He recommends the Board (and by extension the School District) officially have no opinion on the project. And that the School will educate all children that show up.
As we were at the Lima building, they gave a presentation on how things are going. Pictures were shared of a calming room, which is one way they are addressing behavior issues. Also finding ways to work with what space is available. Good academic scores were also shared. And practicing evacuating. Which would have been fun to watch, as all the students ran away from the building.
Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) will be a required offering in 2028, and the biggest challenge sounds like it is transportation. But not the only one. UPK is currently outsourced, leaving spacing also an issue. The question of if it would be better to renovate the existing building or build new came up. I would summarize the answer as: The State provides incentives for renovating, but the building is 100 years old, so at some point, renovating is no longer practical. Which I thought was a wonderful non-answer. It failed to say which was better, but it did explained the rationale for both.
A number of policies were reviewed, for likely approval at the next meeting. One was on immigrants, which basically says ‘we follow the law’. Which I think is much better then the existing policy. Which was more or less forced on the District due to timing issues. Good to see them coming back and improving this.
Electric bikes (and similar) are being forbidden. Which reminds me of skateboards, when I was a student here. Which is to say, there is always another new thing. Kids find it cool (or whatever the latest word is), parents panic, and government outlaw it. Wait a bit, change some details, and repeat. When the current students are sitting around Board tables, what will they be outlawing?
And the Public Comment policy was reviewed too. The proposed change was around encouraging people to look to the administrative staff before coming before the Board. It’s worded as a suggestion, so people still have the option if needed. Which makes sense, I’m ok with that. But I still think requiring commenters to contact the school in advance is not a good practice. Placing obstacles between the public and their elected officials is not neighborly (and being good neighbors came up earlier in the meeting). I thought about saying something during the Questions section at the end of the meeting. But opted to wait, so I can get my thoughts in order. Now I have two weeks to do that, before the meeting at Manor. Which has me wondering, if she reads this, does it count as notifying Christina?
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the October 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.