The evening of 2026-11-03 was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
Time again for the Cougar Pride Award Recipient Recognition. That brought a crowd. I recognized some of the names. Just not sure if it’s because they had been recognized before. Or because I’d heard about the things that they did. Which would eventually lead to them being recognized. Either way, was a nice excuse to have a social break at the start of the meeting (also cookies).
The fifth season of HF-L Oversimplified received an award. Good job team. And this likely means there will be a sixth season.
A request was made to Vote for Luna from Bilow Farms. Luna 28572, with the purple tag. In case there is any confusion. I would assume it’s an attempt to give the kids their own election to be involved with. Including some stacking, to keep it relevant.
Continuing the rotation, we were in the Middle school library tonight for their presentation. Even got to enjoy the new furniture. A nice enough presentation, with two items that stood out to me.
The first was when WIN time was brought up. This idea, along with Habits of Mind, transferred over from Manor school. Which had me wondering, are students growing up slower where techniques from lower grades still appeal? Or are the ideas that good, they can be applied everywhere? Would we all benefit from a little WIN time?
The second was hearing the cafeteria capacity had been exceeded by the 7th grade. Of course, I wondered how Copperfield would impact this. Then I heard the solution they applied, splitting the class in half and having two lunches. Which means there is more then enough capacity, and Copperfield is a non-issue. At least for 7th grade lunch.
And then the NY Inspires workshop took over the meeting…
Before I say anything, I must point out my source for what the State is doing is the school. Doesn’t mean they are wrong. But does mean information is secondhand, at best. And I do wonder if there is a little hysteria baked in. Having said that…
At a fundamental level, I think the State is trying to answer the questions of ‘What is success?’ and ‘How do we measure it?’. And we are in the ‘go fast, break things’ phase. Perhaps because, as was pointed out, ~38% of last years graduating class did NOT go directly to college. To put that in comparison, it wasn’t that many years back when the number was 95+% (I want to say ~99%, but am not confident it was that high). That’s a significant change. Which would warrant a significant response. Except…
In essence, we are more or less throwing out the current diploma system. When the new one is still undefined (maybe we’ll find out details in June). And it takes effect in September (ie ~3 months after details are shared). So the current 12th grade class is fine. Everyone else will have to live this new system.
On the plus side, it was claimed HFL should be fine. As our standards are high enough, and the traditional path (take exams) will still exist. At least according to the same State pushing this mess on us.
Complicating matters, at least short term, accountability is gone. Although it sounds like in a later stage of the ‘plan’ (if we can call it that), it gets added back in. In the past, regents exams served the accountability role. The school taught, the State graded. An oversimplification, but it works here. Not perfect, but there was separation of roles. And a clear pass/fail. Under the new system, failing regents exams cannot be used as a reason to deny a diploma. And the local school defines their own measurements, as well as evaluates them.
To paraphrase Dave, we are going from a standardized system, to a non standardized system. With insufficient lead time, for what might otherwise be a decent improvement.
Into all this, there are also two new academic requirements (maybe more, but I only heard the two). The financial literary one should be a non-issue, as HFL recently implemented a locally mandated class. So we are covered there. The climate education one I find worrisome. Mostly because that topic tends to have political implications.
If we are destroying our planet, then we need government to take control and force us to stop. Because we obviously can’t manage to sort it out on our own. Fair enough. But if the changes are cyclic, from systems beyond our ability to control (like the sun, I hear it’s quiet a bit bigger then us). Well then it’s likely we are unable to prevent these changes (even if we wanted to, I’ve seen data suggesting warmer is better). Thus we must adapt and overcome. As has been necessary for everything else in human history.
Which is why I think ‘climate’ has become political. The one view says we will reduce and mandate our way to survival. The other says we will cut red tape and innovate our way to prosperity. Top down vs bottom up.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the November 03, 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.