Tonight (2018-11-13) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
I’ll start by following up on a previous question on attendance and how it relates to ethics. Tonight was the first meeting since the Board approved their Code of Ethics that a member was missing: Dave (the first, as opposed to the second) was not at the meeting. I’m sure he had a perfectly valid reason, as life does happen, but this means it only took three meetings before an obvious violation of the Code of Ethics happened. So can we expect his removal from the Board at the next meeting? Or more likely, nothing will happen, thus reducing ‘ethics’ to a mere suggestion. To be clear, I am not requesting (or suggesting) anyone be removed from the Board. I am finding it amusing how Rule 4 applies (or not) to this situation.
The Superintendent’s report consumed the majority of the meeting. While I’m sure Gene could have managed such a feat on his own, tonight this was done by including four other presentations inside his report. In addition to the regularly expected topics his report includes.
Lima had a ‘Maker Faire‘, which included an Armadillo. I only bring up the Armadillo as it caused amazement among some in the room. It is nice that things are continuing well at Lima, even with a new principal. And they are getting a new shed (small barn?), so maybe the Armadillo will become a permanent resident.
The tennis courts now exist only in our memories (of which photos are one kind). Such was reported by Bob (Campus Construction), along with a good assortment of pictures in his report. His compatriot pointed out a Reference Guide for construction terms and such, which I thought was great to have. As an aside, I wonder if replacement trees will be planted near the high school entrance. The greenery was a nice touch, which I’m sure the fans of the environment will miss.
The next three presentations felt very similar to budget presentations. The same sort of information about program and goals, although there was less (almost no) talk about budget impact. While it sounded like this was part of a regular four year review cycle, I wonder if it might also be part of the changes to budget planning. References were made to the last review being in 2011, which is more then 4 years ago.
Brian (Athletics Director) led the Physical Education report, and apart from pointing you at the report itself, I don’t have much to say. Things seem to be going well enough. Having said that, I did find a comment about why students were exercising to be of interest. Apparently they look at it as a way to keep health costs down, and through that being socially responsible. While I can’t complain about keeping costs down, I found the social responsibility aspect a bit concerning. If I’m paying for my health care, how does it matter? It’s my life, it’s my choice. Of course, with the movement towards ‘single payer‘ I won’t pay for my health care, which changes things. It stops being my life, so also stops being my choice.
While Interscholastic Athletics (the next presentation) is normally something Brian speaks on, tonight he had a guest speak for him. I missed his name (for reasons…), although the report said Jim Zumbo. In essence, he was an outside evaluater brought in to review the program, which I thought was an interesting way to handle this. Of course, he shouldn’t do this again in four (or seven?) years, as he won’t be a neutral party then. Still, good to get an outside opinion when you can. Even if many of the ‘needs’ he identified are things I think the district is either already fixing, or already knows they are weak on (and trying to figure out how to fix). Although he did identify the fitness center as place needing improvement, which Brian agreed. We’ll see how that plays out over time.
The last presentation only included pictures of students, because, as one Librarian said “teachers aren’t as cute”. Can’t argue with logic like that. The rest of the report is more mixed. I want to like what they are doing, since I have many happy memories of libraries. And having people to help with information is useful. It’s in the details where I’m less thrilled, as that’s where the devil is.
Increasing the diversity of the collection was a stated goal. Diversity seems to have two uses now a days. The first is ‘things that are not the same in some meaningful way’, and the second is ‘dividing people based on (what should be irrelevant) characteristics’. Nationally, the later sure looks like it is being used for political reasons to harm the nation (and therefore, all of us that live in this nation). So I find it concerning when people that should be trying to help, are using language that appears to be designed to harm. As for the former, there should be no diversity on the bookshelf: The library should have all great books.
Citizenship brings with it both rights and responsibilities. I am a Citizen of the United States of America. As such I am assured certain privileges (such as the right to speak as I am here), while I also have certain duties (I could use last weeks election, but I know some would debate that as a duty). How does that fit in with ‘Digital Citizenship‘? While the idea may sound nice, it seems to clash with other rights. After all, if I have lost the option of being a jerk, I have also lost the right to speak freely. To complicate the matter even more, dual citizenship can cause issues with divided loyalties. What would happen if my obligations as a ‘digital citizen’ contradicted with being a ‘US citizen’? Most of my concerns here would disappear if the name changed. ‘Digital behavior’ or maybe ‘Netiquette‘, if we don’t want to reinvent the wheel.
The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Standards Framework for Learners is now available. Nothing inherently wrong with this, sharing common practices and ways of doing things can have benefits. But when the discussion makes allusions to ‘fake news’, and from past discussions I strongly suspect the librarians and I would disagree on what that is, it is rather concerning. I guess this illustrates the bottom line here: I want to be thrilled about the librarians, but I have concerns. Have previously had, continue to have, expect to have again. Yet another case where I would like to be wrong.
On a happier note, a ‘Team of One‘ was approved. And to the Board’s credit, the question was asked if this was the same person that pointed out the inability to do Indoor Track in the Athletics survey (from tonight’s presentation). While no one knew the answer (and probably can’t, as I suspect the survey was ‘anonymous’), that the question was even asked shows an attention to detail (and implies a desire to help).
Ari (Community Education Director) gave his annual report on Community Education. Bottom line: Still making a decent overall profit, even if the wellness (fitness) center is in the red. The loss at the wellness center was attributed primarily to student use, which is ‘free’. As that has benefit to the athletic program (not to mention the students), it sounds like this was an acceptable situation. And only good things were said about the Summer Rec program. Having heard about it from both the Village and Town side, it was nice to hear that the School was also happy with it.
With that, the remainder of the meeting was mostly used for a review of part of the Board Manual, in particular the Communication section. The discussion was mostly focused around how items get on the agenda (agenda setting), and how Board members should go about visiting the school (when they aren’t doing so as normal parent/community member). During this discussion, an analogy between Voltron and the BoE was made. Individually, lions (Board members) have no power. But when combined, they form Voltron (Board of Education) and gain power as a group. Maybe not the best analogy, but I found it entertaining.
Which left the announcement that next meeting’s workshop would be a ten (10) hour report on the New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA) Convention. While the workshop will be in two weeks, the length of time was a joke (probably).
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the November 13, 2018 meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education.
As has become the norm for this group, Agenda’s and similar information can be found at HFL’s BoardDocs page.