Tonight (2019-02-12) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE), and before that the Program Budget Advisory Council (PBAC).
Full disclosure: I sit on the PBAC, so some of these Observations aren’t exactly from the Audience.
The budget presentation for Lima was tonight, with the group being led by Allison, Lima’s new principal. I found the video of video conferencing particularly amusing. Another video was of Manor school students performing gym exercises. Turns out they were in the building while waiting for a bus to Manor, and the gym teacher had them perform as demonstration for his class. Recorded and shared later. Seems like a good plan all around, the sort of thinking that could get someone an award.
One of this year’s (and next) goals was about ‘all students will verbally respond when greeted’. While I suppose that is a useful enough thing to do, it seems rather odd to have as one of the building-wide goals for the year. I would expect there to be a number of more important issues to address, even if I can’t name any. That ‘verbally respond when greeted’ rates as one of the top three feels misplaced. And as the measurement point has already been reached, that applies double for next year.
More worrisome was one of the two books they highlighted. “We’ve Got the Whole World in Our Hands” While I have not read the book, as I do not have a copy, as it was discussed it sounds like a reversal of the “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” song. If that’s the case, this illustrates where modern education has gotten lost. Instead of acknowledging our relative insignificance, in proportion to all of everything, we (as a culture) seem to be acting on the belief we, collectively, control everything. All the problems we face all solvable because it’s all ‘in our hands’. Which is to say, we are god. Doesn’t get much more religious then that, which (supposedly) is not what public education is for.
Which is why public education shouldn’t be, as all education is (at it’s core) religious. Religion is a belief framework for how the world is built and how we should interact with it. Education is teaching someone how the world is built and how we should interact with it. A bit of an oversimplification, but I think it fits well enough (at least in this case). Yet the christian God is (more or less) forbidden in school. While ‘man as god’ has become the new religion?
Putting aside that rant, after the presentation the PBAC discussed among ourselves. When I got back to the BoE meeting, they were in the middle of Gene’s (Superintendent) report.
In particular, Gene was discussing the history of standardized testing, and how that interacts with opting out of said tests. It was informative, and if this interests you at all, I’d suggest looking at the relevant slides in his report (pages 16-21).
My take on it is that, from an individual students standpoint the only real benefit is a vague idea how you compare to other students, which is of debatable value. Clearly not worth taking if it causes grief. Yet from the districts point of view, that data is incredibly useful. Not quiet a ‘needs of the many‘ scenario, but seems to be of more benefit to one side then the other. Again, that’s my take on situation.
Another month, another Capitol project report. If that’s your thing, you can read the report. Personally, I think the pictures (at the end) are the best part.
As a tangent, the last picture showed a sign by Daktronics, which I have no opinion on. But it did remind me of a recent discussion at the Village about signs. In particular, I believe this sort of sign is against the Village Zoning Code (double so because this one is on wheels). Yet I am pretty sure the School is exempt from local Zoning laws. Make of that what you will, I mostly find it amusing.
Monroe 1 BOCES is looking at a capitol project, which appears to primarily be about replacing roofs. A good thing, as it sounds like HFL’s data center is under one of those roofs. Looks like the local contribution, once all is said and done, comes to about half a million dollars. Large enough that some planning will be needed to find the money, but small enough it should be manageable.
A handful of policies were reviewed. Directly, I have little to say here, the suggested changed seemed both minor and reasonable. But in the discussion it came up that there may be a pronoun and/or transgender policy discussion before too long. As that is still in the future, not going to comment on the topic here. But I do appreciate the heads up so I can ponder comments to make, when the time comes.
That brought us to the last public agenda item: Committee Meeting reports. Which ended up rambling around a bit, and I’m not sure how some of the conversations got where they did. Having said that, tidbits I found interesting below.
Not sure how they got onto the topic (Music Boosters, maybe?), but somehow it came up that we have 6 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) in the music department, while a school our size usually has 3 FTE. Conversation did NOT focus on cutting position, it was more about how the Facilities department manages lighting/etc for performances, instead of hiring professional in that field. As he does, Gene said ‘we can have ANYthing we want, but not EVERYthing we want’.
Somehow the discussion got around to Albany (New York State) spending money. In particular, it was said the governor “had to slow down spending” as he now had majority Democrats running things. I think this came up because of state aid in some regard, not that that’s important. What I found interesting was the implied problem the State has with spending (ie they spend too much). And, as much as he might want to spend more, the governor realizes that with his party controlling things, he needs an excuse to, as the saying goes, ‘keep the wheels on the bus‘.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the February 12, 2019 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.