Tonight (2019-05-07) was the Public Budget Hearing and Meet the Candidates event for the Honeoye Falls-Lima School District.
Due to construction, this years budget vote will be in the Board of Education room on the west side of the High school. NOT in the foyer by the pool, like in previous years.
For a rough outline of this years budget situation you can see this months ‘Inside HF-L‘ (in the mail or online). If you are looking for a more detailed breakdown, there is a detailed budget package available on the District’s website. To summarize: ~$50 million budget, with ~3% levy increase. Because again, 2% != 2%.
Amy (BoE President) started the hearing off with a nice (if long) speech about process and how the budget is put together. Nothing new to me, as I am on the PBAC. And considering who was in the room, probably nothing new to them either. It felt like preaching to the choir, which was somewhat fitting as we were in the chorus room. As part of the speech included a request for more people to join in, it’s a shame more people didn’t see it.
Bruce (Business and Operations) gave the actual budget report. Shouldn’t have been any surprises, as it was essentially the same as was available last meeting. Repackaged with some different comparisons, but really nothing new. Having said that, it was interesting how many times the word ‘cuts’ was used to describe what had been done. Yet the budget is increasing. Only $733, but that’s still an increase. Which begs the question: If ‘cuts’ are being made, and the budget is still going up, where is the difference going?
Which brought us to the four candidates giving their speeches. As usual, three incumbents, but we also had one new person this year.
David had some amusing comparisons to farming. He had a bit about us all working together, to ask Albany for more money, which I did not like. Working together to solve our problems, good. Asking others to solve our problems, bad. To balance that out, he had a bit about using online courses as a way to work around some of the challenges we face. While I can’t speak to how well that would work, I do think we need to try different things, before the math of the situation completely breaks public education.
Stephanie’s speech was nice enough, but only one point really stood out at me. That was a line about ‘kids being the only constant’. While I get what she was after, that there are always kids to teach, while all else around them changes. Yet I would argue the opposite, kids change just as much (if not more) then anything else. 13 years and there’s a complete replacement of the student body. And for most teachers, it’s even shorter then that. Not criticizing Stephanie for the line, mostly found it amusing.
Kelli is the only candidate that isn’t an incumbent, and I think she capitalized on that well. Made a point of how she would be new at this position and the potential benefits that would bring. But she also pointed out the other activities she is involved in currently. Which isn’t a direct negative, but it runs the risk of appearing too busy for this new undertaking. Still, she was relatively quick and to the point, which I count as a plus.
Gary wasn’t able to make the event, but he did record a short video and that was played instead. Content wise, nothing really stood out to me (HFL is great, yeah rah), but that isn’t really a negative. That he took the time and effort to make a video does count as a plus from my viewpoint.
Which did raise another issue: Why aren’t these speeches recorded? The event is half ‘Meet the Candidate’, yet the number of non-staff was 4 (assuming my counting was accurate). Great those people showed up, and that’s more then most of these meetings, but there are alot more voters out there then that. If the speeches were recorded (we have the technology), they could then be put on the website (we have the infrastructure), or shared through other methods. Instead, only those few in the room heard the actual speeches. Sure, there is my commentary above, but you really shouldn’t be using that as the primary factor in deciding how to vote.
Which brings us back to the top: School Budget and Board of Education election in two weeks. Board of Education room, NOT foyer by pool.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the May 7, 2019 Public Budget Hearing and Meet the Candidates event for the Honeoye Falls-Lima School District.