Tonight (2020-05-26) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
The meeting started off with the Meet the Candidates event. As with so many other things, was a different meeting using Zoom instead of being in the room together. Although having the speeches recorded should be beneficial down the road. If nothing else, it allows more people to watch them.
In the interests of full disclosure, I am one of this years BoE candidates. So I will not comment on what any of the candidates said. You can watch them yourselves if you want, all six of us spoke tonight. And towards the start of the meeting, so you don’t have to sit through the whole thing (although I’m sure you want to).
After the candidates it was onto a presentation on the budget itself. There was very little new information here, which didn’t surprise me. As the budget was prepared on the assumption the vote would have happened last week, it makes sense for the information to be familiar. Having said that…
Increase in expenses lists debt first, but that is misleading (as was explained in the meeting). That is a side effect of how the capitol projects are managed, and should have negligible impact on the taxpayers. So the actual largest increase in costs was related to staff. Which means salaries, benefits, etc. As was pointed out, while using video conferencing, this is a people business.
The potential aid cut by the state was acknowledged, but it sounds like no actions will be taken until/unless it becomes an actual cut. I’ve got mixed thoughts on this one. On the one hand, staying the course, especially when the problem might not occur, is commendable. On the other, the governor has shown a tendency to NOT act in the best interests of the residents.
Worth noting, the absentee ballots for this election must be back by 5PM on June 9. Not postmarked, actually at the school. To assist with this, there will be a drop off box outside the district office (20 Church St).
Ballots should be arriving between now and June 5. So not alot of time between arrival and the due date. Personally, I’ll be dropping mine off at the office. The postal service does their job well, but I’ll feel better knowing it made it to the building on time. Was tempted to hand it to one of the election inspectors in person, but there is probably a law against that.
Which brings us to election inspectors. As ~12k ballots will be sent out, the original inspectors won’t be enough to complete the expected counting in a reasonable time, so more are being appointed. But some of the new inspectors are also school staff. The conflict here should be obvious. While I am concerned, it sounds like what they are doing is legal. And as an added check, the process will be streamed online (presumable over Zoom). Still plenty of ways for fraud, but at least an effort is being made in this crazy situation.
Next up was the annual review of the Code of Conduct (CoC). Most of the changes were minor tweaks which made sense. But some of them were more significant.
For example, sugar will be considered an ‘Illegal Substance’. The existence of the phrase ‘sugar high‘ demonstrates that it can be misused to create an ‘altered state’, which is the new measure of legality. Likewise, textbooks could be misused to cause concussions, an impaired state, so will also full under the ‘illegal substance’ category. At least as written, I’m hopeful that verbiage gets changed.
There was also interesting discussion about allowing new information in the appeals of Superintendent’s Hearings. Feel free to watch the back and forth in the recording (at about the 1:13 mark), but I think the issue is pretty straightforward. The appeal is of the hearing, not the information. If new information was available, that goes back to the hearing. If a rehearing is denied, then that denial could be appealed.
Masks appear to be a violation of the CoC. While I fully expect that to be changed, it was amusing to hear. Because, yes, people wearing masks on campus is a cause for concern. Who knows what they may be up to. Thus making a mockery of the current ‘security theater‘ we are currently living.
‘Morals’ was added along to ‘safety, health, and welfare’, which seems like dangerous mission creep. Concern was expressed, and I’m hoping it gets removed for the next draft. Or at least examples, both of acceptable and unacceptable morals, are offered. Without that, this sounds like ‘thought crime‘. Not a good thing in an organization that is duty bound to uphold the 1st amendment. And good job to Gary for bringing this up in meeting.
Then we have the District Emergency Response Plan update. And yes, DERP is how we respond to emergencies. I hope that was someone’s idea of a joke (I find it amusing), because if not it’s all too fitting.
Besides the acronym, the updated sounded good. Expanding on weaknesses in the previous plan, while also streamlining process. Even had a bit about making sure students know how to respond, should there not be any adults present.
On to Gene’s Superintendent report. He is hopeful we will be on to ‘phase 2’ soon (tm). Which is good, but I still think we should be on ‘phase done’, which puts me in that ~third of the population. Still, progress is progress.
Unfortunately, also no graduation. Although I think the class should informally hold one anyways. Pick a day and everyone shows up at school (or maybe the athletic fields, as the buildings will be locked). Bring food, games, etc. Just take over some of the fields for the day. Not ‘official’, so the district can’t be held responsible. But also too many people to make removing them practical (not that anyone would report kids for celebrating).
The sinkhole found in the parking lot has been filled and is no longer an issue. While exact cost was not stated, it will be on the lower side of the estimates, as no other issues were found in the testing.
Fire alarms have been going off on campus, apparently triggered by the heat. Amusingly enough, this caused the cafeteria doors to lock everyone out. Not a serious issue, as the schools are effectively closed, so more amusing then anything else. And better to catch that detail when the kids aren’t there anyways.
Tennis courts are open for usage. Rest of the athletic facilities, not so much. And dogs on the track/field are becoming a problem.
The regularly scheduled June 9th BoE meeting has been rescheduled for June 11. Obvious reason is the election. As there shouldn’t be any overlap in people involved in the two activities, I suspect there is some equipment involved in both. Or maybe the Board members want to watch the broadcast of the inspectors doing their counting? Either way, I find this amusing as it means I won’t be attending. Another case of schedule changes caused by this panic colliding with my regularly scheduled activities. Such is life.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the May 26, 2020 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. While a recording of the meeting will likely be available soon.