Tonight (2021-08-24) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
The big topic of the evening was mask mandates. This drew a crowd, which put the meeting in the cafeteria. It was also the first time I had seen the various support staff in person since… March of 2020? Whenever it was, it was a while ago. And the PTA had people there looking to increase membership. All in all, a fair sized number of people in the room. Which I thought was good.
There was an oddity when the consensus agenda was approved. An item was pulled out, a TOSA (‘Teacher On Special Assignment’) Dean of Students, which was rare enough. But then that item was later approved there was no discussion. Which leaves me wondering why it would be pulled out.
After that the commenting started. By my count, there were 15 commenters. 9 speaking against mask mandates, 5 in favor of them. The one other comment was about the value of paraprofessionals, and how they need better support to do their job. Overall, the commenting took just shy of an hour. At the risk of losing nuance and detail, I’ll summarize. If you want to watch/listen to all the comments, you can here.
Those in favor of mask mandates generally mentioned their dislike of them, but that they were necessary for the common good. Also encouraging vaccination to mitigate the need.
Those against mask mandates generally mentioned data and pointed to the various harms to students.
Almost everyone was clearly emotional, I’d say a few were even distraught. But they were there because they cared, as was pointed out during one of the comments. Other comments that stood out was one about how ‘we are role models for our children’, and a nurse pointing out how few people actually use their PPE properly.
I applaud the Board for keeping order the few times people got a bit rowdy, while also giving leniency where it was practical. As was mentioned, they are there to serve the public and welcomed the comments.
And just in case you hadn’t noticed, I am against the mandate. As far as I’m concerned, the less the government is requiring of us, the better off we all are. We should take action (or not) because we believe it is in our (or those we care about) best interests. And where we find someone else’s actions in conflict with ours, seek to understand why. Ideally learning something from the experience.
The rest of the meeting was reasonable straightforward.
The Boards recognition of Cougar Pride continues. Tonight it was for those who showed up, tech and facilities team for all they are doing to get ready for next year, and Bernie Gardner for many many years of coaching.
There was an update on the Capitol Project, including pictures (at the end of the file). Of note, the bus loop on the west side of the high school is essentially done. Should be usable on Thursday (8/26). Other work is continuing, including overtime and weekends, and they are hoping to be all set when the kids come back.
Annual purchase of buses was approved. As usual, the verbiage leaves it unclear if debt will be used. But it was asked, and confirmed, during the meeting that the pattern of paying with ‘cash’ would continue.
Which brought us back to masks. In particular, the amending of ‘3410R Administrative Regulation – Masks and Face Coverings‘. There was a fair sized amount of discussion here, but nothing jumped out to me as worth noting. To be fair, if they are going to require masks, I think the verbiage changes are an improvement. I still think a mask mandate is the wrong way to go about it, but as that’s being done, might as well have the ‘best’ verbiage we can.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the August 24, 2021 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 already available.