The evening of 2022-06-07 was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
Perhaps the most important item mentioned at tonight’s meeting was graduation being on June 26 at 10AM. Likely not news to those with students, but first I can recall having it confirmed. I’d prefer it being later in the day, as my calendar says that is a Sunday. Which means choosing between church or not. But, as is fitting in this case, my opinion doesn’t actually matter.
And the day before that, June 25, at 1PM will be the senior car parade through the village. Turning towards the school at the light this year, not away from. So plan your seating accordingly.
Mendon 64 is also having a senior art show. Looks to be all month, in case cougar creations wasn’t enough for you.
Had a trio of interesting comments during the public comment portion of the meeting. As people spoke their names, I’m sure I’m spelling them wrong below, but such is life.
Doug Foss brought up curriculum and how he wasn’t getting answers from the District to detailed questions. I will admit to missing what exactly he was looking for. But as it should be FOILable, it should all be available. I’m of the opinion if it’s FOILable, it should be on the website. Build it in as a standard practice. Also make it searchable. Then when someone says they are looking for ‘whatever’, whoever is responding can just reply back with ‘hflcsd.org/search/whatever’ or some such (depending on how it is implemented). A variant on the ‘let me google that for you‘ idea. But that would require taking the effort to set that system up and a commitment to complete transparency.
Jim Coler asked for an election recount, pointing out potential methods for fraud. While his details were new, the basic scenario is not new. Bottom line, we appear to have an unverifiable election process. Which is fine so long as no one engages in fraudulent activities. Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in. So either we make it verifiable, or we have a steadily growing portion of the population believing elections are stolen. While the former would take effort and planning, the later does not end well.
Jacqueline Stephens had concerns about social contagion through YouTube videos impacting children. While I was not familiar with her example by name, apparently some of these look kid friendly, even as they encourage harmful actions. It is yet another example of how the internet is not child friendly. To be fair, life is not child friendly. In many ways, the constant struggle to protect others is what defines us. Both in what we protect, and what we don’t.
Hall of Fame nominees were named (and approved). One of these, Mike Battle, was a classmate of mine. Not the first from our grade to reach this point, but it’s nice to see he is doing well. In any case, the ceremony looks to be September 24 at 4:30PM. I would expect it to be in the high school cafeteria, but that may change by the time the date rolls around.
Bruce (Business) joins the collection of school staff planning to retire, although he has agreed to stay on until the bulk of the tax collection is done. While those speaking seemed upbeat about it, I do wonder what the impact of these retirements will be. Effectively we lose four heads of departments this year, two principals, finance, and transportation. If memory serves, last year we lost head of facilities and technology. Turn over happens, nothing new there. But knowledge and experience is lost in the process. We don’t want to have too many people shifting at once, as it may destabilize the organization. On the other hand, I can’t blame anyone for wanting out. It has been a crazy last couple years.
Code of Conduct was approved. There were a number of adjustments from the previous version, but biggest discussion point tonight was swimwear. They did work out gender neutral verbiage that everyone seemed happy enough with. Although, considering some conversations with swimmers in years past, perhaps a unisex swimsuit design would work well here. We require girls to cover their chests, but I can recall male swimmer taping down their nipples to get better times. Or at least that’s what I remember being discussed. It was many years ago and I don’t watch enough sports to know if this practice actually happens. Likely not worth exploring now, but if we continue trying to treat genders as interchangeable, a unisex swimsuit might be a valid approach at some point.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the June 07, 2022 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 also available.