The evening of 2022-06-21 was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
The agenda was rather full, and the meeting ran longer then usual. Biggest items where the Capitol Project report and Professional Learning Plan. But there were plenty of other shorter topics, that added up.
The student board representative was in attendance to report, instead of sending a report to Renee (amusingly, she was absent). Interesting assortment of items, but the one that stood out to me the most was that the history exam was canceled due to shooting in Buffalo. I’m sure someone thought that was a good idea, but by getting us to change our actions in such a manner this does mean the terrorist won. Also ironic as the exam was history, and we are ignoring history in how we handle shooters. We keep pushing more restrictions on rights, which will only lead to more deaths in the future, by limiting peoples ability to defend themselves and others.
The years Cougar Pride recipients received another shout out, and many of them were in the room. Applauding the efforts of those working hard to make HFL as great as possible is commendable. I expect the results of the short photo break will be shared soon enough. But if you wanted the cupcakes and orange slices, you kind of had to be there.
There was also a sendoff for Gary Stottler, who will be leaving the BOE. Longest serving member of the current group. I think his focus on the numbers has been an asset to the group. I see Chris Neff asking the same sort of questions, so that role won’t be lost. In all fairness, there may be others that would have brought up the issues, Gary just got there first.
The first of the big presentations was on the Capitol Project. Mostly focused on the future Phase 3, but the status of the ongoing Phase 2.5 was mentioned briefly.
Phase 3 includes ~$41 million worth of work that was mostly glossed over. It was covered well enough in the presentation, but the potential of adding a new wing to Lima for Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) more or less stole the conversation. Whether this was a deliberate attempt to ‘aim for the stars, so when you miss you hit the moon’ or not, I can’t say.
There were various options for adding rooms to Lima, so the expected cost also varied. The high number was ~$61 million, I think the low addition number was ~$55 million. While the Board was very clear it was non-binding at this point, they did seem more in favor of adding some rooms for UPK, but not going for the higher number.
The biggest concerns seemed to be around the long term costs, not so much the initial construction fee. And while that initial cost is big enough, I do commend them for looking at all the potential costs down the road.
Someone crashed into the Middle school, near the chorus room. Sounds like it was a medical issue on their part, leading to them losing control of the vehicle. Nothing mentioned on their current status, and while I would like to know they recovered, it really is none of my business. In any case, there is now damage to the building. The school’s engineer says it’s safe to continue using the building for now, but wants to open it up to gather more information. Hence an ‘emergency project‘ to do just that and then repair the damage. Cost is expected to be covered by insurance.
Gene’s contract for Superintendent was approved. I think this one is for 5 years, but the documentation doesn’t mention that. Either way, the Board is happy enough with his performance to want to keep him around, and he is willing to continue on at the job. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned elsewhere, even as I’m not always happy with the stance he takes on particular topics, I also think Gene does his job well. And in the end, it’s the Board’s job to form policy, it’s Gene’s to follow through on that policy.
Which brought us to the second large presentation, this one on Professional Learning Plan and Response to Intervention. I don’t have much to say here. It all sounds good, but I feel I’m missing some context needed to evaluate the presentation.
Next years BOE meeting calendar was approved, after an amusing discussion around when to have the reorganization meeting. End result: July 5, 7PM. Or two weeks from this meeting.
And finally, there was discussion around who wanted to serve as Board President/Vice President next year. From that, I am expecting Dave and Caralyn to continue on in their respective roles. Either way, it was amusing how quickly and thoroughly some people opted out. Joel declining makes sense, he isn’t technically a Board member until next meeting (although he was in attendance at this one, so he could decline when asked) and he would be learning two roles at once. But three other members also gave it a hard pass. That they are also the newest members might mean something. The rest were degrees of ‘would be willing’, which is how I think everyone but Joel should have responded. First year, your new. After that, if you aren’t willing to do the job, you shouldn’t be there. If it takes more then a term to become willing, you shouldn’t have run in the first place.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the June 21, 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.
As an aside, there was also a Honeoye Falls Village Trustee meeting this evening. As I cannot be in two places at once, I was not at that meeting. Hopefully next months meeting won’t be rescheduled.