Tonight (2017-03-21) was a meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE), and before that the Program Budget Advisory Council (PBAC).
Full disclosure: I sit on the PBAC.
Tonight the PBAC gave it’s recommendation for next years school budget. The BoE will take that recommendation into consideration as they finalize their budget plans. We’ll see how that turns out. With that the PBAC has finished it’s job for this budget year.
As the PBAC’s job was done, I no longer had a place at the table. Which I am glad of, I much prefer it in the Audience.
After the PBAC had finished their presentation, Bruce (Business and Operations) reported on the anticipated tax cap. Looks like it will be 1.95% this year, although there is still a small chance for that to fluctuate.
Gene (Superintendent) gave his report about what has happened since the last school board meeting. Of particular note, how he had closed the school for three days due to weather. And how doing that had caused a massive spike in his twitter traffic.
He also discussed a workshop/training session conducted with dell over the weekend between the closed days (2017-03-11). The various staff in the room that had attended offered their opinions on it. They generally found it informative and useful.
Next up was a report from Josh (Student Representative), with tonight’s surprise issue. He brought the students poor opinion of the cafeteria food to the board’s attention. Even pointing out the existence of an Instagram for the purpose of sharing pictures of bad food. There was much discussion here, and the issue will likely come back up again. When I was a student (all those years ago) the saying was ‘Eat school lunch and die’. I’ll leave it to you to decide if he actually has a valid point or not.
The board had an interesting discussion about how they elect their officers (president/vice president). We, the district residents, elect the nine board members (3 each year). But those 9 members elect (from amongst themselves) their own president. As the members have changed over the years, different methods of sorting that out have been used. And tonight’s discussion was an attempt to properly document the method they are happy with, so that when they next use it it will go smoothly. A good idea, as I have found it sadly amusing at times as I have watched them muddle through.
Which brought us to public comment and the end of the agenda (minus executive session, which I can’t attend). Earlier I mentioned a training session and how the staff commented on it. I was fortunate enough to also attend that training, so I took this opportunity to offer my opinion of it. Attempting to recreate what I told the board: I believe public education is experiencing a March of Dimes scenario. The task it was created to do, provide information to the public, can now be done without them. They face the choice of creating a new reason for existence, or closing their doors. While I have my opinion on which of those choices is best for the community at large, it will be very interesting to watch how this plays out. So interesting I would rate it as ‘exciting’ and therefore rather it not be happening anywhere near me.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the March 21th, 2017 meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education.