Honeoye Falls-Lima will become the latest district in Monroe County to join the Urban-Suburban program following a 7-2 vote by the HF-L Board of Education at its December 19 meeting.
The vote followed a year of study by a committee, which ultimately recommended joining the program. HF-L has considered joining the 52-year-old program, a voluntary desegregation plan several times, the first time being in 1972. Each time, however, the district decided against it with the main sticking point being the transportation issue.
Prior to the vote, the board heard from two residents during the public comment portion of the meeting about the upcoming vote. Danny Bassette suggested the board not take a vote, stating his belief that the real reason for the committee’s vote to recommend joining the program was proving that the district and its residents are not racist. He said that while the district said that it wants to increase diversity, in other ways it does not care about diversity. As to the finances, he noted that schools that accept money for students are private schools not public schools. Janet Somes, a former board member, related a conversation with an African-American co-worker whom she encouraged to move to HF-L with her family. The woman said that she did not want her kids to be the only African-American kids in the district. Somes noted that the district’s lack of diversity is a barrier to enticing African-American families to move into the district but that the Urban-Suburban program provides a start.
During board discussion prior to voting, each board member stated his/her position.
Gary Stottler said that there were educational merits but that joining the program was not “a silver bullet for making us look like the rest of the world or solving the district’s enrollment decline and that everyone will have to realize that there will be challenges.” Dave Francis and Joe Alati both mentioned that they supported the idea due to the new experiences, new people and viewpoints that the program would bring in along with the social/emotional growth for the district’s kids and the benefit of diversity. Stephanie Templeton expressed her concern over how the program would be implemented and that she had visited a few districts who had the program and how, off the record, people admit that it is not all roses. Larry Young reiterated his skepticism regarding finances in the program.
District officials said that HF-L will bear little to no financial burden for the additional students who bring state funding with them and are transported by the Rochester City School District. Over the course of the last year, transportation of the students was discussed and it was stated that the students could be bussed directly to HF-L or to a neighboring district already in the program such as Pittsford, where they could then be picked up by an HF-L bus. In addition, HF-L will get to choose which students and how many students it accepts. Depending on class size, Superintendent Gene Mancuso expects to enroll elementary-age students in September 2018.
After the vote to join the program, Board President Amy West said she wanted Mancuso to present a plan for implementation and evaluation of the program. Mancuso said he would do so in January 2018. Templeton made a motion that no student enter the program until implementation of the program has been established and supported by the board. That motion was defeated in an 8-1 vote.
