Kimberly Moritz BlogPosts

As a new superintendent, I inherited a big problem. It’s one that’s been percolating for some time and I’ve written about it here and here. To make a long story short, there was a proposition put up twice to the taxpayers of Randolph, once in May 2008 and once in October 2008, that carried a lot of animosity in the community. It was a proposition to purchase property with the possible future project of building a bus garage. It was defeated both times. I get it, the community clearly said “no” to purchasing property to build a new garage and we aren’t permitted to tear down our current garage and build a new one because the location is too close to our school buildings. Plus, our current garage suffices and heck, look at the number of people who don’t have a garage for their personal vehicles.

But we still have a problem with the safety and size of our mechanics bays. It’s a problem that I either have to fix or eliminate. We put forth a project on May 19 during the regular public vote for an addition to the current bus garage which also replaced the roof on the whole garage and made improvements to the lighting throughout. Because we’re a state entity, we were also required to add a handicapped bathroom and adhere to all code requirements. Not as simple as building a garage in your yard. This addition was our best option to solve the problem, be responsible to our taxpayers and continue to service our own fleet of vehicles.

It was Proposition #3 and it was defeated; No 244, Yes 243. One vote, one person I could have influenced would have made the difference. I know, I know closeness only counts in . . .

After berating myself for three days that I didn’t do a good enough job of communicating the seriousness of the problem to enough people in enough ways, I’m still left with a mechanics bay that’s too small with an outdated hydraulic lift that can’t continue forever. People who focused on the previous votes or the fact that we could continue to get our buses inspected at a neighboring school probably voted “no”. The DOT won’t inspect our buses in our mechanics’ bay and some taxpayers thought that was the driving issue. Actually, the inspections are a small part of the problem–it’s the need for an adequate facility to do daily maintenance on our fleet that’s the issue.

Paying our mechanics to maintain and service our buses costs us about 25-50% of what our costs will be if we have to outsource the work to a garage elsewhere. This should have been what I helped everyone to understand–it should have been where the focus was in considering the proposition. I knew it, the Board knew it, the 32 people at the Public Hearing knew it and the 30 people who watched the video on the website knew it. But what more could I have done to make sure everyone else knew it?

A lot. I should have done a lot more to be sure everyone understood the whole issue. I guess I just kept assuming they would know that if we put it up, we really did need it. I mean, what do people think I want this addition for? It’s not like I’m planning to run a chop shop out there at night for extra money! But have I earned that kind of trust in this community in six months? No.

So now what do I do? Here are our options as I see it:

1. Discontinue the use of the lift. Outsource all work that the mechanics can’t do without it.
2. Put the project up for another vote and do a better job of communicating the entire problem to the community.
3. Try to make adaptations to the current lift and the bay to make it more useful.

Option #1–how is spending more out of our community to do the same work a good option in any way? Option #2–what are my odds of passing it at a second vote? Is it worth it to spend the money to run another vote? Option #3– We’re hoping to meet with the company who services the lift next week. As I understand it, we can’t even buy parts any more. And the other problem is that spending on this is extremely limited to equipment codes already budgeted for in the 2009-10 budget and anything significant is subject to SED and voter approval.

Right back where I started from. So again Randolph Readers, I ask you, what do you think? What’s our best option? Or is there another option I haven’t thought of out there?

In most of my years as an administrator, I’ve been required to attend Board of Education meetings. As principal at Randolph, principal and the assistant superintendent at Gowanda, and now as superintendent at Randolph, I spend a lot of time with Board of Education members.

The time commitment, energy and thought required of these volunteers is endless. Sometimes, as is the case with our current BOE president Carol Luce and Gowanda’s outgoing BOE member Linda Wilson, that service lasts for many years. These two ladies saw their respective districts through many changes in leadership, building projects, issues to consider and problems to solve.

In some districts the BOE members are the only constant as administrators come and go. BOE members remember where the district’s been and they help to set the course for the future. Often times the decisions they help to make are difficult and are poorly understood by the community they serve. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times or in how many ways we share information, there always seems to be plenty of misinformed folks out there.  Face it, how many people come to BOE meetings to hear what’s happening or even read the budget newsletter? More than once someone’s asked me about something at school in which I’ve thought, “WHAT? How did anyone draw that conclusion?” I’m grateful when they ask because at least I get to clarify—it’s all the people who don’t ask, who just perpetuate false information, who cause so much confusion. And if you’re reading this blog–THANK YOU–this is one more way I can get good information out there.

Most of the time, it’s the Board members who get to answer those questions, hear the complaints and address concerns with us here at school. They get to do that EVERYWHERE that they go, in the grocery store, at the drug store and when out to dinner with their families.

Board service is crucial to our school communities and it’s too often a thankless and frustrating job. And did I mention that it’s a volunteer position? I try very hard to keep our BOE members well informed, to ensure that they know the thinking behind a decision, to answer every question that they have and to do it all with honesty and integrity. If I expect them to back my decisions, it’s crucial that they understand them and that they can trust me. Frankly, I get paid well to come to school every day, to answer questions, hear complaints, address concerns, solve problems and work hard for our students, faculty/staff, and families.

What do BOE members get? Too little appreciation, in my opinion. Too much grief. Too much blame. Too little focus on every excellent decision made and too much focus on the one or two decisions with which everyone disagrees. And do they ever make a mistake? Just like every one of us, of course they do. But at the time, they make the best decisions they can with the information at hand. Isn’t that what you do?

I PROMISE YOU, after seven years of attending BOE meetings, the BOE members I’ve been fortunate enough to work with are well intended, studious and hard working. They are volunteering their time because they believe in service to the school, they care about what happens and they want to make a difference.

I, for one, thank Carol Luce and Linda Wilson–and every other outgoing and standing BOE member–for your dedicated and caring service, for listening, for the millions of minutes in which you think about our schools when you could be thinking about your own lives. You are important, your work is valued, your service does make a difference. THANK YOU for every day and every way that you changed the lives of our students.

Kimberly Moritz, Superintendent of Schools