The Ballston Spa Central School District will be seeking input on the future role of the Malta Avenue Building from a community task force. Working with that task force as a facilitator will be Jim Collins, the Board of Education announced at a special meeting on Wednesday, June 18.
Collins is currently the director of professional development at the School Administrators Association of New York State. He has worked with a number of educational resources throughout his career, including spending 16 years as the instructional resources supervisor at the Capital Region BOCES. Collins has also served as a facilitator on many planning groups around the area.
The district has contracted Collins in order to assist the committee without becoming involved themselves.
I don’t see myself as a consultant, said Collins. `A consultant tells you what to do and how you should do it. I see myself as a conversation traffic policeman.`
His role as facilitator would be to ensure the task force accomplishes its charge by preparing agendas, summarizing findings and mediating discussions. It will be up to the members of the task force to come to their conclusions, which Collins would put together in a report for the board.
The board hopes the report can be finished by January and that it will help them decide what the future of the Malta Avenue Building will be.
Months ago, the board decided to close Malta Avenue Intermediate School after constructing a new elementary school at an undetermined location. A public outcry over the decision resulted in the announcement of the task force.
The final decision on Malta Avenue’s fate will ultimately be made by the district.
`They’re not making recommendations, they’re doing a fact-finding report,` said Board of Education President Kathy Jarvis of the task force. `The idea of the task force is to separate from the board, administrators and teachers to get objective opinions back to the board.`
To that end, employees of the district will not be eligible to serve on the task force. The meeting schedule will be posted, and the public will be allowed to attend, but not participate.
The members of the task force have yet to be chosen. Two representatives will be selected for each of the six schools in the district. The resident’s home location will be used to generate a `cross section` of the district. Ten to 12 meetings of the task force are expected. Collins suggested biweekly two-hour meetings.
Applications to be on the task force will be accepted up until the board meets on July 23 to select members. The task force is slated to begin its work in August. Applications can be found on the district’s Web site: www.bscsd.org.
An estimation of Collins’ fee for acting as facilitator was between $1,900 and $2,500.
The board also briefly discussed the upcoming renovations to the middle and high schools.
Superintendent Raymond Colucciello said he had met with representatives of the State Education Department to review the architect’s plans, and that the response was `preliminary, but positive.`
The plans call for 106,000 square feet of renovations and 70,000 square feet of additions, mostly to the older middle school areas of the structure. The meeting with the state was a step toward receiving financial aid for the construction, but Colucciello said there is a roughly 25-week wait for grants. If all goes well, the hope is to begin construction in the spring of 2011.“
