BEX Oversight Committee Looking for New Members
"From the district:
The Seattle School Board is seeking four community volunteers to serve on the Building Excellence Oversight Committee, for terms of up to four years. The unpaid 9-member Committee provides advice to the School Board on the District's major capital construction program. The Committee meets monthly and provides advice on planning, construction and related activities, to assure wise capital investments by the District. Members should have familiarity with large capital program activities such as planning, budgeting, cost estimating and controls, and organization and management of public agency capital programs as well as knowledge of leading edge sustainable building practices and conservation techniques. The District seeks individuals with experience as school district capital planners and managers, architects, construction managers, attorneys, contractors and subcontractors, parents and others as appropriate.
A copy of the Committee Charge is available at http://www.seattleschools.org/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/1583136/File/Departmental%20Content/facilities/bex/BEXOversightCharge.pdf.
The website for the Building Excellence Program is located at
http://bex.seattleschools.org
http://bex.seattleschools.org
Interested individuals should send a letter, including background information and reasons for your interest, not later than September 30, 2011, to School Board Office, MS-11-010, PO Box 34165, Seattle, WA 98124-1165 or boardagenda@seattleschools.org."
I urge you to consider serving on this committee if you have interest in facilities and/or capacity management. They have many great members right now but most of them know very little about how the district works or the facility issues that concern parents. They, like the Board, take all that the staff tells them as gospel. I have rarely seen them pushback against anything staff suggests.
Also, the charge makes it look like you have to have a construction/planning background. Again, like the Board, there should be many kinds of people on this committee, not just specialists. Being a parent who has kept up with facilities issues (and I can think of more than a few of you out there), should apply.
The Seattle School Board is seeking four community volunteers to serve on the Building Excellence Oversight Committee, for terms of up to four years. The unpaid 9-member Committee provides advice to the School Board on the District's major capital construction program. The Committee meets monthly and provides advice on planning, construction and related activities, to assure wise capital investments by the District. Members should have familiarity with large capital program activities such as planning, budgeting, cost estimating and controls, and organization and management of public agency capital programs as well as knowledge of leading edge sustainable building practices and conservation techniques. The District seeks individuals with experience as school district capital planners and managers, architects, construction managers, attorneys, contractors and subcontractors, parents and others as appropriate.
A copy of the Committee Charge is available at http://www.seattleschools.org/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/1583136/File/Departmental%20Content/facilities/bex/BEXOversightCharge.pdf.
The website for the Building Excellence Program is located at
http://bex.seattleschools.org
http://bex.seattleschools.org
Interested individuals should send a letter, including background information and reasons for your interest, not later than September 30, 2011, to School Board Office, MS-11-010, PO Box 34165, Seattle, WA 98124-1165 or boardagenda@seattleschools.org."
I urge you to consider serving on this committee if you have interest in facilities and/or capacity management. They have many great members right now but most of them know very little about how the district works or the facility issues that concern parents. They, like the Board, take all that the staff tells them as gospel. I have rarely seen them pushback against anything staff suggests.
Also, the charge makes it look like you have to have a construction/planning background. Again, like the Board, there should be many kinds of people on this committee, not just specialists. Being a parent who has kept up with facilities issues (and I can think of more than a few of you out there), should apply.
Comments
I agree that the current Board might not want you on the committee, but remember, we're only a couple months from an election that could easily reshape the nature of the Board. If applications can be turned in until Sept 30, how long will it take before the committee members are actually selected? (I didn't dig) Are they going to make a snap decision just before the election? If not, a new Board might be the ones to vote.