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West Seneca facilities director proposes staffing restructure, tech upgrades to address retirements and backlogs
Summary
Mick Barr, the district—s director of facilities, outlined a multi-year plan to reorganize the buildings and grounds department, expand training and technology, and create career pathways to replace a wave of retirements while keeping the plan staffing-neutral.
Mick Barr, director of facilities for the West Seneca Central School District, told the board during its March 25 work session that the district—s buildings and grounds department is understaffed at several levels and is facing an imminent wave of retirements that will remove "over 300 years" of institutional experience.
Barr said the department currently operates in a reactive mode because of vacant management posts and high daily workloads. "We—e rushing to put out fires," he said, and proposed a three-person leadership team—our roles he said would include a director of facilities, an assistant director and a filled executive housekeeper—to shift the office toward proactive planning and preventative maintenance.
The proposed reforms center on four pillars: reorganized management and career pathways, structured training, greater technology integration and targeted equipment purchases. Barr said creating intermediate job titles such as "senior custodian" and maintenance-helper roles would give early-career employees multiple pathways to advance, and that formal training partnerships could complement on-the-job mentoring.
Barr outlined specific technology and equipment requests. He asked the district to adopt HelixIntel and Schneider Electric—s EcoStruxure platform for cloud-based asset tracking and preventative-maintenance scheduling to replace the district—s older Qware work-order system. He requested 15 VPN-enabled take-home laptops for lead custodians and crew chiefs and 15—1 Chromebooks with world-facing cameras to support mobile barcode-based work ordering. Barr also recommended investing in robotic floor scrubbers, proposing an aggressive target of purchasing 15 machines over five years as a "force multiplier" to free staff for inspections, repairs and other higher-skill tasks.
Barr proposed workforce-development partnerships with local providers, naming ECC (the Erie County Community College building-management and maintenance program) and Erie 1 BOCES as potential sources of customized courses and hands-on training. He said such programs could be tailored so employees who want to advance to head custodian or maintenance mechanic roles could take targeted classes rather than a full two-year program.
Board members and staff pressed practical questions about sequencing and civil-service constraints. Several trustees emphasized the need to fill building-level, hands-on positions first so that day-to-day operations are maintained while new management positions are considered. Barr acknowledged civil-service requirements for some titles and that certain positions require competitive testing. He also said some roles have been vacant for months or years: the executive housekeeper position was vacant prior to November 2022; an assistant superintendent of buildings and grounds/head custodian on special assignment vacancy dates to July 2024; and a maintenance mechanic crew chief role has been effectively vacant since January 2025 following a staff medical retirement.
Barr and district staff said they intend to pursue the technology upgrades and training in a fiscally neutral way where possible, and that the current staffing plan is intended to be staffing-neutral overall rather than a reduction in workforce. District leadership also discussed reconstituting a facilities committee to pair building-condition survey work with staffing and operational planning.
The presentation drew support for workforce-development ideas from trustees who suggested outreach to BOCES and career fairs for students; trustees also asked for a building-by-building staffing needs assessment. Barr said he would provide a menu-style staffing plan showing current versus recommended levels and how proposed equipment or training would affect staffing and duties.
The board did not take any formal action on staffing or technology at the March 25 meeting. Barr said he would return with additional data, including a recommended staffing matrix and further details on technology rollouts and training partnerships.
