West Seneca facilities director proposes new leadership structure, tech and training plan to address vacancies and retirements

Mick Barr, director of facilities for the West Seneca Central School District, presented a multi-year plan Tuesday to reshape the buildings and grounds (B&G) department and respond to a wave of retirements and current vacancies.

Barr told the board the department is operating reactively because of too few management positions and heavy workloads for a single clerical staffer. "We're rushing to put out fires," he said. He said several supervisory positions have been vacant in recent months, including the executive housekeeper (vacant prior to November 2022), an assistant superintendent/head custodian role (vacant since July 2024), and a maintenance mechanic crew chief role that has been effectively vacant since January 2025 following the medical retirement of a long‑time employee.

The plan Barr outlined would restore an assistant director position, refill the executive housekeeper role and create stepped career pathways — cleaner → custodian → senior custodian → head custodian → maintenance mechanic — to make the department a destination employer and retain early‑career staff. Barr said he wants to formalize training and mentoring alongside hands‑on work: "If we positioned them into a job that is a learning role, where they can do the hands on, next to going to the class... the two types of training would complement each other." He suggested partnerships with Erie 1 BOCES and the building management program at ECC as possible training partners.

Barr also proposed greater technology integration to improve preventive maintenance and asset tracking. He described a planned rollout of HelixIntel (integrated with EcoStruxure and single sign‑on) to replace the district’s older work‑order system, Qware, and explained how barcode scanning of equipment via Chromebooks or iPads would link units to maintenance histories and spare‑parts data. He asked the board to consider providing roughly 15 take‑home laptops with VPN access and 15–20 convertible Chromebooks for head custodians and crew chiefs to access building controls and maintenance records remotely.

On automation, Barr recommended gradual adoption of robotic floor machines as force multipliers for custodial crews. "My goal is over the next 5 years, we buy 15 of them," he said, noting they can run third shift or during occupied hours and are designed to avoid people and obstacles.

Board members raised operational concerns: some said building‑level staffing must be filled first before adding management layers; others pressed for a menu or building‑by‑building staffing plan. Barr asked the district to provide a comparison of current staffing versus his ideal staffing model and said he would welcome the facilities committee or an advisory group to review the building condition survey and staffing needs.

Barr repeatedly framed the proposal as staffing‑neutral over time, not a reduction of the workforce: "All of this anticipating to be staffing neutral, not a reduction of our workforce by any means, but potentially changing of titles." He emphasized the looming retirement wave — which he estimated would remove more than 300 total years of experience from the department — as both a challenge and an opportunity to redesign roles.

The board agreed to continue the conversation; members suggested exploring BOCES or ECC training options, internships with BOCES programs, and mentorship pay for in‑district trainers. Barr offered to return for annual updates.

Ending: The board did not take action on Barr’s proposals at the meeting; members directed staff to provide additional staffing‑level data and to consider how the facilities committee could be used to review both the building condition survey and staffing structure.