Batavia Public School District looking for input on school facilities
What will the future of Batavia schools look like? Three community chairs are taking the lead in finding the answer to this question by gathering feedback from the community through the "Building Our Future Together" community engagement sessions.
Kelly Bleakley, Ginny Gaspar, and Brian Schwab have volunteered to chair the "Building Our Future Together" facilitating team, which has been bringing residents together to learn more about the school district's facilities and how they impact the current and future needs of students.
Over the past month, the Facilitating Team has hosted two community engagement sessions, and the third one is planned for Thursday, March 10, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the Batavia High School cafeteria, 1201 Main St. They encourage everyone in the community to attend and participate in the process.
Over the first two sessions, community members learned the basics of the plan, the current state of the school facilities, and the funding options for the plan. Each session ends with table discussions that lead to feedback provided to the district. This feedback leads to topics that will be addressed at future meetings.
"Even though students and staff are in our schools almost every day, many of us community members don't know the inner workings of our buildings and how they impact the success of all of the students," Bleakley said. "The BOFT Community Engagement Sessions give us the chance to learn more about this and provide the Board of Education with the community's vision for the future of our schools."
Later this spring, after all of the community engagement sessions, the community chairs will present their findings, and proposed long-range facilities plan to the Board of Education.
"By being a part of the Building Our Future Together community engagement sessions, asking questions, and providing feedback, community members will have more of an understanding of what our students need for future success," Gaspar said. "We can then ask how they think we can take our school facilities to the next level."
For more information on the plan and the process, visit www.bps101.net/boft.