Happy New Year!

The beauty of marking the season is the opportunity to reflect a little on the success and learning from the failures of another year's worth of work.  It is hard at times when working with large organizations to appreciate the victories when the steps, process and day to day activities need the attention.  Still, the things that inspire me remain the same.  We solve problems.

The best are unsuspecting discoveries, while humble when looked at from afar, they are significant wins from many angles. One example this past year involved the dead space under the solar panels on a playground. What about bleachers? While non-revolutionary, it is the best kind of solution because it brings together different conversations from over months if not years of discussion with the Palmdale School District.  The solar panels were installed some time ago, and the school sites struggle with the use of the space below the panels. Issues such as hard to supervise, boarding on streets where onlookers could watch the kids at recess, poor drainage, grass refused to grow evenly, and space is a maintenance headache.  The District also recently restructured how PE was offered and the new program has to just fit into the existing facilities, which is challenging on a very crowded school site. Both students and parents repeatedly requested access to shade during recess, and PE especially needed a place for students to sit for instructions on hot days. During the Facility Master Plan Implementation meetings with the sites and the Community, these somewhat unrelated issues came together.  At one of the site meetings, there was a desire to have some coverage from the street to the play area but not an extreme blockade.  There was also a desire for students to have more access to shade.  The idea sprang forth, bleachers. Of course!  The height would give some screening while also providing a natural edge to where students should and should not go easing supervision. A concrete pad for the bleachers would not require maintenance.  The PE program can use the bleachers to give instructions before proceeding to the activity for the day; bleachers can be in the shade, and they would keep the students in hearing range and allow them to stay comfortable. During lunch hours, the bleachers can be accessed for students to sit and cool down if needed while playing. The bleachers are a programmatic, supervision, operational and community win. Woohoo! In the end, these successes are a win for students; our primary goal in everything we do.

One of my favorite sayings is from Mike Wisenborn, the former Director of Facilities and Construction at Chico Unified School District. The saying goes "Let's see if we can solve this by making it bigger." This saying exemplifies what I like best about master planning.  Bringing multiple issues together to solve many challenges within one solution.  The solutions are often complicated and hard to communicate in a one-liner to the Board of Education, but they are the backbone of what we are and do. Even simple ones, like bleachers, take a whole paragraph to appreciate the beauty of the solution.

Participation, communication, listening and interpreting, all part of how we identify issues that we can then find solutions. The input we get when learning about a District is invaluable. The conversations help build solutions with staff, district personnel, teachers, and students. We find our inspiration from the time out of their day that they spend with us, all above and beyond their long list of responsibilities. Their excitement to find ways to improve facilities that can enhance the delivery of a quality education program for every student is inspirational.  These team partners add to the perspectives which allow our mutually discovered solutions to be fully realized. For all who have given time to our process this past year and endured the sometimes-incomprehensible time it takes, we thank you! Even when it is just a bleacher under a solar panel!