The School Board of Broward County's newly appointed Chief
Operating Officer (COO) brings a wealth of practical experience
to his new position. And it's that 30+ year's of experience
that has turned Kenneth Klink into the kind of administrator
who believes in three basic concepts: reducing costs, improving
quality and satisfying customers.
"
We've got some great folks" he said - "people that
work hard and care a lot about what they do. My goal is for
us to work together to get our arms around the money we spend,
examine how we serve our customers to understand and be responsive
to their needs . . . cost effectively!" We have to identify
and eliminate work that doesn't add value and spend our money
where it counts.
"
This is the fifth largest school district in the nation and
an incredibly large business, said Mr. Klink, who most recently
served as Director of Procurement for FPL Group, where he
was responsible for $1.2 billion. "There are great opportunities
here to make our business processes more customer friendly
and cost effective," he added. One such initiative has
begun in the Education Technology Services department (ETS). "We're
talking with all our customers to make sure that the services
provided by ETS work for them," said Klink.
Also on the drawing board is a project in the Maintenance
Department where Mr. Klink and the Maintenance Team hope
to focus on work order scheduling, zone logistics and a comprehensive
preventive maintenance and asset management program. "We
spend lots of time behind the wheel," said Klink. "We'd
like to get the staff closer to their work sites to increase
the time they can spend getting things done."
Another idea is to fully examine products prior to purchasing
them as some cost less to maintain than others. "Think
of it this way" he said: "While the original cost
of one product might be higher than another, in the long
run it might actually cost less to own the first product," said
Klink. For example, he said some air conditioning systems
may cost a bit more than others but the overall costs are
lower when you look at greater energy efficiency, longer
service life and ease or frequency of maintenance. Preventive
(PM) maintenance is another area that will garner the District's
attention under Mr. Klink, which amounts to being proactive
vs. reactive with regard to maintenance. His goal is to make
sure work orders are filled in a timely manner and ensuring
that routine maintenance is scheduled to keep our equipment
up and running. The old adage that an ounce of prevention
is worth a pound of cure best describes this new direction.
Reporting directly to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank
Till, Mr. Klink is responsible for the following areas: Facilities
and Construction Management, Food and Nutrition Services,
Human Resources, Maintenance, Purchasing, Transportation,
ETS/Information Technology, Health and Safety and UBCI inspectors.
In all, some 5,500 employees work in departments under his
authority.
The District's new COO is a resident of Fort Lauderdale,
where he lives with his wife Alane; Mrs. Klink is Director
of Guidance at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale. They
have two grown sons; Aaron is currently attending Yale Divinity
School and plans on becoming a Lutheran minister, while Brian
recently graduated from Rice University and recently attended
Emory University graduating with a Master's degree in psychology.
A graduate of Florida State University, in his spare time
Mr. Klink enjoys boating and fishing aboard his 25-foot fisherman,
kayaking and biking, "I'm a "20- to 30-mile guy," he
said.
