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Chapter 1
When maintaining a school, we pay not only for bricks and mortar, but also student and staff well-being. Effective school maintenance protects capital investment, ensures the health and safety of our children, and supports educational performance.
As America's school buildings age, we face the growing challenge of maintaining school facilities at a level that enables our teachers to meet the needs of 21st century learners. While the construction of new school facilities supports this task, many older buildings have developed modularly over time. A 1920s-era school may have gotten an addition in 1950, which in turn got an addition in 1970, and yet another addition in 1990. The task of caring for these old school buildings, some of which are historically or architecturally significant, at a level that supports contemporary instructional practices is substantial. At the same time, maintaining the finely tuned workings of new, more technologically advanced facilities also demands considerable expertise and commitment. What causes facilities problems? Certainly extreme environmental conditions and a lack of maintenance funding contribute to building deterioration. But many facilities problems are not a function of geography or socioeconomic factors but are, instead, related to maintenance staffing levels, training, and management practices.
Because we know that routine and unexpected maintenance demands are bound to arise, every education organization must proactively develop and implement a plan for dealing with these inevitabilities. Thus, an organization must plan to meet the challenges of effective facilities maintenance. It is simply too big of a job to be addressed in a haphazard fashion. After all, the consequences affect teaching and learning, student and staff health, day-to-day building operations, and the long-range fiscal outlook of the organization. However, school facilities maintenance is concerned about more than just resource management. It is about providing clean and safe environments for children. It is also about creating a physical setting that is appropriate and adequate for learning. A classroom with broken windows and cold drafts doesn't foster effective student learning. However, neither does an apparently state-of-the-art classroom that is plagued with uncontrollable swings in indoor temperature, which can negatively affect student and instructor alertness, attendance, and even health. School facilities maintenance affects the physical, educational, and financial foundation of the school organization and should, therefore, be a focus of both its day-to-day operations and long-range management priorities.
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Effective facilities maintenance extends the life of older facilities and maximizes the useful life of newer facilities. |
Who Should Read This Document? Meeting legal standards with regard to facilities maintenance is the bare minimum for responsible school management. Planners must also strive to meet the spirit of the laws and the long-term needs of the organization. Because facilities maintenance planning is constrained by real world
budgets, planners must often think in terms of trade-offs. Thus, they
must weigh routine tasks against preventive maintenance that pays off
only over the long run, while always needing to be prepared for emergency
responses to broken air conditioners, cracked pipes, and severe snow storms.
The difficult job of planning for facilities maintenance is most effective
when it relies upon up-to-date information about the condition and use
of buildings, campuses, equipment, and personnel. Thus, staff who are
intimately involved in the day-to-day assessment, repair, and maintenance
of school facilities must also play an active role in the facilities maintenance
planning process. Yet facilities maintenance planning is not solely the
responsibility of the facilities department. Effective planning requires
coordination of resources and commitment at all levels of the education
organization. |
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School facilities maintenance affects the physical, educational, and financial foundation of the school organization and should, therefore, be a focus of both its day-to-day operations and long-range management priorities. |
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Facilities maintenance planning is not solely the responsibility of the facilities department. Effective planning requires coordination of resources and commitment at all levels of the education organization. |
In a Nutshell... Experience at the local, state, and national levels suggests that effective school facility maintenance planning can:
The Planning Guide does the following:
This Planning Guide is not:
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Thus,
it is perhaps not surprising that facilities issues arise at all educational
levels, prekindergarten through post-secondary, and all sites, both school
buildings and administrative offices alike. Challenges arise in both new
and old facilities, although the types of concerns may differ. For example,
even a brand-new building may have problems with inadequate air circulation,
which can lead to indoor air quality (IAQ) problems unless remedied. Older
buildings, on the other hand, more frequently face age-related issues
such as inefficient energy systems that can lead to uncomfortable indoor
climate and high utility bills.
