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Chapter 5
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Area cleaning is the traditional approach in which a single custodian is responsible for all aspects of cleaning (vacuuming, dusting, trash removal, etc.) in a specific area. Team cleaning is performed by a team of specialists where one uses the vacuum, another a dust mop, and yet another empties wastebaskets or cleans the chalkboards. |
Custodial Activities The first step toward establishing an effective custodial program is to determine the district's expectations of its custodial services. This requires input from both the school board (who ultimately will fund the program) and the building administration (who will live with the results of the program). Facilities managers must then determine how to staff and support custodial efforts to meet these expectations. Managers must also determine the chain of command for custodial staff. In smaller districts, the head custodian often reports to the school principal. In larger districts, the custodial staff generally work directly for a central administrator who is trained in custodial operations and has ultimate responsibility for the cleanliness of the district's buildings. Another management decision concerns the type of custodial cleaning to be used: area cleaning or team cleaning. Area cleaning is a traditional approach to custodial work, still commonly used in small districts, in which a custodian is responsible for all aspects of cleaning (e.g., vacuuming, dusting, trash removal) in a specific area. By contrast, team cleaning relies on specialists, with one person handling all the vacuuming, one person washing all the chalkboards, one person cleaning all the bathrooms, etc. In theory, team cleaning is more efficient than area cleaning: thus, a four-person team can be expected to clean more than four times the square footage of a "generalist" custodian in the same time period. This approach is also equipment-efficient-each team of four needs only one vacuum cleaner; whereas each "generalist" custodian needs his or her own vacuum, mop, broom, and floor waxer. On the down side, a specialist who vacuums for eight hours at a time may burn out more quickly than a custodian who has more varied duties (although this can be minimized by "rotating" team members' cleaning duties). Team cleaning also tends to inhibit the personal interaction between custodians and faculty that is characteristic of area cleaning.
Many districts have used both approaches to cleaning successfully. The key variable is the degree of cleanliness the district desires relative to its willingness to incur increased personnel and equipment costs. In general, area cleaning results in cleaner facilities because a single custodian is responsible for an entire area, allowing him or her to become intimately familiar with the specific needs of the area. Team cleaning, however, tends to be somewhat less expensive. For more information about custodial activities, visit the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities' Cleaning Page at http://www.edfacilities.org/rl/cleaning.cfm, which provides list of links, books, and journal articles on custodial standards and procedures, equipment, safety, and product directories for the cleaning and maintenance of schools and colleges.
The entire school grounds must be properly maintained on a routine and
preventive basis. School grounds can be defined as the full extent (i.e.,
corner pin to corner pin) of all school property, including school sites,
the central office, and other administrative or support facilities. This
includes, but is not limited, to: |
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Properly maintained athletic turf, physical education fields, and playgrounds can help to improve student health and safety. Specifically, well-rooted, flat, and divot-free surfaces reduce the occurrence of leg and foot injuries. |
Some school districts have responsibility for managing areas of special concern, including (believe it or not):
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Larger education organizations may want to have someone on the grounds crew who is certified in the application of pesticides and herbicides. For more information about this issue, see the discussion about Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in Chapter 4. |
Other grounds-related factors that demand consideration include:
Planners must determine the frequency and level of maintenance service desired for grounds and outdoor equipment. For example, should the grass be cut once or twice a week? Is this schedule modified during peak and low growing seasons? Is a grassy area's use taken into consideration when determining its maintenance needs? Clearly, fields used for gym classes require less attention than the varsity baseball infield. For more information about managing grounds, visit the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities' Grounds Maintenance Page at http://www.edfacilities.org/rl/grounds_maintenance.cfm, which provides list of links, books, and journal articles on managing and maintaining K-12 school and college campus grounds and athletic fields.
The ideal organization of the maintenance and operations department depends on the size of the school district-in square miles and the number and distribution of campuses. Large districts often use the "area support management concept," in which the district is divided into two or more areas, each with its own direct-support team that provides comprehensive maintenance. Each team would include skilled craftsmen such as painters, plumbers, electricians, HVAC repairmen, general maintenance personnel, and grounds personnel. Other tasks for which there is less demand - such as kitchen equipment specialists, small-engine specialists, cabinetmakers, roofers, and locksmiths - are supported from a central location. An alternative approach is to group staff according to their skill or craft - for example, all electricians work for the lead electrician, all plumbers work for the lead plumber, and so on. Both approaches to maintenance and operations organization are valid provided the chosen system supports current district needs and can adapt to future growth. Because local circumstances vary so greatly, there is no national staffing standard for determining the number of plumbers, roofers, or electricians needed by a district. However, several professional organizations offer guidelines based on the amount of building square footage that needs to be maintained. Other factors that must be considered include the size of the district in miles, the age of the buildings, the maintenance history of the buildings, funds available for maintenance activities, and the expectations of the community and school administration.
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Maintaining schools also entails maintaining corollary and special-needs facilities such as trailers and modular buildings. These facilities demand all the support required by "regular" buildings, and usually merit additional attention because of their construction limitations. Modified management standards may be required (e.g., they may fill up with carbon monoxide or lose heat more quickly). Even the field house at the football stadium where the PTA sets up its hotdog stand is a special-needs facility because it is used for food preparation and, therefore, must meet high standards of cleanliness. |
Maintenance and Operations Manuals Every maintenance and operations department should have a policies and procedures manual that governs its day-to-day operations. The manual should be readily accessible (perhaps via an Intranet or the Internet), and written at a level consistent with the reading ability of department members. At a minimum, the manual should contain:
Managing Facilities "Partners" Schools belong to their communities. Individuals
and groups in a community often take "ownership" in their schools' facilities
in the sense that they initiate efforts to improve building condition,
technological capabilities, and recreational equipment. This is a good
thing-certainly parent-teacher associations, booster clubs, and business
circles are all friends of our school systems. Having said this, facilities
managers must supervise any activities undertaken by these organizations
to upgrade or otherwise modify school facilities. For example, internet
cabling installed by parents and community members must be coordinated
with the rest of the building's electrical system and recorded on wiring
diagrams. Similarly, all upgrades to playground structures, whether installed
by maintenance staff or "amateurs," must meet safety requirements. Thus,
facilities managers must be proactive in their communications with community
groups so that all well-intentioned aid to our schools proves to be a
benefit to student learning, recreation, health, and safety. |
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"Jury-rig" is not a synonym for "repair." To repair equipment means to return it to its original operating state. |
Work order systems help school districts register and acknowledge work requests, assign tasks to staff, confirm that work was done, and track the cost of parts and labor. At the simple end of the spectrum, a work order system can be a manual, paper-based, tracking tool. On the more complex, but perhaps more efficient (depending on the size of the organization) side, work order systems come in the form of computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS as discussed in Chapter 3). Such systems have become increasingly affordable and easy to use. Their purpose is to manage work requests as efficiently as possible and meet the basic information needs of the district. CMMS software must also be user friendly so that it can be implemented with minimal training (although training needs are inevitable and should not be overlooked). Many CMMS systems offer "bells and whistles" that are not needed for accomplishing primary maintenance management tasks and, in fact, often unnecessarily complicate the user interface.
The CMMS should be network- or Web-based, be compatible with standard operating systems, have add-on modules (such as incorporating the use of hand-held computers), and be able to track assets and key systems. Source codes must be accessible so that authorized district staff are able to customize the system to fit their needs as is necessary. In terms of utility, a good CMMS program will:
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Work order system documentation should be used to augment and help interpret facility audit findings. |
At a minimum, work order systems should account for:
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Are You Being Well Served? Maintenance & Operations XYZ School District
The maintenance staff has completed the
Work Order # ____________ Job Description ___________
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Staff from every building and campus in a district should have the ability
to initiate a work request and determine its status. However, it is a
good policy to limit "official" requesting authority to a single person
at each site so that better internal oversight is maintained (e.g., to
prevent multiple requests being submitted for the same job). Many organizations
provide staff with a one-page work request (in either paper or electronic
form) that is then submitted to the person responsible for evaluating
and entering requests into the work order system. |
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How many people need to "touch" a work order before the task gets completed? That depends on the size and organization of the school district. However, a good rule of thumb is that work order systems should be streamlined to minimize the number of people involved in delivering, approving, and performing a job. |
Once a work order reaches the maintenance department, a control number is issued and the work is given a priority rating. The task is then assigned to a craftsman and a supervisor. Upon completion of the work, the craftsman records all labor and parts needed to complete the job. The work order is then submitted to the maintenance office for close-out. But first the supervisor must determine that the quality of the work meets or exceeds departmental standards. Because it is unrealistic to check every work order that goes through the maintenance office (even in small districts), good supervisors often take a two-step approach to evaluation: 1) randomly inspecting a small percentage (e.g., 3 percent) of completed work orders; and 2) in every case, providing the requesting party an opportunity to respond to a customer satisfaction survey. Upon closing out a work order, all information about the request should be placed in a data bank for future historical and analytical use (e.g., for determining the yearly cost of building maintenance). Sophisticated CMMS enable the data to be analyzed in detail and at different scales (e.g., weekly, monthly, and annual reporting; as well as by room, building, and campus), depending on user need.
For
more information about work order systems, visit the National Clearinghouse
for Educational Facilities' Facilities Management Software Page at http://www.edfacilities.org/rl/software.cfm,
which describes and evaluates computer-aided facilities maintenance management
systems for handling priorities, backlogs, and improvements to school
buildings. |
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Publishing an annual calendar of school or district events helps prevent duplicate scheduling of resources and facilities. To be most useful, the calendar should be posted to a network or web site so that it is easily accessible and new events can be added as they are scheduled. |
Building Use Scheduling Systems Another use for computers in facilities maintenance is the employment of an automated building use scheduling system for planning special events (activities such as athletic contests, PTA meetings, and holiday concerts that occur during non-instructional hours). The building secretary enters into a database all special activities in the facility that will require extended heating, cooling, or lighting. Information captured for each activity includes: the date of the event, expected attendance, beginning and ending time, specific location within the building where the activity will occur (e.g., classroom #201, the gymnasium, or the auditorium), HVAC and lighting needs, person authorizing the event, and a contact name. The HVAC department can print a list of all special needs on a weekly basis, allowing staff to schedule its systems for appropriate heating, cooling, and lighting in the particular areas where these after-hour events are taking place. The Facilities Manager can also access the building use scheduling the activities. A large portion of a school district's maintenance budget goes to purchasing supplies for day-to-day maintenance and custodial work. Managing supply inventories efficiently may not seem like a difficult task, but a considerable amount of planning is required to ensure that valuable funds are not tied up in excess inventory.
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Every dollar in parts sitting on a shelf is a dollar that is not available for classroom instruction. Consignment cabinets save money and time-they contain supplies that are provided by vendors, but not paid for by the district until they are used. For routine replenishment of supplies, a "just in time" system may be used. For example, because HVAC filters are needed on a routine and predictable schedule, they don't need to be stored in-house; instead, they can be ordered in bulk for delivery by a vendor the day before they will be used. |
Parts purchased for storage should meet one of the following criteria: High-volume purchases generate cost savings that exceed the cost of storage. The parts may be needed at any time for emergency repairs. The parts are difficult to obtain or take a long time to get delivered. Many facility managers take advantage of consignment cabinets that vendors supply at their cost. That is, a vendor stocks the district's storage space, but the district does not pay for the material until it is used. What's in it for the vendor? Well, the consignment cabinet translates into guaranteed business for the vendor whenever the district needs the stored parts or supplies. Another effective system for managing equipment inventories is the use of open purchase orders or open procurement cards, which can be issued to a local store (e.g., a $1,000 purchase order at the hardware store that is valid for a 30-day period). As parts are needed for a project, craftsmen go to the store, select the items, and sign the purchase ticket. At the end of the 30-day period, the purchase order is closed out and paid. To verify the legitimacy of all purchases, receipts must include an itemized list of the items purchased, the name and ID number of the staff person, and the work order number. Centralized Versus Decentralized Parts Storage.
Both site-based storage and central storage systems have costs and benefits.
Site-based storage keeps parts where they will be needed-i.e., maintenance
staff don't have to wait for supplies to arrive from central office. On
the other hand, supplying multiple sites leads to increased costs associated
with redundant inventories. When vendor-supplied consignment cabinets
are used, redundant inventories don't cost the district any extra money
except for the storage space. Another drawback with site-based storage
is that inventory management is difficult, leaving the district vulnerable
to property loss from theft (making effective key control for supply facilities
essential). Whether centralized or decentralized, the inventory management
system must be integrated with other facilities and financial management
software in use (e.g., the organization's CMMS). |
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If constrained by "low bid" requirements, district planners might consider switching to performance-based specifications to ensure they get the equipment they want. |
Standardization of Parts and Equipment. It makes sense to standardize equipment and parts whenever possible. After all, if a district has three different brands of chillers (or even three different models of the same brand), then it will need three different kinds of replacement parts - a waste of storage space. Moreover, staff training requirements increase since maintenance workers will need to know how to service three different pieces of equipment instead of one. Unfortunately, many school districts must adhere to low-bid contracting, which can result in a different vendor getting a given contract in successive years. One way to overcome this problem is to include language in all procurement contracts that requires vendors to provide services and equipment that is consistent with the existing infrastructure and staff expertise.
When selecting parts, keep in mind that you may not always need the best product-for example, if your HVAC system has a 10-year life expectancy, there is no need to purchase a top-of-the-line 15-year pump as a corollary component. But neither does it make sense to buy cheap 15-year shingles for a new building that has a life expectancy of 40 years. |