Looking Ahead
by John Dufay
The challenges presented in this Report are great but the safety of the District’s children and staff is top priority. Identifying these needs and finding the required funding for them, as well as prioritizing it all, is a huge task in itself. However, M&O will continue to move forward in meeting these needs and remain focused on the Division’s mission.
M&O is in the process of expanding its use of SchoolDude customer survey forms, as well as increasing participation at Principal, Cluster, and Administrative meetings. Both have helped in planning and identifying problem areas and areas where M&O is performing well.
Facility Maintenance is Paramount to Success
Effective maintenance and operations procedures are fundamentally important to protect the taxpayers’ investment in and performance of all District building systems. Student health, productivity, and success can suffer when a school district’s building systems fail to operate as designed and built. This is where M&O must have good communication with FD+C.
Sub-standard maintenance or incorrect operation of building systems (new or old) usually results from a combination of factors. First, maintenance budgets are often the first to be reduced or eliminated when money becomes tight. Second, designers and contractors typically provide the building staff minimal or no training about how to operate or maintain new building systems and technology. Finally, schools eventually lose their institutional knowledge of the building systems because of staff turnover, retirements, and a lack of good communication.
High performing school maintenance and operations departments are not hard to achieve when a good maintenance plan is in effect. A good plan helps to reduce operating costs as well maintained and energy efficient systems are economical in the long-term. Additionally, high performance operations clearly distinguish roles, responsibilities, and budget allocations to ensure that important maintenance information is transferred to the District’s building maintenance personnel and not lost in the rush to occupy buildings after new or renovation construction is completed. This is a very difficult task and part of the commissioning task of a new building that we are struggling with along with FD+C. This takes a great deal of coordination, communication, and time – and time is usually something we do not have when trying to open a new school building under a very tight schedule and budget.
APS’s M&O Division strives to subscribe to an effective high performance maintenance plan that:
- educates the faculty on the value of maintenance, and how a properly functioning facility can help them educate their students;
- establishes a budget for high quality maintenance;
- determines how to hire qualified technicians to perform tasks;
- develops a high performing preventative maintenance strategy, including schedules for periodic maintenance checks;
- uses a quality work order system to track maintenance performed, time to complete task, and costs of materials and equipment;
- ensures that the M&O maintenance staff have proper and current Operation and Maintenance manuals;
- ensures availability of recommended spare parts in the school district’s Warehouse as well as vendor inventory warehouses; and
- provides quality training to the District maintenance staff.
Continue to Increase Preventative Maintenance Ratio
Spending 20% of M&O’s budget on PM work orders will eliminate 60% of reactive work orders. Currently, 17.5% of allocated funds are spent on PM activity and M&O aims to increase it to 25% by the end of the 2010-11 fiscal year.
While M&O increased funds on PM activity since the last fiscal year, yet more dollars need to be allocated to preventing breaks that result in costly repairs or replacements. It is the ongoing focus of the Division to focus on the PM program all the while not neglecting daily reactive work orders in meeting the immediate needs of the schools.
