Introduction
In order to complete this activity, I met with PB, our Operations Manager, who oversees the custodial staff, and RQ, our Chief Operating Officer, who manages the maintenance of our facilities. The three of us discussed the policies that control the care and operation of our facility, how needs are identified and dealt with, how repairs are managed, what specific issues exist on our campus and what role, if any, the principals play in these processes.
Findings
To begin, I was shocked to discover how much work our school’s maintenance staff accomplishes in a single day. They begin with unlocking procedures as early as 5 am and move on through groundskeeping and maintenance before any students or faculty arrive. They conduct repairs throughout the day, handle setup and breakdown duties for programs, deal with trash removal and are still on campus when students and faculty leave at the end of the day. They work through school vacations and are often on campus on weekends. This is all done by a small maintenance staff of six, despite the fact that all custodial duties are outsourced.
According to both PB and RQ, the biggest operational change that has taken place in the last several years was the adoption of a continuous maintenance approach. Basically, instead of waiting for things to wear out or break, the maintenance staff has a year-round schedule or regular duties which are designed to prevent the need for costly, last-minute repairs. So, for example, filters and other parts that wear out are replaced on a rolling schedule, the entire campus’s walls and doors are painted over a six-month schedule, light bulbs are replaced before they burn out, etc. This allows the staff to get out ahead of these issues so that, rather than respond to emergent requests for assistance, they can be more proactive in their approach, freeing them up to deal with real emergencies when they arise.
This has a real-world impact on learning. When students and teachers are comfortable and have the things they need, research shows that they do a better job of learning and teaching. We are located in Miami, where heat is a real concern. When air conditioning units stop working, the temperature in a classroom can quickly rise above 85 degrees, making learning all but impossible. Knowing that the climate control systems are maintained regularly guarantees that we’ve done everything possible to keep our classes operational.
Another major issue is how to best handle requests for when things do go wrong. Though we are a small school, there are still almost 1,500 people on campus every day and dealing with things like broken equipment, unlocking doors, and alarms that go off accidentally can be complex. PB has developed a trouble-ticket system that allows teachers to fill out an online form to request repairs. She is researching different ways of managing those open requests to be sure that the staff is responding to them in a timely way.
Finally, special requests for facility schedule and setup is an ongoing communications issue. PB hosts a weekly meeting which looks at the next two weeks on the calendar for planning purposes. Managing schedule conflicts, furniture, catering, guests on campus, room requests, etc. is a complex task and these regular meetings help her to keep the staff in the loop..