FACILITIES USE AND MANAGEMENT
This chapter examines the facilities use and management functions within the Kerrville Independent School District (KISD) in three sections:
- A. Facilities Planning and Construction Management
- B. Maintenance and Custodial Operations
- C. Energy Management
B. MAINTENANCE AND CUSTODIAL OPERATIONS
Effective school maintenance requires timely and accurate information to plan and manage daily operations; a comprehensive work order system that ensures quick response to school needs; collection of equipment information and related cost of repairs; a preventive maintenance process that minimizes down time, reduces costs and extends equipment life; and a method to monitor service levels and obtain feedback for improvement.
KISD' Maintenance Department is responsible for the daily and preventive maintenance of district facilities. The Maintenance Department's organization is relatively flat with one director and two supervisors managing the 57-position department. The Maintenance Department is staffed as shown in Exhibit 4-6.
Exhibit 4-6 Source: KISD director of Maintenance, March 2002.
KISD Maintenance Department Organization
2001-02A comparison of the KISD Maintenance Department staffing to the American School and University (ASU) survey of public school districts with 600 or more students shows that KISD is staffed appropriately in most areas for the amount of facility space in the district. The region in the survey included Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Arkansas (Exhibit 4-7).
Exhibit 4-7 Source: KISD Long-Range Facilities Plan, American School and University (ASU) 2001 Public School Survey and KISD Maintenance Director.
KISD Maintenance Department Staffing
Comparison to Regional Averages
Employee
GroupKISD
Areas
Maintained*ASU
StandardsKISD
Staffing Using
StandardsKISD
Actual
StaffingVariance
Over
(Under)Grounds 119.5 acres 15 acres per worker 8 5 (3) Craftsman 708,555 square feet 60,582 square feet per worker 11.7 10 (1.7) Custodial 708,555 square feet 21,445 square feet per worker 33.1 38.5 5.4 Total 52.8 53.5 0.7
Note: Does not include long term vacancies in Custodial Services. *Includes new elementary school facility.While KISD spends almost nine percent more per square foot compared to the five-state regional average, the district spends just under six percent less per student than the average in the five-state region (Exhibit 4-8).
Exhibit 4-8 Source: ASU 2001 Public School Survey and KISD Budget/Expenditure Comparison, February 2002.
KISD Maintenance Department
Budgeted Expenditures
2000-02
KISD
ExpendituresMaintenance
and Operations
ExpendituresKISD Cost per square foot $3.76 ASU Average cost per square foot $3.46 Variance $.30 KISD cost per student $568.73 ASU average cost per student $602.10 Variance ($33.37) The district separates construction management from maintenance, which allows the maintenance staff to concentrate on maintenance rather than also oversee the construction projects. This is a change from previous years when the Maintenance Department basically functioned as a construction department because of the director's experience as a builder. The superintendent and assistant superintendent of Business and Finance changed this practice in 1998, focusing the Maintenance Department's efforts on daily and preventive maintenance.
The district has board policies in place to address community use of facilities. School-sponsored and school-related organizations are permitted to use school facilities without charge. Other users are charged fees.
FINDING
The district assigns custodial staff to specific facilities, to foster a strong identification with the building and encourage clean facilities. The review team toured the district facilities at the beginning and end of the school day. Although the facilities appeared well worn, they were clean and in safe condition. All of the principals, 84.9 percent of parents and 68.7 percent of other staff agreed or strongly agreed in a survey conducted that the schools are clean. Teachers and students viewed the cleanliness of the schools differently. Only 49 percent of the teachers agreed with the statement that schools are clean and only 42.4 percent of students agreed (Exhibit 4-9).
Exhibit 4-9 Source: TSPR surveys, February - March 2002.
KISD Survey Results
Facilities
Survey Statement:
Schools are clean.Survey Responses Strongly
Agree or
AgreeStrongly
Disagree or
DisagreeNo Response
or
No OpinionPrincipals 100.0% 0.0% 0.0% Parents 84.9% 9.7% 5.4% Teachers 49.0% 45.8% 5.3% Students 42.4% 45.3% 12.2% Other Staff 68.7% 20.2% 11.2% COMMENDATION
KISD maintains clean schools.
FINDING
KISD's Maintenance Department updated its staff handbook in April 2002 with current job descriptions, employee expectations and other useful information. The district has an official district policy manual and the Maintenance Department handbook is designed to supplement the district manual and serve as a guide and brief explanation of the official manual. The handbook contains job descriptions, employee expectations, emergency information, rules of conduct and regulations regarding leave, weapons, sexual harassment, benefits, safety and travel. The handbook also includes a receipt form for employees to acknowledge receiving the manual.
COMMENDATION
The Maintenance Department's up-to-date staff handbook effectively communicates employment expectations and employee information.
FINDING
In April 2002, KISD implemented procedures regarding community use of school facilities. Before April 2002, the district did not have formal procedures and had been unable to determine district costs regarding community facility use. The process to develop procedures began in the fall 2001 with discussions regarding community use of KISD facilities at two meetings of the Facility Community Advisory Council. On April 4, 2002, the district held a question-and-answer session with community users of KISD facilities. Using input from the meetings, the assistant superintendent of Business and Finance developed draft policies that established community use procedures for the district.
Under the policy, applications must be submitted for use of district facilities. Principals can approve the use of space at their school. The Athletics director, the superintendent and the Child Nutrition director must approve other applications in their respective areas. Fees of $15 per hour per district employee are charged for facility use that requires KISD staff support. This fee was developed after an analysis of current payroll and utility costs. The policy charges different fees based on the different types of community use including district-sponsored events, school-sponsored events, other non-profit sponsored events and for-profit sponsored events. Through the adoption of the procedures, the district plans to recover all costs associated with community use of facilities.
COMMENDATION
The district's implementation of community use procedures will help to recover expenses related to community use of district facilities.
FINDING
KISD's Maintenance Department work order system does not provide sufficient management or cost reporting. Schools prepare a three-part work order form that is routed to the Maintenance Department secretary who enters the information in an Access database that contains a log of 3,550 work orders dating back to 1999. The form is then given to the director of Maintenance who makes assignments based upon his personal judgment.
The work order system is inadequate to meet the needs of the district. There is no analysis of open work orders, aging of work orders or evaluation of costs related to completed work orders. Work orders do not include labor costs. While emergencies are handled immediately, lower priorities do not have formal or informal timelines. Items that the department and school agree not to address simply remain open in the database.
To be effective, maintenance departments need accurate and timely information regarding service levels, workload assignments and labor and cost information. Without this information, a director must rely upon personal judgment in evaluating the performance of staff and the responsiveness of the department. Historical information on repairs at a given facility should form the basis for replacement decisions and evaluation of preventive maintenance. The lack of this information limits the director's ability to develop documented support for increasing preventive maintenance or addressing deferred maintenance.
Recommendation 21:
Automate the work order process to track orders by facility, frequency and cost.
The director of Maintenance should identify and select an appropriate work order system and implement it to include the necessary training of staff.
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES AND TIMELINE
1. The director of Maintenance, working with the Instructional Technology director, develops specifications for the new work order system. November 2002 2. The director of Maintenance evaluates systems in the market place against the specifications, selects the appropriate product and submits a purchase request to the assistant superintendent of Business and Finance for approval. January 2003 3. The assistant superintendent of Business and Finance approves the purchase of the system. February 2003 4. The director of Maintenance purchases the system and develops an implementation plan, including training. April 2003 5. The director of Maintenance implements the system. May 2003 FISCAL IMPACT
The cost to implement this recommendation is based upon the cost of an automated work order system available in the market place. The system is based on a cost of $90 per craft position using the system. KISD has 10 craft positions that would be using the system so the district would incur a one-time license fee of $900 ($90 cost per position X 10 positions).
Recommendation 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 Automate the work order process to track orders by facility, frequency and cost. ($900) $0 $0 $0 $0 FINDING
The Maintenance Department does not have a formal preventive maintenance system, which may result in increased costs to the district. The existing process is informal and based primarily upon the judgment of the director of Maintenance. Preventive maintenance activities are not documented and are limited to direction provided by the director of Maintenance on an ad hoc basis. As funds are available, preventive work is scheduled during the summer.
The lack of a preventive management program places the Maintenance Department in the role of reacting to equipment breakdowns rather than proactively addressing equipment needs. Without an effective preventive maintenance program, overall district maintenance costs are likely to be high.
Exhibit 4-10 lists a preventive maintenance schedule for Spring ISD, a district that uses a formal preventive maintenance program to reduce its overall maintenance costs.
Exhibit 4-10 Source: Spring ISD Preventive Maintenance Program.
Spring ISD
Preventive Maintenance Program Schedule
Preventive Maintenance Activity Activity Frequency Clean A/C unit filters Bi-monthly Change A/C unite filters 3 to 12 week intervals Clean chiller condenser coils Bi-annually Clean fan coil and air handler evaporator coils Annually Clean ice machine condenser coils Every 4 months Inspect and capacity test chillers Annually Change chiller compressor oil and cores Every 2 years Check chemical levels in closed loop chilled and hot water piping Monthly Clean grease traps Every 3 months Inspect and test boilers Annually Check roofs, downspouts and gutters Monthly, repair as needed - 20 year roof replacement Inspect exterior lighting Semi-annually Inspect elementary play gym lighting Annually Inspect and clean gym gas heaters Annually Inspect playground equipment Monthly, repair as needed Clean fire alarm system smoke detectors Semi-annually Inspect all interior and exterior bleachers Annually, repair as needed Clean, tighten and lubricate roll out bleachers Annually Check exterior building and concrete caulking Annually - 8 year replacement Stripe exterior parking lots Annually Check condition of asphalt parking lots Annually - 12 year replacement Check carpet 15 year replacement Check vinyl composition tile floors 20 year replacement Spray wash exterior soffits and building Every 2 years or as needed Replace glass and Plexiglas As needed Paint interior of facilities Every 5 years Paint exterior of facilities Every 8 years Perform general facility inspections Annually Clean ice machine condenser coils Every 4 months Effective school districts use a formal preventive maintenance program to identify repairs early and extend the life of the facility.
Recommendation 22:
Develop a preventive maintenance plan to help reduce maintenance costs.
The director of Maintenance should develop a preventive maintenance program that identifies all preventive management projects, provides a detailed schedule by facility and prioritizes projects by need. Costs to implement preventive maintenance projects are based upon labor hours to complete the project and supplies. These costs, which are already included in the Maintenance Department budget, should be allocated and tracked as a separate project budget similar to that of a construction project budget.
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES AND TIMELINE
1. The director of Maintenance, working with Maintenance Department staff and school principals, identifies preventive maintenance activities for the district. October 2002 2. The director of Maintenance develops a draft preventive maintenance plan and submits it for approval. November 2002 3. The assistant superintendent of Business and Finance approves the plan and includes the activities outlined in the plan in the budget process for the coming year. December 2002 FISCAL IMPACT
This recommendation can be implemented with existing resources.
