This guide from the San Jose Unified School District describes recommended procedures to promote and maintain a healthy and safe school environment during maintenance, modernization, or construction. Guidelines are presented in the following areas: (1) construction safety; (2) communication; (3) material selection; (4) heating, ventilation, and…

This manual discusses school facility cleaning and maintenance from the expanded perspective of work management, physical assets management, and resource management. Work management encompasses the organization of work and personnel, scheduling of daily or routine duties and tasks, and handling of demand work. Physical asset management includes…

This report identifies key management issues for senior managers and heads of cleaning departments in developing and reviewing cleaning services to support improvement and enhance cost effectiveness. The cleaning costs incurred by higher education institutions (HEIs) represent 2.7 percent of the total spent nationally on cleaning services for both…

Twenty-seven easy steps that paid off for a high school in Oak Park, Illinois. (Author)

The usefulness of square foot to dollar comparisons for determining physical plant requirements is diminished by other important factors, such as varying labor conditions and differences in types of facilities. (Author/PG)

Schools could conserve energy by following recommendations by Educational Facilities Laboratories: (1) review operations and maintenance personnel qualifications to handle mechanical-electrical equipment, (2) analyze energy consumption to identify waste sources in schools, (3) incorporate energy conservation into all architectural programs for…

Fairfax County, Virginia, inaugurated an out-of-the-ordinary plan for boosting staff morale and making the most of consultants, and Williamsville, Virginia, instituted a multiple tracking schedule that provides for unscheduled emergencies. (MF)

The results of a poor school maintenance program can have detrimental effects on school pride, learning atmosphere, public confidence, teacher turnover, and the quality of personnel. (MF)

Plant management offers more ways of achieving economy than do other parts of a school operation. (Author)

A light-hearted look at some of the characteristics of elementary schools that are absent from most organizational descriptions, including malfunctioning heating and cooling systems, archaic audiovisual equipment, and an inordinate number of uninvited cats and dogs. (JM)

The work order, when used properly, provides a lasting record of the work actually accomplished and can be a valuable management tool to determine future budgets, predict equipment failure rate, and provide other important information used in decision making. (Author/MLF)

Effective measures to decrease vandalism on the Oswego campus include replacement of damaged items with more resilient materials, the maintenance of communication between campus police and residence hall personnel, and a variety of measures to encourage community ownership and pride. (MLF)