The state of NC actively encourages community use of schools. We have joint use agreements with several of the municipalities at at least 50 of our schools. Most involve shared parks/athletic fields, but we also have a library and a few gym/community centers.
We have someone in our real estate office who specializes in joint use agreements.
The JUA normally identifies the licensed areas (buildings or fields) and specifies how each entity (Town or School) can schedule its use and is responsible for the utilities and upkeep. Typically the school gets sole control and use of the licensed areas during school hours on designated school days. Associated areas such as access roads and parking are also addressed. It also covers liability issues. There is also a section that covers whether the Town or the School is able to rent out the facilities or sell concessions during any events, and, if so, how the proceeds will be shared.
The JUA also specifies how the entities will split or share the responsibilities for:
- Interior routine maintenance, and when it can be done
- Other routine maintenance (roof, walls, HVAC, utility service lines)
- Major replacements, and how costs will be shared
- Parking area access and maintenance
- Landscape maintenance
- Removing trash and litter from fields
- Custodial services — down to who is supposed to supply the toilet paper
- Utilities
Since I deal with the utilities end of things, I would recommend that someone who understands utility billing be involved when the JUAs are drafted. Unless there is specific separate metering of a shared area, you can’t just say that Entity A will pay for the utilities for the Gym while Entity B will pay for the rest of the school. Even if you write in that one entity is responsible for making sure that one area of the school is separately metered to allow this, unless someone is there working with the contractors to ensure separate metering, it isn’t going to happen. (And most of our electric service providers are not willing to provide a separate service for a portion of a building.) Submetering is a possibility, but may be more hassle than it is worth. For the most part, I have seen some horse-trading going on in the drafting of the agreement (e.g., you pay the separately metered water for they gym, and we’ll handle the electricity and HVAC) or we charge them based a weighted average of the total utilities bill based on the shared square footage.
Lib Reid McGowan, M.S., C.E.M., C.E.A.
Utility Analyst
Wake County Public School System
Operations – Energy and Physical Plant
1551 Rock Quarry Road
Raleigh, North Carolina 27610
emcgowan@wcpss.net
This week on the Facility Masters Listserv, we had a huge response (and lively debate!) from our members about how to manage and eliminate problems with bed bugs and lice in educational facilities.
Some of your peers had questions, while others shared some helpful resources on this highly sensitive topic. Everyone seems to agree that reviewing some existing protocols for dealing with bed bugs and lice is a good way to get started, but that you should carefully review those resources and then tailor them for the unique needs of your educational organization.
Here are some of the excellent resource sites on managing bed bugs and lice that were contributed on the listserv:
NC State University IPM Resources on Bed Bugs (including Bed Bug Protocol)
http://schoolipm.ncsu.edu/bedbugs.htm
Texas School IPM Guide Documents for Head Lice and Bed Bugs
http://schoolipm.tamu.edu/forms/pest-management-plans/
Newark Public Schools, NJ – Understanding and Controlling Bed Bugs in Public Schools
http://www.nps.k12.nj.us/22861071510311733/lib/22861071510311733/Bed_Bug_Guide_for_Schools_revised_September_2011.pdf
University of Tennessee Knoxville – Bed Bug Policy
http://studenthealth.utk.edu/Bed%20Bug%20Policy.pdf
Congratulations to C.G. Cezeaux from Spring ISD, TX – our speaker for the August Facility Masters Webcast on Integrated Pest Management. His district earned the IPM STAR Certification for meeting high standards for IPM performance and risk reduction. http://www.ipminstitute.org/school_ipm_2015/Oct11_eNewsletter.htm#LETTER.BLOCK22
View the webcast archive and presentation by C.G. and Facility Masters on “Effective Integrated Pest Management for Safeguarding Kitchens, Cafeterias and Classrooms”:http://www.facilitymastersonline.com/webcasts/
The Facility Management Department Customer Satisfaction Survey at the top of the page has a section for custodial evaluations. Hope you find it helpful
http://www.facilitymastersonline.com/resources/facility-management/
I was recently asked if seal coating asphalt extends the life of the parking lot – it is my view that it does – It is best to keep up wth everything including filling in the cracks and then applying the sealer
Our speaker from today’s Facility Masters Webcast on Managing Community Use of Educational Facilities, Devon Rauenzahn from Spokane Public Schools in Washington, shared several helpful links on her district’s site regarding their community facility use policies and procedures. You can get more information and see samples of their facility use documents.
Spokane Public Schools, WA – Links to the District’s Policies for Community Use of Facilities:
We have also added some of Spokane Public School’s sample documents to the Facility Use, Scheduling and Event Management Resources area of our website. Those documents include: Sample Facility Use Agreement, Sample Facility Use Application, Sample Fee Schedule, and Sample Rules for Facility Usage.
Our colleagues write:
Glass cleaner is what we have used for years. It also saves on the cost of buying a cleaner just for the boards.
½ ammonia ½ water works great.
Warm water is what we have found in our school system that works the best
We also use a lite window cleaner. It works well.
A green cleaning program would use the glass cleaner approved for the facility. Ammonia would be considered a health hazard and not approved for use in the school.
Some of my colleagues recommend cleaning white boards with only water and micro fiber wipes – and not use chemical cleaning products that leave a residue that will interact with the dry erase marker ink and cause heavy “ghosting “ – they report that cleaner residues impact the performance of any white board no matter what the brand –
On a more practical note, if your key control is outdated and you have issues that must be addressed, perhaps start out with a new campus master keying system, one building at a time as funding is available. That way you have made positive progress without busting the budget. This also limits the number of keys that authorized staff must deal with.