A free, online resource center that provides school, college and university facility operations professionals with the tools and training to achieve excellence in educational facility maintenance.
One District has several cell towers on different campuses disguised as trees, cactus, etc. They are razing a school on one of the sites and building a new facility. This means that the cell tower must be moved.
When you contract with a cell phone tower provider, put language in the contract that allows the District to make changes over time in situations such as this without consequence to the District
As another take away from today’s webcast on the Green Ribbon Schools Awards Program, here are some additional websites you can visit for more helpful resources on keeping your educational facilities healthy, green and energy efficient:
One of our speakers from today’s Facility Masters Webcast on the Green Ribbon Schools Awards Program – Britney Thompson from Fayette County Schools, KY – shared several helpful links on her district’s Sustainability Website regarding their sustainability initiatives. You can get more information and see samples of their sustainability manuals, reports and more.
Program Manuals – E=USE2 Curriculum, Rain Garden Manual, Composting Manual
We have also added some resources on Green, Sustainable and Healthy Educational Facilities to the Environmental Issues and Risk Management area of our website. Those documents include: Sustainability Handbook for Schools, Wellness Policy, Green Ribbon Schools Award Fact Sheet, Carbon Dioxide Emissions Calculator.
Our colleagues on the Facility Masters Listserv are discussing the pros and cons of contracting with a third party company to help reduce utility costs, versus developing an in-house team and program that focuses on improving efficiency. While responses from listserv members indicate that both options are effective ways to achieve utility savings, many of our peers recommend an in-house effort. Here are some of their thoughts on this issue:
Consider hiring your own Resource Conservation Manager if there are significant savings to be pursued. You will have more control over energy saving measures.
Gary Schimmel – Kelso School District, WA
The information is out there if you want to start your own energy efficiency program. If you focus on behavioral and operational, the savings are amazing.
Greg Higgins – Hamilton County Department of Education, TN
Energy behavior management can be done effectively without paying large dollars for an outside service. We implement energy behavior management to create savings that can thereafter be allocated to education (staff, programs and so on). This will not be the case in a situation where a district hires a third party to do this work.
Sue Pierce – Washington Elementary School District, AZ
You need someone who is focused on energy, and supported from the top to make changes. The information, resources, ideas, protocols are out there, and with the right people and support, as well as capital money for facility upgrades, I think you can do a great job in-house.
Lisa Randall – Santa Fe Public Schools, NM
Hosted by Roger Young, featuring Dr. James Elder (Campaign for Environmental Literacy), Anisa Baldwin-Metzger and Nathaniel Allen (US Green Building Council), and Britney Thompson (Fayette County Schools, KY)
One of my colleagues is new to the role of facility director and asked about some winter break projects to undertake. Disa Schulze from Danbury ISD suggested the following:
Cleaning of all storage areas in the schools.
Checking all electrical, plugs, switches etc.
Cleaning of all light fixtures.
Paint or touch up walls that are in need of a face lift.
