Facility Masters — Training for Educational Facility Professionals

Protecting students, teachers and staff from the dangers of unauthorized visitors accessing educational facilities requires detailed safety and security planning. Your visitor access control program should effectively secure the building exterior and entry points, as well as provide detailed tracking of all guests and authorized personnel with the time, location and purpose for accessing the facility.

One method for securing both exterior and interior entrances is electronic access control.  Our peer Ann Degnan from Long Branch Public Schools, NJ shared what her district is doing with electronic door access:

“We currently have outside – as well as inside – doors on the access systems in all of our newest buildings.  The system allows us to print a card with times and days that staff are allowed access.  It also allows us to run reports on specific cards and specific doors.  For example,  I am able to verify a staff member’s entry time.  We also use the inside doors to isolate areas of the building to be used by the public after school hours.  Our access software also controls the cameras in some of the schools, providing a complete system that is used by all our administrative staff.”

“We use Schlage as our hardware vendor for locks, but we are using AMAG software to print the cards, manage the card access and also manage cameras.  It is a complete system that functions well for us – we currently use it in 6 buildings.  It functions across the district allowing me to program access to different buildings on a single card.”

Ann Degnan, CEFM - Facilities Manager – Long Branch Public Schools, NJ

Hosted by Roger Young, featuring Paul Timm (RETA Security, Inc.) and Steven Young (Indianapolis Public Schools, IN)

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One important aspect of energy conservation programs in educational institutions is keeping building occupants (students, teachers, staff) informed about your goals and getting them involved in reducing electricity usage. One method to keep everyone in the loop and share your successes is a newsletter.

Lisa Randall of Santa Fe Public Schools shared an example of her district’s newsletter and explained how it is an important component of their conservation program: http://www.facilitymastersonline.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/01/Example-Energy-Conservation-Newsletter-1-12-12.pdf

“Email is a great way to keep staff, students, and community members informed about projects, construction, energy management efforts, etc. I put out an energy management/recycling/sustainability newsletter, and although it’s a ton of work, it keeps people up to date with our efforts, challenges, and successes. Knowledge truly is power. We are looking into energy dashboards, which after submetering electricity, gas, and water, will allow each site to engage more meaningfully with their school’s energy use, and begin to set school goals for reduction.”
Lisa Randall – Energy Conservation Program Coordinator – Santa Fe Public Schools

A smaller number of our colleagues think about their roof only when there’s a problem—usually a leak. And by that time, there is already damage to occuring.

It is important to have a PM program to reduce the number of problems