Rubber roof life expectancy depends on design, construction, and maintenance. Properly designed, constructed, and maintained, they can range from 15 – 30 years, in our opinion. We have seen the fully adhered EPDM roofs last the longest of the three types (ballasted, fully-adhered, or mechanically fastened)
When we talk about the causes of playground injuries, there’s no question that improper use, horseplay, and other dangerous behavior contributes and we can’t necessarily control that. But almost 40% of the injuries that occur either are due to the lack of maintenance or improper maintenance and procedures. It is our responsibility to implement a plan to ensure that equipment is proactively maintained.
What’s important for all of us to realize is that playgrounds are an important part of the development of children. They provide not only physical development but mental, cognitive, emotional, and social development. There’s increasing evidence from the scientific world about the benefits. So playgrounds aren’t just unnecessary amenities that we’re stuck with.
Being safe at school is everyone’s expectation and we can all readily agree that this is true during the regular school day. But it also extends through the evening, on the weekend, and during school vacations with regard to school playgrounds. The fact is that everyone expects school grounds to be safe whether school is in session or not. Playground safety just simply has to be a priority. The stakes are too high for them not to be.
With our modern – and now more high tech – methods for receiving and completing work requests, it can be difficult to balance the need to improve productivity and communication by exercising the proper level of caution when using a cell phone while driving a school vehicle.
Many educational organizations are now developing policies to limit or restrict the use of cell phones by employees who are driving school vehicles, even if they are using an organization-supplied cell phone for work purposes.
In a recent discussion on the Facility Masters Listserv, our peer Carol Walker from Escondido USD, CA shared her district’s policy:
“We banned cell phone and radio use in district vehicles several years ago when California’s laws changed. We went a little further than the hands-free requirement and banned all cell phone and radio use in our vehicles. We met some resistance at first, including several attempts to use blue tooth headsets to get around the district rules. But with careful supervision and early intervention for resistors, we were able to make the transition pretty well. It helped that the city police and state highway patrol were writing tickets for cell phone violations, so that was definite encouragement to abide by the rules.”
“Management buy-in to the concept was essential in making this successful. There’s a lot of data out there about accidents, injuries, and deaths related to distracted driving. That information was helpful for some of our staff to embrace the policy as a logical, pro-employee safety plan.”
“Our radio users devised a system of ‘clicking’ their radios in response to calls when they were driving. The clicks could be heard by the caller, and were understood to mean ‘I will call you back when I am off the road and parked.’”
Carol Walker – Escondido USD, CA
Improving energy efficiency is one of the easiest ways to find achieve cost savings. There are many no-cost initiatives that can be implemented by your in-house team to start saving immediately, as well as some projects that do require capital investment but deliver more money back to your budget in savings. Our peer Lisa Randall, Energy Conservation Program Coordinator at Santa Fe Public Schools, shared the following best practices that have helped her district achieve significant savings on our listserv.
Energy Management and Efficiency Best Practices from Lisa Randall of Santa Fe Public Schools:
We began our own internal energy conservation program 18 months ago. I was hired as the Energy Conservation Program Coordinator in the fall of 2010 as a 12 month employee. We specified in the job description that an educator was preferred, though a strong background in facilities was also encouraged. I would argue both are pretty darned essential. Every program is structures differently, but this is what we’ve done.
These are all free in terms of capital investment, and very time consuming in terms of your day:
Additional initiatives:
This is not an exhaustive list. We have lots more to do, and we would not have realized a quarter of our savings without a designated person in my position, and dollars to invest. You can save a tremendous amount with just the designated person, and focusing on behavior. But the dollars help enormously!!
Lisa Randall – Energy Conservation Program Coordinator - Santa Fe Public Schools, NM
Maintaining restroom floors that not only are clean, but also look clean, can be a challenge. Selecting the right combination of sealer/finish, disinfectant, and cleaning procedures is key to proper maintenance for this unique, high traffic environment. Our peers on the Facility Masters Listserv shared their best practices related to the proper care and maintenance for Terrazzo floors in restrooms.
“We use ‘Buckeye Castleguard’ on our Lavatory Terrazzo, as well as all the other Terrazzo. It holds up fine for the entire year. We alternate (every other day) our Quaternary Disinfectant and Peroxide based Sanitizer in our cleaning schedule to reduce build up film from the ‘Quat’. We have been getting complimented on the quality of the shine on our Terrazzo since we started using this product 13 years ago. Our corridors and lavatories shine like the first day of school on the last day of school.”
“We use Kaivac machines for cleaning and alternate every other day using Buckeye Terminator (Quat) or Marauder (Peroxide). We scrub and recoat the floor finish in the Summer adding 4-6 coats of Buckeye Castleguard. We’re careful to not build up too much finish along the perimeters and have not had to strip the finish in 10+ years.”
“The Terrazzo is ‘Verdi Green’, cement based terrazzo rather than resin based, and 60+ years old. It looks great other than under the urinals where they used to allow an acid based cleaner to run onto the floor and sit to etch the cement… but that was many years ago.”
“Lavatories are cleaned completely each night (15 minutes for a 4 stall gang lav). My High School Lav ‘specialist’ takes care of 8 large gang lav’s, and 10 smaller lav’s along with the Weight Room with rubber floor, and other duties each night.”
Vinny Sicignano – Skaneateles CSD, NY
“We crystallize our floors, which eliminates using finish. It gives a nice satin finish and holds up really well. Did them last year and according to our vendor, won’t have to repeat for five years. They are easy to clean and don’t seem to be as slippery when wet.”
Brian Hartman – Lebanon School District, PA
Encouraging and enabling our maintenance and operations team members to expand their skills and advance their careers through professional development and training opportunities is essential to leading a workforce of employees who are experts in their fields and strive to maintain excellent facilities for learning.
This should most certainly include your custodial staff, which is responsible for ensuring that the educational environment is clean and healthy for students and teachers, as well as for ensuring that your facilities look clean and inviting for all who enter their doors.
A peer on the Facility Masters Listserv, Jerry Lamping, recommended the following professional development and certification programs for the custodial team:
“The National C.L.E.A.N.® Award from the National Education Association (NEA), the NEA Health Information Network (NEA HIN), and the American Cleaning Institute (ACI) recognizes those who demonstrate outstanding leadership in school cleanliness, and reflects the contributions that education support professionals (ESP) can make to public health: http://www.neahin.org/cleanaward/ ”
“The Center for Green Schools has a new Green Classroom Professional Certification that is available for teachers and custodians: http://www.centerforgreenschools.org/main-nav/k-12/curriculum/Greenclassroom.aspx ”
“ISSA has the Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) Certification that applies to management, operations, performance systems, and processes. Compliance with the Standard demonstrates an organization is structured to deliver consistent, quality services that are designed to meet the customer’s needs and expectations. http://www.issa.com/?id=cleaning_industry_management_standard_cims&lg= ”
“The IICRC is a certification and standard-setting nonprofit organization for the inspection, cleaning and restoration industries. One can get certification in specific areas of cleaning and restoration. http://iicrc.org/iicrc-benefit/ ”
Jerry Lamping, CGS Green Classroom Professional
Facility Masters is pleased to announce that we have just launched a second, free listserv dedicated exclusively to sharing best practices for Event Scheduling, Community Facility Use, and Cost Recovery at educational organizations. Our peers frequently ask each other to share documents and resources they have developed as part of their facility use and cost recovery programs, so we have started a second listserv to meet this specific need.
The Facility Masters Event Scheduling Listserv promotes best practices and processes for managing educational facility use and provides a national network for educational facility and event scheduling operations leaders to ask questions, get answers and share best practices with their peers.
If you would like to participate in our free Event Scheduling Listserv, simply send a blank email to join-fmeventscheduling@talk.netatlantic.com to join. Once you confirm your membership, you will receive a welcome email with instructions on how to send and reply to messages on the Events Scheduling Listserv.
If you have any colleagues who might be interested in participating in the Event Scheduling Listserv, please forward them this information.
If you have any questions, please let me know. We look forward to sharing solutions and learning event scheduling best practices with all of you!
And don’t forget to visit the Facility Use, Scheduling and Event Management Resources Page on our site to access free download shared by your peers, including example facility use agreements, terms of use and fee structures.
Construction projects are an important part of the ongoing upgrade and expansion of your educational facilities to better fulfill the mission of student education. But construction projects represent a significant investment of both time and money, so they should be monitored and managed carefully to ensure that the projects are completed on time and on schedule, as well as completed to your standards of quality.
One of our peers on the Listserv, Steve Wittig from Bob Jones University in South Carolina, shared these excellent and proven tips for managing construction projects to achieve both savings and excellent results:
“The first and easiest way to save money on any construction project is to eliminate double taxing and overhead costs on material for the projects. We purchase the materials from a BOM Quote (Bill of Materials) given to us by the contractor. By doing this, we eliminate the double sales tax issue, the profit margin addition to the material, and the overhead added to the materials. This eliminates between 20-26% right off of the top for the materials in most jobs (we have quoted them both ways). We let the contractors price the materials since they have the material source accounts with the best price structure. We use their quote numbers when ordering so the prices stay the same, and we check in the material and have it placed in pre-designated spots for the projects. We set up accounts with the companies that we are purchasing the materials from for the projects. This method saves thousands and allows us to do some projects that would be cost prohibitive otherwise.”
“The second measure is the use of a thorough scope of work. The money we spent in the past was on change orders and clean up once the contractor left the job. The one sentence we use in the scope of work that ensures a completed job is: ‘The contractor will include in this bid the necessary material to ensure that the finished project work will perform as designed and requested.’ This sentence covers the unseen contingencies that make my projects go over budget. A word of caution here though – sometimes the cost of a project goes up because of this sentence. We have some of our contractors use a not to exceed price that will cover issues if they are encountered, and if the job goes smoother, the extra in the bid comes off at the end of the project. The one paragraph method is for the form, but the multi page scope of work is attached and signed by both parties. This scope is developed by using the input from every facility member who has a part in the project. They all give voice to their concerns about what might go wrong, and we put provisions in the contract to include their suggestions if they are viable.”
“An example would be floor protection for a piping job in a carpeted area. The scope of work called for the plastic and Masonite floor covering to be installed by the contractor before any other work could proceed. Our floor covering man requested this so he would not have to replace carpet once the job was finished and the removed Masonite revealed all of the damaged areas. This had happened in the past, and the work for him was eliminated in the project by a provision in the scope of work. We also use the scope of work to get heat load calculations and drawings for HVAC systems in buildings where the drawings have disappeared. We put the heat load calculation, Testing and Balancing, CAD Drawings and O&M manuals in the contracts so that when the jobs are finished, we now have the systems documented for future reference.”
“The third measure we use pertains to sheet rock and painted walls. We use a provision in our residential and commercial contracts that: ‘Delays the first payment for sheet rock work until the walls have their first primer coat on them and have passed a visual inspection.’ This sentence ensures that the contractor that did the sheet rock will be the one waiting on money until the “finisher” has done his work and the painter has primed the walls. The Sheetrock contractor becomes the man to make the phone calls to get “his people” on the job quickly to finish. The visual inspection is simply performed with a halogen light turned sideways along the walls. When it is turned sideways and parallel with the walls, all of the “bumps” and imperfections show up better. (Their shadows are visible.) When the light is facing the wall, the imperfections are harder to see because there are no shadows visible.”
