Facility Masters — Training for Educational Facility Professionals

Having a formal process for Key Control, from assignment and distribution to inventory and retrieval, is essential to the security of your educational organization and the safety of administrators, students, faculty/teachers and staff.

In a recent discussion on the Facility Masters Listserv, our peers shared their best practices and key control processes.

My office manages keys for 8 buildings, and we have around 400 keys. We utilize software called “Key Organizer” which is very simple yet works very well for documenting the quantity of keys in storage, which keys go to which buildings/rooms/etc., who has which keys, also has a very simple key expiry date which notifies you when the key is due to be returned.

We have all requests go through my office, and one of my assistants handles all the key processing, but all key issues require my signature.

This system also provides an excellent way of seeing at any given time who has access to any space in our facility by showing who has a key to that room, who has a section master, who has a regional master, and in the end who has a grand master. This has been extremely valuable in certain incidents on campus.
Eric Roosma – Director of Facilities and Safety – Kuyper College, MI 

We use Best key system for our master key control. All keys are kept at my office. They sign for the keys when they get them (at my office). We do not have them turn the keys in for the summer because we have card access, and I control the access with the cards.
Ed Consalo – Derry Township School District, PA

We keyed locks a little different to cut down confusion, cost and to keep it simple. 

               1. One master key fits all locks and a “very few” are issued.

               2. The other master key fits classroom doors only. Teachers/administrative staff only.

We do not ask for them during the summer for returning teachers. They are responsible for the keys as well as the key cards. Departing teachers and staff are required to turn in both keys and keycards.  Not turned in…we charge. Lost keys and keycards, we charge. The option to pay to rekey the facility is always open…briefed to all…it helps!
Roland Jenkins – Facilities Director – Trinity Episcopal School, NC

We have the Best system, and we track keys via computer as they are assigned. Teachers are required to keep keys in their mailboxes at the end of the day, and during the summer the secretaries re-confirm the keys assigned. If a teacher leaves or is moved to another building the keys are returned to inventory.

One other thing I have done is to let the teachers know that if they are moving from one room to another for the next year within the same building, their lock core will travel with them so there is no reason to return or reassign keys. This places the security of their room squarely in their hands so they do not try and get keys copied for other people to use. This system has been in place for about 8 years now and is working well.
David Martin – Eden CSD, NY

We use a simple spreadsheet to track the issue, loss and re-issue of keys. With 25 buildings and the process of placing each lock onto the BEST lock system, it is critical to be able to maintain an accurate database. The process includes a manager’s oversight, our admin assistant to maintain and update the various daily entries, and the employee who actually cuts the keys. By eliminating access from the rest of the community and the other Facilities employees, we have been able to manage the system, avoid multiple input errors, and have an account for each asset.

We have also instituted a policy, that regardless of who loses a key, they will be charged $25.00 for a lost key. With students, a lost key immediately calls for the replacement of the lock core and issue of two new keys again for the charge of $25.00 for the student who lost the key. With Faculty and Staff, the impending charge often produces the “lost” key.
Corrado Paramithiotti – Director of Facilities Planning & Operations – Landmark College, VT

Thanks to Dawn Gouge, Ph. D., of the University of Arizona for sharing these helpful links to best practices in cleaning to protect students, teachers, faculty and staff during the flu season.
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Below are a series of fact sheets from the NEA Health Information Network created on cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting various school environments.

• Cleaning athletic areas
• Cleaning cafeterias
• Cleaning buses
• Cleaning classrooms
• Cleaning school wide
• Flu specific cleaning information

Thanks to Jennie Young (NEA) for the information.

Stay healthy for the holidays!

Dawn H. Gouge, Ph. D.
University of Arizona – MAC Experiment Station
37860 West Smith-Enke Road,

Athletic facilities and bleachers are heavily utilized now that the new academic year and fall sports are underway, so it is critically important to ensure your bleachers are safe by enacting measures to reduce accidents and risk.

I recently hosted a webcast, Improving Bleacher Safety: Tips for Reducing Risk, featuring industry experts and educational facility directors sharing best practices and processes for maintaining bleachers. John Dufay, Deputy Director of Operations for the Albuquerque Public Schools (NM), and William Kolster, Director of Facilities Services for Loudoun County Public Schools (VA), both shared proven tips and firsthand insights for improving the safety of your bleachers and grandstands.

 1.    Inspect bleachers before and after they are used
As it is often necessary for a technician to operate and roll out indoor telescoping bleachers, inspections should be conducted every time to ensure proper working order. Note anything that is damaged or broken. If any issues found can potentially affect bleacher safety, make the necessary repairs immediately.

2.    Regularly perform thorough inspections
Thorough inspections of bleachers and grandstands should be conducted on a regular basis, at least once a month, or once a week if they are heavily used. Use a checklist to make sure key components or areas aren’t overlooked. The checklist can help establish a routine for inspections, while also serving as a detailed record of issues and repairs. Note and document items in need of immediate attention or mark items for future repair.

3.    Conduct annual inspections with certified technicians
While you and your staff can regularly inspect bleachers and grandstands, it is also important to have annual inspections performed by certified technicians. If you’re considering installing new bleachers, ask the company to include a 10-year annual inspection service in the contract. When certified inspections are conducted, send one of your staff members or technicians out to shadow the inspection, as it will give more insight into what can be done to keep your bleachers safe and up-to-code.

4.    Clean underneath bleachers and grandstands regularly
Outdoor grandstands can amass significant debris and trash if not cleaned regularly. Keeping the surrounding area free of trash can help reduce risk and improve safety. For indoor telescopic bleachers, debris could potentially clog parts and cause operating problems. Use a powerful blower to make sure areas are clean underneath after indoor bleachers are used.

5.    Post safety signage
Although mandatory, signage is often overlooked on many bleachers. Post warning and safety signs to help ensure proper treatment and use of the bleachers. If your bleachers don’t have warning signs, appropriate signage can be purchased and applied to comply with current codes and standards.

6.    Train school staff
Not only should maintenance staff be trained to operate indoor bleachers, but designated school staff should also be trained as well. Those that are able to operate the bleachers, though, should be limited. Teach operators and controllers how to spot issues when operating, so any problems can be reported and resolved immediately.

7.    Institute a preventive maintenance program
With most major bleacher problems being fixed as soon as they are discovered, other issues may arise that may not need to be repaired right away. Having a preventive maintenance program in place can help track and schedule items for future fixes. Using an automated, computer-based system is especially useful as projects can be created and all related work and work orders can be appropriately tracked.

With so many things that can happen to compromise bleacher conditions, regular and routine maintenance goes a long way, especially for ensuring safety and reducing risk. To learn more about how you can keep your students and guests safe on your bleachers, view the webcast or check out the resource library for more bleacher safety information.

Does your educational organization have a bleacher safety program? Share your helpful tips or best practices in the comments!

Surfacing under playground equipment is a problem because 79% of all injuries are due to a lack of appropriate surfacing or children falling off onto the ground. We cannot eliminate all injuries, but we need to be  trying to reduce serious head injuries. We’re still going to have some long bone fractures, we’re going to have some dislocations. And if you think about being at the top of a high slide and falling off, we want to be sure that there is surfacing of a sufficient depth to prevent head injuries.

How do you know if the playground equipment is approprite for the age grouping in the school?

This is where you want to hire a professional designer, a landscape architect, or work with your playground manufacturers and suppliers who have the expertise and knowledge to make recommendations about the age appropriate. The manufacturer and supplier is to tell you who this equipment is designed for, who’s the intended. That’s the first place to start. There may also be some local ordinances or codes or child and daycare requirements that various states or communities may have that you would want to check into.

                              There is a standard that ASTM puts out for play equipment for children under the age of 2. So there is another resource so that you know the size and shape and use zones that are required.

Generally speaking, there are two types of surfacing that are used in play areas. Loose filled materials everything from wood chips, bark mulch, sand, pea stone engineered with fiber shredded rubber, or the unitary cord in place, mats and rubber. Do not use concrete, asphalt, grass, or earth as a surface cover. There are still many public playgrounds that don’t have proper surfacing.

Inspections, you can’s inspect a playground enough. Some of the things that drives inspections are the age of the kids, the frequency of use, where it’s located, what are the conditions, if you’re in cold temperatures plastics are going to get brittle. If you’re in hot temperatures both plastic and metal parts on the playground equipment are going to be hot.

You’ve got to look specifically for what the dangers are and to do that you need to watch how the kids play on the playground. Watch how they use the equipment because you have to expect the unexpected to provide a safe environment for play, compliance with standards and guidelines

The leading cause of death in the play environment is entanglement – strangulation. Something that gets caught or hooked on a part of the play environment.

 The leading places in the play environment where children have died from entanglement are on slides, slide bed ways, or through the sliding region and on the top beam or top rail of swings where bolts or projections that are extended up. A child who’s climbing, walking, or sitting up there gets something hooked or caught.

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.