Planning Guide for Maintaining School Facilities

Keeping your school looking and running in good condition is a full-time job. However, the job shouldn’t be left to one person but rather a team of dedicated employees who will help you see to it that the school is properly maintained year after year.

To make sure that your team is set for success, we’ve created this helpful planning guide for maintaining school facilities. By following the information covered in this guide, you’ll be sure to create a well-thought-out plan for your facility’s maintenance needs.

Planning for Success

If you’re going to build a maintenance plan that actually helps move the important projects forward, then it has to be part of the school’s master plan. This master plan discusses all the goals, objectives, and needs of the school, from new textbooks to new locker rooms.

Making the school’s maintenance needs part of the facility’s overarching plan is important for assuring that funding is received from the school district. It’s also the best way to make sure that maintenance needs are seen and reviewed by the decision makers of your institution. School facility maintenance plans can even help to enhance students’ education.

Who to Add to Your Team

Collaboration during the planning phase is an integral part of your school’s maintenance plan. Not only will you likely be exposed to new ideas and ways of thinking, but you’ll also increase the likelihood that decision makers will buy into your plans by making them part of the process early on.

When deciding who to add to your team, consider any stakeholder with a sense of ownership in the facility. This might be members of the school board or the school district. Or it could be the school’s administrators or instructors. Oftentimes, the type of project you’re planning will determine who you’ll add to your team during the planning process.

Budgeting and Planning

Making sure that you budget for maintenance and any planned renovations or construction is important. Your school’s maintenance and operations budget will cover the expense of any existing facility or equipment. If you wish to construct an additional building or renovate an existing area, those funds should come out of capital project funding, not the existing operations budget. Otherwise, you run the risk of neglecting your current facility while resources and staff are channeled to the new construction or renovation project.

Using Data

Data is a powerful and often essential tool for maintenance planning. Otherwise, you’ll be mostly guessing what your school will need and how much it may cost to fulfill those needs. For example, by using real data about annual enrollment rates, you can properly plan for maintenance needs in the future as the student body either increases or decreases.

One example of how using data can be important for your school has to do with enrollment rates and lockers. By analyzing year-over-year enrollment rates, you can predict how many lockers your facility will need to accommodate all students in five or even 10 years. This gives you more time for planning and executing the plan before student enrollment exceeds the number of available lockers.

Follow these helpful tips when planning for maintenance at your school facility and you’ll be sure to create a successful plan.