Running Head: the TITLE of MY PAPER in SHORT FORM

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Running Head: BUILDING AND GROUNDS AUDIT REPORT

MeadeSchool District: Building and Grounds Audit Report
Chad Hedderman

South DakotaStateUniversity

Principalship EDAD 707

Fall 2008

Dr. Gus Scully

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MeadeSchool District: Building and Grounds Audit Report

Crucial to the successful education of our children is a healthy learning environment that includes structurally safe facilities that satisfactorily comply with environmental standards and conditions. Schools that maintain a clean and orderly environment experience the many benefits that come from pride and ownership among students, faculty and the support of the community. More than 53 million children and about 6 million adults spend a significant portion of their days in more than 120,000 public and private school buildings (United States Environmental and Protection Agency, 2008). Many of these buildings are old and in poor condition, and may contain environmental conditions that inhibit learning and pose increased risks to the health of children and staff. It is the responsibility of the buildings and grounds department to ensure that all students and staff have a school environment conducive for learning every day.

The buildings and grounds department is responsible for the maintenance the capital improvement projects for all buildings in the Meade school district. The department is also responsible for areas such as health and safety, indoor air quality, daily operations and grounds care. The buildings and grounds supervisor oversees the central supply and central copy departments,as well as the custodial and maintenance staff.They direct all programs and activities that pertain to the construction and repair of all building and grounds within the school district. However, the main role of the supervisor is to ensure that all school buildings are ready for class every day.

The Meade school district is one of the largest in the state covering around 3,100 square miles and is currently around the 12th largest school district in the nation (MeadeSchool District, 2008). The buildings and grounds supervisor has 27 school buildings in the district to maintain with 24 of them currently being used as classroom buildings. The supervisor is also in charge of 28 custodial staff, six maintenance personnel, two office staff and one safety and environmental officer.

The buildings and grounds supervisor has many job responsibilities. These duties include preparing schedules for all staff covering both daily and periodic duties, completing written evaluations for all staff as required by policy, and preparing all plans for minor remodeling projects. The supervisor directs and approves all purchasing within the building and grounds department, and will develop and maintain an operational method of all ongoing stock control and distribution of custodial supplies. He is responsible for preparing all plans for minor remodeling projects and works with outside contractors when needed. The supervisor is responsible for building security, energy conservation and environmental programs. He is also responsible for compliance with record keeping in regard to the Americans with Disabilities Act, along with the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act.

The buildings and grounds supervisor must have a basic understanding of the functions and operations involved with electrical, heating, plumbing, and general construction of facilities and the upkeep of the school grounds. He must have good communications skills and will have the ability to supervise and evaluate personnel. The supervisor must be professional in appearance and maintain cooperative relationships with the administrative and all district staff.

In interviewing Jim Harris, the buildings and grounds supervisor for the Meade school district,he said his number one priority is that all buildings are ready for class each day. The one challenge that is presented to him on a daily basis is the geography of the district. He makes every effort to get out and inspect all buildings in the district at least twice a month, which can be a time consuming process.On an average day Mr. Harris will spend around 20% of his time on the phone visiting with administrators, contractors, staff, and other people regardingdaily maintenance calls. About a quarter of his time is spent planning or managing various projects throughout the district. The other item that takes a large share of time is managing the federal safety requirements and mandates such as water testing, AHERA (Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act), ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), and Indoor air quality (Harris, J. personal comunication, November 3, 2008).He is also responsible to comply with all laws of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (Ubben et. al., 2007). All school buildings must have ramps to every entry, doors must be a 3’ wide and all restrooms must have be handicap accessible.

Mr. Harris says it is extremely important to have a professional working relationship with the administrators at each building. They are his eyes and ears at each site. With such a large district it is difficult to be the main supervisor for every employee. The principals work daily with the custodial staff to ensure that the building is properly maintained and has a clean environment conducive to learning. The principal should meet with the custodial staff at the beginning of the school year to set expectations and long-range objectives for the building maintenance (Ubben et. al.,2007). To make sure this happens, it is important that each building have a strong head custodian in charge. This person must be someone who will take charge and be a leader to those around him. The head custodian must be a person who leads by example and is always willing to go the extra mile to make sure the work is done right. Mr. Harris states that it is hard finding good work when their starting salary for a custodian is only $8.25 per hour.

Another challenge that the buildings and grounds department currently faces is the budget. The annual energy bill to run America’s primary and secondary schools is a staggering $6 billion — more than is spent on textbooks and computers combined (Energy Star, 2008). Mr. Harris has an annual budget of around $2.4 million for the entire school district. The budget for the Meade schools is broken down by each individual facility. The budget for each facility will include the heating and electrical along with all maintenance, custodial and extra contracted work that may be required. A challenge facing Mr. Harris is that thisbudget has not been increased for five years. Mr. Harris is also in charge of all capital outlay requested items associated with buildings and grounds. He works with the administrators to prioritize items for each building. On an average year Mr. Harris will receive around one million dollars in requests and he is responsible to work with the administrative team to trim this amount down to an average capital outlay expenditure of $250,000. This is done by working with the administrative team in selecting the priorities for the next school year.

To lead an organization, such as the buildings and grounds department, it is important that all leaders have high expectations to achieve high performance (Ubben et. al., 2007). An effective organization will celebrate the success of high achievers to enhance schools productivity. An action plan should be developed in any building and grounds department to state the vision, goals, plans, timeline, problems, and expectations (Ubbenet. al., 2007). The purpose of the action plan is to give a descriptive on several activities necessary to achieve an objective, establish a relationship amongst these activities and assign specific responsibilities to implement the proposed plan. Many of the same leadership skills that a principal is expected to possess are also expected at all levels from the administration team, which includes the buildings and grounds supervisor.

The principal must work with all members of the administrative team in a productive way. This includes being able to communicate efficiently with the building and grounds supervisor who is in charge of all custodial staff, especially the head custodian in the building. The principal and the head custodian must have a positive working relationship. The schools environment can play a huge role in teacher moral and student expectations. If a school is not properly taken care for, health and sanitary issues could pose a problem along with the students’ respect of the building. An inefficiently used building, a poorly kept building, a building with unpleasant colorless rooms, or a poorly maintained site all inhibit the development of a good educational program (Ubben et.at., 2007).

Some changes that could positively affect the Meade school district would be to hire additional custodial staff. The buildings in the district are currently understaffed making it difficult to maintain a clean working environment. Another change would be to raise the salary for all buildings and grounds employees. Jim Harris states that it is difficult to find quality personal when the pay is minimal, even though all employees do receive health insurance benefits. An effective evaluations process would help to make certain that all employees are supervised efficiently. Incorporating a 360 evaluation process would allow the teachers, principals, and district staff to accurately evaluate the job performance of the building and grounds staff. To maintain an environment conducive to learning a digital temperature control system should be installed to make sure all classes are properly heated.

The buildings and grounds supervisor has many responsibilities related to the education process of students. Maintaining a clean and safe learning environment is extremely important for all schools. The physical environment of the school building grounds influences the learning and teaching environment (Ubben, et. al., 2007). It is extremely necessary that all schools be clean and all equipment in good repair for the learning process of students.

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References

Energy Star. (2008). Building and Plants. Retrieved November 9, 2008 from

Harris, J. (personal comunication, November 3, 2008).

MeadeSchool District. (2008). Buildings and Grounds. Retrieved November 9, 2008 from

Office of Healthy School. (2008). Healthy School Environmental Services. Retrieved November 11, 2008 from

Ubben, G. C., Hughes, L. W., Norris, C. J. (2007). The Principal (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education. 6

United States Environmental and Protection Agency. (2008). Healthy School Environments. Retrieved November 11, 2008 from