Facilities Maintenance – Page 11 – Education Facilities Clearinghouse

San Francisco’s Public School Facilities as Public Assets

campusJuly 17, 2015

A Shared Understanding and Policy Recommendations for the Community Use of Schools

Vincent, Filardo, Klein, and McKoy, 2010

SFUSD has a unique opportunity to both fully utilize one of its greatest assets – the facilities and grounds – while simultaneously helping to realize the goals of the district’s strategic plan and coordinate with city agencies, other public entities, and community organizations that provide programs/services to children and families. The Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families (DCYF) and San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) commissioned UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities & Schools (CC&S) to inform their ongoing joint efforts to improve policy and procedures relating to community use of SFUSD school facilities. This report presents research findings and policy recommendations from a yearlong investigation to establish a more effective “joint use” strategy in SFUSD. Additionally, CC&S has an ongoing collaboration with 21st Century School Fund (21CSF) in Washington, DC and its national BEST collaborative, to provide resources and tools to support community use of schools; 21CSF/BEST contributed greatly to this project.

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Do School Facilities Affect Academic Outcomes

campusJuly 17, 2015

Schneider, 2002

On any given school day, about twenty percent of American's spend time in a school building. The average age of our schools is close to fifty years, and studies by the U.S. General Accounting Office have documented widespread physical deficiencies in many of them. Faces with an aging building stock and growing, shifting student enrollments, states and communities are working hard to build and modernize K-12 facilities.

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Facility Management Back to School Tips

campusJuly 17, 2015

The first days of school are upon us. Facility managers, it’s time to get plans together that will ensure that school hallways, classrooms, and restrooms stay pristine beyond the first day of classes. In order to protect the health and academic performance of students, Cintas Corporation has announced three facility management cleaning principles to stand by to make the back to school transition a painless one.

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Where we learn matters | Anisa Baldwin Metzger | TEDxHerndon

campusJune 9, 2015

What do our schools say to our children? How does the way we design schools effect student learning?

Earth, wind, and fire – Managing risk in today’s schools, part 2

campusApril 9, 2015

Richard Weeks, 2010. Last Wednesday evening, the fictitious Liberty District School Board spent an hour discussing rental fees for the new Liberty Elementary School playground and athletic fields. During the televised discussion, the district’s school business official passed the superintendent a note that read, “Shouldn’t we be more concerned about the possi- bility that the pressure-treated wood on the playground is contaminated with arsenic?” The superintendent passed the note back to her with this response: “Now is not the time nor the place to discuss the possibility of leeched arsenic all over the playground. Please handle this tomorrow.”

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Planning Educational Facilities: What Educators Need to Know

campusApril 7, 2015

Earthman, 2013

Glen Earthman speaks directly to educational administrators, explaining the educational facility planning process in clear and concise terms. His thorough and comprehensive description provides school leaders a valuable set of tools for meeting their obligations in ushering through school building projects. Readers benefit from Earthman’s future-focused view of school facility planning, including honest discussion of the economic, social, political, legal, and environmental challenges facing 21^st century educational leaders. Earthman challenges educators to engage confidently and creatively, utilizing the events of school design and construction as a means for furthering student learning and advancing overall educational goals. (Cynthia Uline, Ph.D., professor and executive director, The National Center for the Twenty-first Century Schoolhouse, San Diego State University)

View Publisher's Website for additional information about obtaining a copy of this book.

Why are School Facilities in the News?

campusMarch 19, 2015

By G. Victor Hellman, Jr., Ed.D., March 19, 2015.

Previous editions of Bricks and Mortar have focused on school facility topics such as the important role facilities play in education, the need for maintenance, how schools are integral parts of the community, how students’ perceptions of safety impact achievement, ways to retrofit older facilities to make them safer and how changing pedagogies impact facilities for the 21st century. This edition will continue to address the importance of school facilities; however, it will do so from a slightly different vantage point. I will examine three recent articles in which school facilities made headlines.

“Schools on military bases struggle with maintenance” read a recent headline in the Los Angeles Times. At the crux of the issue is an elementary school located on Edwards Air Force Base. The school ranks eighth out of 160 schools on the Pentagon’s priority list for improvements. Needs include a roof replacement, an upgrade to playground equipment, new doors for classes and offices, electrical upgrades, lighting upgrades, and new HVAC equipment.

All told, the price tag for these maintenance and construction projects is approximately $27.8 million, of which the locality must allocate $5.5 million. Unfortunately, the California Department of Finance denied the funding request by the California Department of Education for this and similar projects. While the federal government has agreed to provide 80% of the necessary funds, the state has declined to meet its required 20% match.

Really? What kind of message does that send to the children and parents of the elementary school and other schools in similar situations? As citizens, parents, and taxpayers, why don’t we require the same level of maintenance for the places our children learn as we provide for our own homes? Few of us would allow a leaky roof to persist or not replace an air conditioner when it is not operational. How can we allow a school with a 60% military population to have anything less? Not funding the State’s share of required repairs is paramount to a slap in the face of the federal government and all of our military families.

“Big roaches and moldy juice? Students put Sunset High cleanliness in spotlight” is a headline right out of the Miami Times. Students complained but no one responded to their allegations. After a student’s post of pictures went viral—purportedly showing moldy juice, a fat cockroach, and yellow and cloudy water from a water fountain--action was taken. The school was scrubbed clean; however, the situation sparked a petition calling for the principal’s resignation. The school also failed a facilities inspection conducted by the Florida Department of Health. The failure was a result of mold found in a storage room and in ceiling tiles.

Really? How can school administrators allow a facility to become so unkempt? How can parents that enter the facility turn a blind eye on such horrid conditions? Did faculty complaints fall upon deaf ears? Did the faculty complain or was it complacent with the filthy conditions? Why does it take a web post to go viral before anyone acknowledges the problems? These are rhetorical questions, but the facts remain, schools must be clean and sanitary.

In many situations, a school lunch is the only hot meal a student gets. It must be prepared under sanitary conditions. If a restaurant consistently failed health inspections, it would not stay in business. Likewise, a hotel with a roach or rodent problem is destined to have a very high vacancy rate. At what level of cleanliness should we maintain our schools? I would suggest that a school be as clean as a hospital. As parents and citizens, why would we want to expose our children to anything less than hospital clean? That is my recommended benchmark for a clean school building. And please do not confuse the age of a facility as a proxy for how clean it can be. Visit any federal building in our nation’s capital and you will understand my point.

Recently in Education News it was reported, “From Spending to Governance, Buffalo Facing School Turmoil.” This article discussed how $41 million was missing from a $175 million building fund to renovate deteriorating school buildings. This was discovered in the final phase of a ten-year, $1.4 billion capital restoration project. The article illustrates that school construction and renovation is big business with billions of dollars at stake. There must be adequate systems in place for oversight of public funds and accountability of those whom we entrust these funds with. This will be the topic of further posts.

I know some of you are thinking that these cases are extreme and that conditions like those mentioned do not exist in your locality. I would submit that if these conditions do not exist in your locality, you know someone who lives in a community where they do. Together, we can all help improve the places where students learn.

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References:

Mejia, B., (2015). Schools on military bases struggle with maintenance. Los Angeles Times, Retrieved March 12, 2015, from http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-military-base-schools-20150116-story.html.

Smith, G., (2015). From spending to governance, Buffalo facing school turmoil. Education News, Retrieved March 11, 2015 from http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/from-spending-to-governance-buffalo-facing-school-turmoil/.

Veiga, C., (2015). Big roaches and moldy juice? Students put Sunset High cleanliness in spotlight. Miami Herald, Retrieved March 12, 2015 from http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article7825257.html.

Victor serves as the Research Project Director for the Education Facilities Clearinghouse (EFC). Dr. Hellman has more than 31 years of work experience in public schools in Virginia. Prior to joining the EFC, Dr. Hellman served as Deputy Superintendent of Operations and Support for a mid-urban school district. In that role, he was responsible for finance, facilities, transportation, student services, and food services.

Educational Facilities Planner

campusMarch 17, 2015

Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI), 2015

This volume of this publication is packed full of important information about school facilities, including articles on designing, technology, case studies on safe rooms, and retrofitting. For those involved in any aspect of planning school facilities, this is an helpful resource.

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School Maintenance & Renovation: Administrator Policies, Practices, & Economics

campusMarch 16, 2015

Earthman & Lemasters, 2013

Comprehensive and trusted guide to building, maintaining, upgrading schools
Recently published 2nd edition adds new material on renovation, alternative funding strategies, green building and more
With cases and questions, a useful textbook for courses in administration, planning, finance and facilities management

This volume was written for educators tasked with providing the best environment for student learning. A practical text, it cover all the details needed to build, maintain and upgrade school facilities, with special attention to student achievement and the budget. Information on financial calculations, procurement, staffing, outsourcing, legal and regulatory aspects and operations is included.The new edition offers important guidance on alternative funding and cost-saving strategies, state and federal regulations, and trends in green building and LEED certification.View Publisher's Website for additional information about obtaining a copy of this book.

School Facility Health, Safety, and Security Can Affect Student Motivation and Achievement

campusFebruary 6, 2015

By Angel Ford, February 6, 2015.

Citizens that care about students might come to a consensus that safe and healthy school buildings are an important consideration of education. According to Webster’s Dictionary, safety is “the condition of being safe from undergoing or causing hurt, injury, or loss,” and healthy is “good for and conducive to health” (Merriam-Webster).

When including safety and health into an effective definition of school design, it would mean to plan and make decisions about school facilities (both in new construction and existing buildings) to ensure students, teachers, staff, and visitors will be safe from hurt, injury, or loss and will be in an environment that is good for their health.

We wouldn’t knowingly send children into structurally unsafe buildings with crumbling roofs or walls that are falling down; however, some conditions that affect health and safety are less obvious such as poor indoor air quality and/or mold, toxic building materials from years ago or in some instances inadequate climate control

Some schools have elements that are in need of repair and some even have elements that are beyond repair. This should not be the case. We need to do better for our students. Parents should be confident that the buildings where their children learn are designed or redesigned in line with best practices for safety and health.

Outside of the initial concerns for safety and health is the idea that these poor conditions can affect student motivation and thus student achievement.

Maslow’s theory of motivation shows it is important to ensure that people are in environments that meet basic human needs, with the physiological (health) needs and the need for safety being foundational (Maslow, 1943).

Meeting these basic needs does not guarantee that students will be motivated to learn; however, any area where educators can remove known obstacles the path to learning is more likely. When basic needs are not met, “The urge to write poetry… the interest in American history… become of secondary importance.” (Maslow, 1943, p. 3).

If the basic needs of students are not being met, then time and energy must be used tending to those needs before time and energy can be spent on academics. If students are too cold or too hot, they may not be able to focus (Earthman, 2004; Uline & Tschannen-Moran, 2007 ). If the classroom is not well lighted, is overcrowded or unsafe in anyway, the focus of the students may not be on the lessons (Uline & Tschannen-Moran, 2007). If a building even feels unsafe to the students because of broken fixtures, graffiti, etc., the students may be unable to concentrate on the academic goals in front of them.

Looking at the importance of school environments through the lens of Maslow’s theory of motivation, there may be some evidence that without meeting basic needs it could be difficult for students to make an effort to concentrate their attention on developing academic patterns and digesting the academic materials they are being presented.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Schools in poor conditions have the potential to affect student achievement through changing students’ moment to moment motivation. Students shouldn’t be in survival mode. If they are, we cannot expect them to thrive.

Keeping the work of Maslow in mind, designing and maintaining schools for safety and health must be high priorities. These are the most basic needs of our students and crucial to their learning environment.

Keep following The Educational Facilities Clearinghouse (efc-staging.edstudies.net) as we expand our information on Safety by Design for schools. The motivation and academic achievement of students depend on having physical environments conducive to learning.

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References

Earthman, G. I. (2004). Prioritization of 31 criteria for school building adequacy. Baltimore, MD: American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Maryland.

Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370-396.

Uline, C. & Tschannen-Moran, M. (2007). The walls speak: The interplay of quality facilities, school climate, and student achievement. Journal of Educational Administration, 46(1), 55-73.

http://www.researchhistory.org/2012/06/16/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs/

Angel Ford is a research assistant with Education Facilities Clearinghouse, where she is actively involved in research and content management of the EFC Website. She is also pursuing her Doctorate in Education with her dissertation topic to be in the area of educational facilities.