Page 28 - School Planning & Management, July/August 2019

FACILITIES EXPERT PERSPECTIVE
Numerous studies over the last 20 years point to the link between equipping students with a proper environment and their physical and emotional wellbeing, as well as their academic per- formance. Studies find that students score five to 17 times higher on tests and assignments when in more satisfactory facilities, and the need for well functioning facilities magnifies in the case of students with learning impairments. Students with autism, ADHD, developmental delays and sensory challenges are especially inhib- ited by environments that are distracting due to design, tempera- ture and lighting. What can a deficiency in these areas result in?
• Student and faculty illness, particularly where air quality is
concerned
• Absenteeism of both students and faculty, which impairs student
success
• Difficulty concentrating and thinking abstractly
The problem many schools are facing now is that their facilities weren’t built to accommodate what is needed for a modern edu- cational environment or with the awareness we now have about the learning environment’s role. Older facilities lack the ability
to properly regulate temperature, provide optimal air quality or comfortably house large class sizes, and they definitely weren’t designed to facilitate today’s technology and security needs. Add deferred maintenance on top of facility age and poor design, and you’ve got a recipe no institution wants to end up with.
And it’s not just about the environment deferred maintenance creates — deferring maintenance is also expensive.
What’s the Cost?
If deferred maintenance has got your institution in a bind,
rest assured you’re not alone. It’s a problem many schools face. There are a variety of reasons these tasks pile up, but one thing
is universal: This backlog of work that is put off for a future date accumulates and can quickly get out of control. The result is that you actually may end up spending more later on, and this can have a negative effect on your entire organization.
When you don’t perform routine preventive maintenance (PM), those tasks that were repairs or proactive work can quickly evolve into a replacement. An article by FacilitiesNet recently estimated that the cost of replacing an asset can actually be 30 times the cost of the initial re- pair. This means that even though putting off an initial repair may save you money, in the long-term it will be much more harmful for your bud- get. What could have been the cost of a half hour of employee manpower could be extremely expensive and become a drain on your resources.
Currently, US schools occupy around 6.6 billion square feet of facility space. If it costs about $204 per square foot to build a new school, then the current replacement value (CRV) of every school in the US is $1.3 trillion. Assuming each building has a 50-year lifespan, about 2 percent of the CRV should be re-invested in each building every year to maintain the forecasted lifecycle. Using
this math, $26 billion is needed this year in capital expenditures for building repairs and replacements. Every year this sum is deferred, it will increase due to inflation and further deterioration of the buildings. In addition, not completing the recommended amount of preventive maintenance each year can also reduce your system’s lifecycle by as much as one-third.
A school’s facilities are one of its largest assets within the capital budget; therefore, regularly reinvesting in it with scheduled maintenance can mitigate some budgetary constraints. Research has shown that 80 percent of a facility’s maintenance issues can be addressed by performing preventive maintenance on only 20 per- cent of the facility’s systems. Reducing the risk of system failure is not only efficient and cost-effective; it provides a safer and more conducive learning environment.
It’s easy to prioritize other needs over facility needs, but think about it this way: If you don’t have a roof on your home, or your
air conditioning system went down in the middle of a hot day, how much focus would you put on cooking dinner that night? Likewise,
if a building fails or a major system goes down, how can we expect our students and staff to focus on learning? A lack of preventive maintenance compromises the overall mission of any organization, especially education. Consider the $100M+ investment that was made toward your learning environment. Preventive maintenance
is an incremental investment that can use a school’s operational budget to protect the assets critically needed for an adequate learning environment. Proper preventive maintenance ensures the optimal life of equipment with minimal costs, therefore maximizing the core mission of the institution.
How Do You Start a PM Program?
Preventive maintenance is essential to:
• Save money and reduce emergencies
• Reduce lifecycle costs
• Improve customer service
• Increase energy efficiency of buildings and equipment • Improve safety and reduce risk
• Provide a better learning environment
28 SCHOOL PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / JULY/AUGUST 2019
WEBSPM.COM
PHOTO © 7TH SON STUDIO