Maintenance and Operations

Update April 2010

The Maintenance Department (Maintenance) is much more than being just about repairing facilities. The department has 3 main work divisions: facility repair, grounds maintenance and custodial services. Maintenance is responsible for supporting many different operations across the District in addition to the typical repair and upkeep work. They support the following:

Moving wrestling mats for a tournament
Erecting the backdrop at graduation
Setup, tear down and cleanup for special events
Daily delivering of in-district mail,including packages
Deliveries of other various materials such as:
Science Kits (manipulative items for elementary schools)
Bulk paper supplies for the restrooms and copiers across the District
Recycled computers to State Recycling Centers
Test booklets and bulk curricular materials
Anything that doesn’t fit in someone’s personal car or they can’t find someone to transport
Warehouse management for:
Bulk purchase such as copier paper
Restroom and cleaning supplies
Fertilizer and seed for grounds
Extra/Surplus Furniture
Etc.
Seasonal items like:
Snow removal
De-icing walk ways
Pumping off standing water in places that don’t drain well

How does Maintenance support the Board’s Mission and Goals? An effective and well managed Maintenance program will help to create and maintain an inviting facility that students will feel comfortable in while providing elements of a nurturing and physically safe environment. Two main ways that Maintenance contributes to the Board’s goals are to:

Maintain safe and reliable environments that not only properly support the learning environment but encourage community pride and ownership in what we are doing; and
By maintaining the trust they have bestowed on us through properly managed resources. They trust us to spend the resources as we have promised and they trust us to not defer maintenance that could lead to costlier repairs in the future and drain resources that could provide more direct student support.

What are we doing to become a more effective and efficient operation and improve our facilities?

Over the last several years we have developed the following initiatives as outlined below:

Increase “Curb Appeal”. We are conducting semi-annual and periodic review of grounds and facilities from a community member’s perspective. We are using the following four questions as the basis for this review:
Does the facility look inviting to visitors?
Does the building look well cared for and maintained?
Do the grounds look properly maintained and compliment the building?
Are the grounds free of hazards?
Improving Productivity through the evaluation of current operational practices and resources to be effective and efficient.
We are developing a Routine Task Management System in addition to the Service Request System
We are developing a more granular scheduling approach for custodial and grounds tasks
We will be adding Preventative Maintenance (PM) tasks to the scheduling process to ensure adequate time and resources to perform timely PM
Properly equipping our staff which we discussed further below
Look for Energy and Resource Conservations
We pursued and gained additional resource funding
$91,000 Small Repair Grant
State/Federal Energy Efficiency Grant
$500,000 from State

$180,000 from Utility Incentives
Implement Efficiency Efforts
Mobile Shop approach
Purchasing full size vans to carry more equipment and typically use parts that are on hand in the vehicle.
Evaluate each craft to determine the best vehicle type to support this concept.
Better tools and equipment
Reduce rental costs for frequently used rented equipment through purchase. The recent down turn in the economy has allowed us to make purchases of surplus equipment at reduced costs.
Improve equipment availability by having the equipment on site and being able to move equipment at will between sites.
Recently purchased 45’ telescoping man lift.This unit will take about 3years to payoff just on typical annual rental fees. We will have increased availability which allows for increased usage without added cost beyond routine maintenance of the lift.
Recently purchased scissor lift, about 2 year payoff again in reduced rental fees.
We even lend the use of lifts to our contractors to save rental fees that would normally be an additional charge back to us plus their mark up.

Smarter Grounds management

We consulted with some commercial grounds contractors and found that we needed to make the following adjustments in our grounds keeping approach to maintain healthy grounds and reduce costs. We have implemented the following items and are still making minor adjustments, looking for the optimal balance. Weather is a major variable and requires ongoing seasonal adjustments to the following elements.

Field Maintenance suggestions:
Drill seeding instead of broadcast seeding which saves $4K per year in seed costs and is far more effective. More seed germinates and survives.
Reduced fertilization (saves on product costs)
Reduced watering (saves on product costs) (about $8k savings per year from reduced fertilization and reduced watering)
Producing reduced growth and decreasing mowing needs (saves staff time and equipment wear and tear)
Purposeful field usage management to reduce damage from over use
We are also using larger mowers to reduce time required to mow.
Purchased a newer used 16’ Toro mower for better reliability.
A scheduled measured use of “approved & safe” (by State of WA) chemical applications. This effort has resulted in the following savings and benefits:
Improved campus and field appearanceand health
Reduce the need to clean brush and use weed whackers
Reduce the need to trim in some areas
Reduce the need for hand weeding in flower beds

Effective Custodial Efforts
Developing and Implementing a more granular scheduling approach for each custodian.
Determine essential daily cleaning requirements which vary across the District, based on building/student needs
Schedule expanded cleaning to occurless frequently
Track and schedule deep cleaning efforts to maximize the utilization of our reduced staffing and still get the tasks done
Purchase and use propane powered burnishers to make current floor finishes last longer which saves by reducing:
the chemicals and materials to strip floors
reduces the amount of sealer and wax to refinish the floors
reduce the down time the floors are unavailable for service
reduce the staffing required for this function to allow other cleaning and refinishing work to be done
Purchased auto scrubbers to combine mopping, scrubbing and vacuuming of solutions from the floors. This is a time saving tool for staff making them more efficient.

What are the recent cuts to Maintenance and how have they affected the services we can provide?

Custodial staffing has been cut by 2.25 FTE
A loss of 3731 work hours
Custodial sub budget cut by 33% from $30K to $20K
Results in further loss of work hours since we are able to hire 1/3 less custodial subs. An additional loss of approximately 830 hours of custodial time.
Maintenance staffing has been cut by 2.0 FTE
A loss of 3316 work hours
Major Maintenance Budget reduced by $10K to $290K

These numbers used above are explained below with the following assumptions that were made.

260Paid Days a year per FTE (Full Time Equivalent) 260 days x 8 hours = 2080 annual hours

-15Paid vacation days

-12Paid Holidays

-12Sick leave days

221Net days for productivity

7.5 Hours of daily productivity -30 minutes for paid break

1658Annual Hours of productivity per FTE

Custodial Time Reduction

1658Annual Hours of productivity per FTE

*2.25 Reduced Custodial FTE

3731Work Hours of lost Custodial productivity or services to provide

Maintenance Time Reduction

1658Annual Hours of productivity per FTE

*2Reduced Maintenance FTE

3316Work Hours of lost Maintenance productivity or services to provide

How are we utilizing other resources to control costs?

Last year’strial use of the Department of Corrections Cedar Creek Work Crewduring non-school time has been very beneficial to the District. This work crew has some very capable members with experience in a variety of trades such as Painters, Carpentry, Landscaping, etc. from their outside work lives. They come with a Guard and their own portable restroom to use. They cost the District $2.00/ hr. per worker and a small travel fee. We schedule ahead of time with Sgt. Schrock the tasks we have in mind so they can provide the type of laborers needed to accomplishour task. We only have to provide the tools necessary to complete the task we have for them and check in with them every couple of hours for anything they may need.

We have primarily used them during the longer Summer andSpring break times to accomplish manual labor projects such as clearing the school retention ponds and fence line areas of unwanted vegetation. We would also like to schedule them this summer for the SHS portable classrooms painting project, etc.

This work crew has been well received by some communitymembers since we are getting something back fromthem. The workers themselves are eager to work and are very well supervised. I sent the Cedar Creek Department of Corrections a letter of recommendation last year after our trial use of these workers and wish to continue their use more this coming year.

What are some of the recent major maintenance projects undertaken and the impacts from those projects?

SHS Pool Roof Replacement in 2009

The pool building roof was one of the last scheduled roofs to be replaced on the previous schedule. The recent bond, combined with the major maintenance funds, allowed us to catch up on District-wide roofing replacements. The pool roof had some hidden damage that was in no doubt caused by water leaks that could have been reduced by an earlier replacement schedule. The roofing schedule was created a number of years ago and was done on the fastest schedule that resources and other demands (like track resurfacing in 2008) would allow. There were not any obvious signs from the inside that water was making its way to the car decking and that damage was occurring.

This project was originally bid at $178,860 but because there was wood rot discovered only after the roofing material was removed, there were added costs to the project.

There was an additional $52,887 cost in wood decking repairs to the top and bottom edge areas of the roof.
There was an additional $14,214 cost for a vapor retarder layer that was needed. This vapor retarder will give us an additional layer of protection in the event that water makes it through the top surface.

The cost overrun for this project was $67,101. The good news is that this damage could have been much worse if the leaks had continued and the rot had damaged the full length glu-lam beams that support the roof structure over the pool.

Oakland Bay Lighting Retrofit and HVAC control upgrade in 2009:

Maintenance staff completed at Oakland Bay a Florescent Lighting Energy Retrofit and a complete upgrade of the computerized HVAC controls at that facility. The District realized a savings of approximately $100K combined. A grant paid not only for the materials used but some of the labor to install the new light fixtures. We also saved on the HVAC controls upgrade by doing the labor ourselves and not paying prevailing wage plus a businesses’ profit on top. The District will continue to save annually on energy costs from both of these projects.

Bordeaux Playground Upgrade in 2008

Maintenance completed (in house) a complete makeover of the Bordeaux school play field. The following work items were completed:

Falling and removal of dangerous trees
Expansion of the playground equipment area
Combining playground equipment
Designing and installing a new irrigation system
Field preparation, soil amending, rock removal and grass planting

Mt View Playground Field makeover in 2009

After construction was completed at Mt View, nearly half of the playground had been torn up and the previous irrigation system mangled. The project did not include the restoration of the field and irrigation system, only hydro seeding of the area. We had to redesign and install the irrigation system, prepare the field that had been grossly over grown with weeds and make ready for hydro seeding. Doing this project in-house saved us an estimate of $20-$30K over having a contractor do the work.

In August of 2008 the original 11 yr old SHS Track was taken down to the asphalt sub surface and the old track material removed and dispose of with the combined efforts of a contractor, district staff, the City of Shelton and their sweeper. Atlas Track wanted about $10,000 to do this process and we were able to do it for about half. Then the track was resurfaced by Atlas Track with the L-2000 surface for about $80,000.This new surface will need to have lines repainted and be resealed in two to three years from now, subject to weather and usage withthe overall life expectancy of the track to last about 10 years.

Last summer we had to replace some original construction exterior windows at the Oakland Bay facility. Unfortunately, these windows were of poor design for the areas they were installed at and began rusting and leaking causing damage to the interior walls. We made numerous attempts to seal the windows to no avail. We then replaced the windows on both sides of the commons area downstairs andboth ends of the upper classroom hallway. The window replacement was contracted out and cost approximately $41,000. We repaired the interior walls with District staffcosting about $2,000 for materials.

This following item is in the “just so you know” category.

The custodial department,under the leadership of Mark Brown, has also been ahead of the curve on using “Green Cleaning” products for over 8 years now. We received an “Environmental Stewardship Award” in 2003 from R&D Supply Company for switching to the use of environmentally safer products. We use approximately 85% all environmentally safe cleaning products, floor wax, and paper products currently.

What is currently on our major maintenance list?

Description / Site / Cost Estimated
Choice Boiler Replacement / CHS / $8,000
Choice Evan start carpet replacement / CHS / $9,000
Block Building Demo / CHS / $15,000
Choice Roof Maintenance Repairs / CHS / $5,000
Electrical Panels / CHS / $9,000
Maintenance Shop building Demo / Maint / $7,000
New Equipment Storage and Grounds Shop Phase 1 / Maint / $26,200
New Equipment Storage and Grounds Shop Phase 2 / Maint / $38,000
New Equipment Storage and Grounds Shop Phase 3 / Maint / $7,000
High School Fastpitch Softball Field / OBJ / $50,000
Small tile roof replaced with Metal / OBJ / $17,000
Replace 5 speed bumps / OBJ / $1,500
Gym Wall Pads replace / OBJ / $5,000
Handicap Truncated Cones repair and resurface / OMS / $2,000
Replace speed bumps / SHS / $1,500
Relocate storage containers, prep ground and moving expense / SHS / $6,000
SHS Re-key bldgs 180 x $300 ea / SHS / $54,000
Roof Drains and drywells in front 100 building / SHS / $2,000
HVAC asbestos removal / SHS / $21,000
New drain field for catch basins, drain line etc / SHS / $10,000
SHS Islands landscaped / SHS / $5,000
Tennis Court resurface and Lights repair with coin operation / SHS / $200,000
Pool room locker timed shower shutoff / SHS / $1,000
Light Pole replacements, 10 more poles / SHS / $10,000
Security Cameras / SHS / $42,000
HVAC repair / SHS / $600,000
Trim, paint and cover rafter tails / SHS / $50,000
Paint Portables / SHS / $13,500
Mindome roof reseal, replace the Cap / SHS / $17,500
Flat Roof Maintenance clean and reseal / SHS / $6,000
Fire Alarm / SHS / $151,000
Stadium Lights, replace cans and heaters / SHS / $12,000
Cement Sidewalk Repair and Tree Removal / SHS / Unknown
Front Entrance grounds re-landscaping, Grass, irrigation etc / SHS / $40,000
Front Entrance Refinishing / OBJ / Unkown

What about items that are not on the list that have a lifecycle shorter than the life of the building that will need to be replaced?

Carpets, roofs, boilers, heat pumps .… We will be developing a system to track the items identified, their life expectancy, anticipated replacement costs and when they will be replaced. Along with giving us a detailed history of what projects are accomplished with each year’s funds.

What are the anticipated resource needs? In order to accomplish what we have already done, we have been spending a major portion of our next year’s budget early in the year. This is reducing what we can accomplish the following summer for Major Maintenance projects. This process began with the track resurfacing and was made worse with the additional costs for the pool roof this last year. We also have a bit of a bubble with a number of higher price projects that need to be done now like the tennis courts that are deteriorating and a fastpitch field that should have been built years ago, along with the rotting rafter tails and uneven sidewalks due to expanding tree roots lifting them up. We will be working on a project schedule and needed funding during this next school year as well. Please note that if we didn’t have this energy grant providing some $680,000 towards the HVAC issue at SHS, our situation would be significantly worse. Some longer term items will need to be factored into the next bond issue to stay on track.