Determining a balance

By Chuck Morris

The difference between planning and actually “doing” can be a pretty wide gap sometimes. As a former director of facilities and operations, I well know the demands placed on someone in any of these positions.

The ever-increasing demands from Victoria really do increase your commitment to the job if you want to do a good job. In many districts, the pressures from the board of education sometimes push the balance perhaps a little too far. It is an ever-changing world we work in and to do justice to our commitment to that job of ours, the commitment to the district you work in and the commitment to those who report to you, one needs to have focus.

What about some of the “core” work you should be doing? The facilities under your control may be well-aged and possibly have failing infrastructure. The administration in each of those facilities will have things they would like to see done within the buildings and grounds. What about the school planning councils (CPCs)? In many districts, they have a tremendous say in things.

One of the necessary tasks you do is to get out a minimum of once per year (though twice a year is better) to visit each facility and do a “walk-through” with one or more of the school administrators. This allows you to see the condition of the building and the seriousness of potential problems. However, the walk-through also allows you to hear from the administrator. Oftentimes, his or her comments are thoughts and wishes not only from them, but also from their staff and very likely the SPC for that school.

Collect all this information while you are collecting your own. Of course you will also have in the back of your mind any potential impact on the health and safety of the building occupants and those who maintain the building (custodial and maintenance staff). I daresay that one walk-through of one large facility, including the grounds, can almost terrify you when you tabulate in your mind potential costs for all the work.

At times in the past, some districts worked to satisfy the demands from their school administrators. Some of those demands can get fairly repetitive and have large costs attached to them. If you have other areas that require more of your annual facility grant, such as major roofing replacement or HVAC system replacement, you will need to recognize the school’s own wants but place those into your short- or long-term AFG plans for another year. Sometimes those demands are more suited to become part of the five-year capital plan instead, thus alleviating a little pressure off your facility grant.

The need to continually upgrade systems is not a “like to have” scenario. If some of those systems are not planned for and upgraded within a given timespan, the costs to your budget(s) will be far greater than ever. You need to ensure there is no unplanned downtime. That can impact the operation of the school and if you don’t have a contingency in place to deal with that inevitability, you will be in trouble. That will cost you more than dollars!

There are tools in place to assist you with those decisions. The VFA audits identified a number of systems that require attention. No matter what you may think of that process, it is still a tool you should be using as part of your overall planning process, both for the five-year capital plan and for your facility grant’s short- and long-term planning. Some districts had developed their own system to assist with this planning; this is good because information is valuable in whatever we do. The more tools you have available should allow you to make better informed decisions. There may come a time when you will have to rely on one or two main sources because your time is valuable and you do not have the necessary resources at your disposal to run many systems at the same time. Some districts do have people who collect data, enter it and report on it; that is great to have, but remember (and you may be one of them) that there are many districts where all or most of this falls on your desk. There is only so much that you can delegate!

We all know what outcome we would like to see. How you achieve that can be quite the road to travel, full of twists and turns. At times your well-thought-out plans will be thwarted because of pressure from the board or other senior administrators. There will be times when this happens and no matter what your argument of support is, you will need to deal with that eventuality to support the new direction demanded of you. That, my friend, can be quite the task! With any luck, you have already thought about the “what ifs” and can do something to alleviate the immediate concern of yours with those changed plans.

When faced with all of these things (which include the myriad of new programs and focus emanating from Victoria and the board), it can be very easy to push some of it downstream to your managers and supervisors. Be very careful when you do this. Note I said “when”, not “if”! You will push this work downstream; however, do it with careful thought. Those people have their own troubles they are dealing with and though they wish to help you, you may be over-burdening them. Try not to burn them out.

The long and short of it is to determine your balance point. We all work long hours to enable us to deal with the work that crosses our desk. We all should have a life outside of work and that is where you will need to determine what yours looks like. Family must come first – not only for their sake, but for yours, too.

Have you found that balance? b