Paul Abramson of Stanton Leggett & Associates in Harrison, NY writes an article about a facilities manager at a board meeting stating that he needs additional maintenance people to keep up a new building. The Board is not happy about the news. So after the meeting, Paul spoke to the Facilities Manager and the Superintendent about a possible solution to their need for maintenance staff.

Since there are several small districts in the area, all of which need better maintenance, might they together hire a cadre of maintenance people who would work for the districts and serve all of them on a rotating or "as needed" basis?

A Small District Solution?
Many years ago, Paul was part of a team that helped 14 small colleges in the Philadelphia area to develop a "Physical Plant Cooperative." It was designed to allow these institutions to upgrade their maintenance and operations through cooperation and sharing.

The cooperative - which may still be operating - tackled such problems as joint purchasing of fuel, sharing a locksmith, purchasing some heavy equipment together and, perhaps most important of all, sharing ideas and experiences. One side benefit: Now that the facilities managers knew one another, they were very honest in their evaluation concerning former employees looking for new jobs.

Could the same idea work among small school districts? They are considering the possibility.

There are logistical problems to work out. How many districts should be involved for the operation to be efficient? Who does the hiring? Does one district hire all of the people and the others reimburse it, or do different districts hire different people? Who organizes the operation? Who schedules the work? What happens in an emergency? How do they ensure that all districts get the same attention they deserve? Would the school maintenance people do preventive maintenance and leave emergency work to outside contractors? Who would provide the equipment? Etc.

There may be too many questions and it may not work, but the effort is certainly worthwhile. The result could be a trained, dedicated school maintenance staff that improves school buildings at a cost that no one district could afford on its own, but that is reasonable when the districts work together.

You might want to consider this for your small district.