Welcome to "Managing your Facilities". Many schools have moved on from the traditional concept of caretaker and are developing new roles, like site or premises manager. This involves their staff in different tasks and requires them not only to think in different ways, but to act in different ways also. This course aims to help the leadership team and administrative staff as well as facilities managers to develop an understanding of the diverse nature of good facilities management in schools.
For a Task early in Module 1, you'll need access to your school facilities improvement plan. Next time you're in school, ask the appropriate staff for a copy.
This course consists of three modules:
For a Task early in Module 1, you'll need access to your school facilities improvement plan. Next time you're in school, ask the appropriate staff for a copy.
This is an independent study program which means your individual starting date and due date are based on your date of registration. Your instructor will advise you of this due date.
This is an interactive on-line course. Although you will be able to complete some of it just by sitting in front of your screen working through the on-line material, we will regularly ask you to reflect on what you have learned, and put ideas into practice.
a) RESOURCE FORMS: Has PDF forms to help you answer questions in the Student Books
b) RESOURCE FURTHER READING: Includes clarifications about the module.
c) REFERENCE LINKS: Has links to websites referred to in the module.
d) DEFINITIONS: Has definitions of terms used in the module.
e) BIBLIOGRAPHY: The bibliography is located at the bottom of this page that includes books you may check out at your local library.
At any time you may email your instructor with questions or problems you may be having with the material or the web site.
You will need to email it to your instructor. Download and save the document as described below and then you can enter your own text into the Student Book word document. Your instructor will expect a version of your Student Book as you complete each module. These can be saved by you in your files as well as being sent to your course instructor via email as an email attachment.
You cannot type your answers on this web site. You must download your Student Book template which is a word document, by clicking on the download link below.
For your Student Book, please use a text document or a Microsoft Word document and type your text there. Title the document like this:
[NAMEOFCLASS_TEACHERSNAME_YOURNAME_MODULENUMBER.doc ]
like this
6208_DRCLARK_JOHNDOE_MODULE1.docSave the Student Book on your computer and complete the assignments on the document and then email it to your teacher.
Module 1: The importance of facilities management
MODULE1A Intended learning outcomes for Module 1
MODULE1B What does managing your facilities mean?
MODULE1C Activity 1: Reflections on the facilities in your school
MODULE1D Responsibilities of facilities managers
MODULE1E Activity 2: Who’s responsible for your school’s facilities?
MODULE1F The potential for role confusion
MODULE1G Activity 3: Definitions
MODULE1H Overview
MODULE1I Overview (continued)
MODULE1J Task 1: School improvement plan (SIP) and facilities management
MODULE1K Facilities manager, site manager, or caretaker/janitor?
MODULE1L Task 2: Facilities manager, site manager or caretaker/janitor?
MODULE1M What have you learned? Evaluation of your learning from Module 1
MODULE1N Congratulations.
Module 2: Facilities management and health and safety
MODULE2A Intended learning outcomes for Module 2
MODULE2B Health and safety obligations
MODULE2C Activity 4: Brainstorming health and safety issues in your school
MODULE2D Activity 5: An introduction to health and safety
MODULE2E Activity 6: A basic health and safety audit at your school
MODULE2F Training
MODULE2G Activity 7: Training needs in my school – audit
MODULE2H Risk assessment and management
MODULE2I Task 3: Risk assessment
MODULE2J Inspections
MODULE2K Task 4: Preparing for an inspection
MODULE2L What have you learned? Evaluation of your learning from Module 2
MODULE2M Congratulations
Module 3: Site and financial security
MODULE3A Intended learning outcomes for Module 3
MODULE3B Introduction
MODULE3C Introduction (continued)
MODULE3D Activity 8: Security issues in your school
MODULE3E Are your current security procedures sufficient?
MODULE3F Activity 9: Your current procedures
MODULE3G Security balance
MODULE3H Activity 10: Possible solutions to emerging issues
MODULE3I Workplace violence
MODULE3J Activity 11: Workplace violence – risk assessment
MODULE3K Task 5: Financial security: an initial security evaluation
MODULE3L Task 6: Financial security
MODULE3M Task 7: An audit trail
MODULE3N What have you learned? Evaluation of your learning from Module 3
MODULE3O Congratulations
Module 1: The importance of facilities management
By the end of this module you should:
Facilities management is not just about opening and locking doors. It’s a key part of school life, involving a range of activities that are often carried out by many different people. It involves a clear understanding of the interaction between both staff and students, and of how to improve their teaching and learning respectively.
Irrespective of your school’s size, you have to maximize the facilities for your students. Using means at your disposal to achieve the most cost effective benefits. Efficient facilities management has much to offer in helping to provide the kind of environment that will help raise the achievement of your students. This module will help develop your understanding of the diverse tasks involved in managing school facilities.
To cope with the increased sophistication of this job, many schools have moved from the traditional concept of caretaker/janitor and developed new roles such as finance director and facilities manager. This change in perspective involves facilities management staff in different tasks and requires them not only to think in different ways, but also to act in different ways.
Think about the range of facilities that you have in your school. Are they different from the school you attended as a child? What are the main similarities? What are the main differences? Is this due to school type? Are there similarities irrespective of school type?
Answer these questions in your Student book (1).
Many schools would agree that there has been some fuzziness about the responsibilities of school facilities management. No one was sure exactly what it is and who was meant to do it! Many smaller schools developed something of an ad hoc attitude – whoever had the time or motivation could look after the facilities.
With fluctuation in funding and ever increasing pressures on teachers, this can lead to a deterioration in the state of school facilities. To remedy this, and to realize the full potential of a school, it is vital to list the tasks that need doing and define who is responsible for carrying them out.
Print out Resource 1, and on it make a list of the different facilities you have in school. Then note the name of the person(s) who has responsibility for each facility. A number of different people may be responsible for a facility. Consider their different roles. Which people have a "management" role in your school? Is it an efficient and effective use of their time? How are their responsibilities integrated?
Look at Resource 2: School facilities prompts for some ideas as to who might be responsible for the different facilities.
Record your thoughts in your Student book (2).
A number of people are usually responsible for maintaining and improving school facilities. Inevitably there’s often confusion about who is responsible for what. For example, some people may be responsible for day-to-day work, others for forward planning and others for arranging facilities to best meet curriculum needs.
In your Student book (3), write short definitions of the following roles:
Also briefly define facilities management as a whole. What do you think it covers in a school?
Look at our suggestions in Resource 3: Job definitions prompts and go back to your Student book (3) and make changes to your definitions if necessary. Then look at Resource 4: Facilities management and Resource 5: Changing roles.
You should now have a clearer idea of the breadth of duties involved in effective facilities management. Your school facilities may be managed by one dedicated facilities manager or by a number of people who also have other duties to perform. If it’s the latter, then you need to make a judgment as to whether this is the best use of their time and your school’s resources.
If you’re a small school you might consider having a part-time facilities manager – this can work very well. What’s important is that whoever looks after your facilities should have the knowledge and technical expertise to do the job well.
Facility managers have a vast range of responsibilities, from providing safe and effective environments to devising innovative ways that a building can be made available to the disabled.
As we said at the outset, the key role for facilities managers is to provide effective learning environments for our students and their teachers. Safe and secure premises with effective building planning, budgeting to get cost beneficial results and thoughtful design to stimulate learning are what all schools need.
Facilities managers help improve efficiency through cost effective controls, and continually monitor facilities to ensure they meet government regulations and environmental, health and security standards.
These managers are proactive and work a great deal on their own initiative. They make a valuable contribution to the development of buildings flexible to accommodate change and help schools with strategic long term planning and the best use of facilities. It’s a complicated role and, to some extent, a thankless one, as the better the job is done the less it gets noticed.
It’s a role that’s fast becoming more recognized. Courses and workshops are often offered and/or required for school district business or facilities managers.
For this Task, you’ll need access to your school improvement plan (SIP) or it's equivalent. The purpose of this Task is to evaluate whether your SIP has a facilities management component. Print out Resource 6, and as you read through your school’s SIP, note down each reference to facilities management.
In particular, check the following points:
The last Task probably illustrated areas where your school could be more organized and effective in its facilities management. Of course, you may work in a school that really could make no improvements at all. If so, congratulations, you’re unique!
To make improvements in your facilities management you must first ask yourself a critical question: does your school need a dedicated facilities manager, a site manager or a building custodian?
Write a brief proposal to your principal or governing body outlining the need for one of the above roles. You need to consider a job description, candidate specification and the salary you’ll pay. You’ll also need to show how your potential candidate will improve management efficiency and how your plan will affect other people’s roles in your school. Use Resource 7: Proposal form to help you with this task.
If you feel all aspects of the role are effectively covered by present arrangements in your school then use your proposal to argue for the status quo.
Then answer the questions in your Student book (5).
Now that you've worked through the Activities and Tasks in this module, please look again at the intended learning outcomes for the module.
By the end of this module you should:
How much has this module helped you to achieve the learning outcomes for Module 1? Make a note in your Student book (6) and e-mail your comments to your instructor.
Module 2: Facilities management and health and safety
This module will refer to health and safety legislation. Although general principles will apply to all schools, there are wide variations in the local government requirements and regulations for schools. Governing bodies or Boards frequently take responsibility for interpreting the local requirements and delegate responsibility for compliance to the district superintendent, the administrative team and the business manager.
Like all work places, schools are subject to health and safety legislation. We have to be aware of our obligations to our colleagues, employees and students. Legislation covers schools as much as it applies to heavy industry. We need to reduce the risk of accidents happening in order to create as safe a working and learning environment as possible.
By the end of this module you should:
This module will refer to health and safety legislation in the UK. Although general principles will apply to all schools, there are wide variations in the local government requirements and regulations for schools located outside the UK. Governing bodies or Boards frequently take responsibility for interpreting the local requirements and delegate responsibility for compliance to the Head, the leadership team and the finance director.
Like all work places, schools are subject to health and safety legislation. We have to be aware of our obligations to our colleagues, employees and students. Legislation covers schools as much as it applies to heavy industry. We need to reduce the risk of accidents happening in order to create as safe a working and learning environment as possible.
Think about some recent issues concerning health and safety in your school. Would you grade them as major or minor? What were the causes of the problems? Think beyond the initial problems or causes. How were the issues resolved? Was the whole school able to learn from what happened? Has the culture of health and safety improved because of what happened?
Note down your thoughts on these questions in your Student book (7).
Print out Resource 9: A basic health and safety audit, and answer as many questions on it as possible, answering yes, no or don’t know. Use the space provided for further elaboration or notes. You'll be able to answer some of the questions now, but to complete the questionnaire properly, you'll need to conduct an inspection of the premises in school.
(Note: this is not an exhaustive audit, but will provide you with points for further consideration.)
Then, go to your Student book (8) and write ten action points that arose from your audit, with timescales, that you will need to follow up. What obstacles might you face to stop you from completing the action points?
With something as potentially complex and critical as health and safety provision it’s vital that all school staff receive adequate training in all aspects of health and safety. This training should be systematic and part of your school’s health and safety management system. Good training helps to change people’s attitudes towards creating a safer environment.
This Activity should get you thinking about the health and safety training needs of your staff. Reflect on the following bullet points, and then click on the resources listed for some ideas.
When thinking about these issues, you will, of course, need to prioritize the direction of your energies depending on your review of needs, the seriousness of the health and safety events and your budget:
Note the key points of each question in your Student book (9).
To achieve as safe a learning environment as possible, schools need to carry out risk assessments. Measures have to be introduced to control risks and employees need to be informed about these measures.
Risks can be measured by severity, likelihood and frequency. By combining two or three of these factors you can make a risk assessment. There are a number of different ways that these factors can be analyzed – look at some examples in Resource 13: Example assessment scales. These help you to provide for the scale of risk and the ranking of the risk.
The response you make to any assessment will depend where you place it on your scale. A combination of severity and likelihood (or frequency) will allow you to arrange the risks in order of priority and to consider the control measures you have in place or need to put into place. By systematically analyzing the severity and likelihood of risk you can consider the action you need to take and the timescale you need to do it in.
A well-conducted risk assessment should tell you whether the identified risk has been acceptably controlled or as reasonably controlled as possible given the circumstances.
The purpose of this task is to help you provide advice on the completion of risk assessments. Using the exemplar scales suggested in Resource 13, devise a risk assessment form that can be used in your school. Just draw up a simple table, with any headings you think are appropriate. Look at Resource 14: Risk assessment prompts for some ideas about headings to include in your risk assessment form.
Now use your form to carry out risk assessments for the following scenarios:
Then answer the questions in your Student book (10).
Whichever country you’re in, it’s likely that from time to time you’ll be visited by inspectors, official visitors or accreditation teams. This is often a time of great stress and overwork for staff. The stress can be minimized by adequate, appropriate and efficient preparation, and this is as true for health and safety issues as it is for lesson plans.
These kinds of visitors report on many aspects of a school, including teacher standards, buildings and other facilities, and students’ attitudes, values and personal development. They make judgments on whether students show initiative and are willing to take on responsibility, e.g., if they reflect on their actions and if they understand how these actions impact on others.
Check your school’s health and safety file. Does it contain all the procedures and information regarding health and safety, or are they located in different documents in different places? For inspection purposes, it is easier if your documentation is contained, where possible, in one file. Can you provide evidence of your students learning about these health and safety issues and procedures in a positive way?
Now walk around your school buildings, inside and out, and your school’s grounds and view them as an inspector checking on health and safety would. It may help to do this with a colleague. To help you with this task, print off and take with you Resource 15: Health and safety initial checklist and Resource 16: More inspection issues.
Then write a report of your findings. We’ve provided a form which you can use for this (Resource 17), or if you prefer you can create your own. When you’ve completed your report, print it out and add it to your school’s health and safety file.
Make a note of your findings in Student book (11).
Now you have worked through the Activities and Tasks in this module, look again at the intended learning outcomes.
By the end of this module you should:
In your Student book (12), make a note of the extent to which you have achieved the learning intentions for Module 2 and e-mail your comments to your instructor.
By the end of this module you should:
Schools are increasingly suffering from criminal activities – physical attacks and other destructive acts such as arson, theft and vandalism. Not only are employees and students at risk if appropriate procedures are not working efficiently, but there are also substantial financial losses involved in security failures.
Over the last decade, school security has become a particularly high priority after tragic events involving fatal attacks on students, as well as a host of politically motivated terrorist activities. International schools have become a symbolic target for local groups with nationalistic or religious ideals. The increase in child abductions from schools is a further serious problem.
These events have certainly increased media awareness of school security issues, as have other more commonplace incidents. As a result, professional associations and trades unions are increasingly raising the issue of assaults on school staff by students, parents and site intruders. Most of these professional associations provide guidance on these issues, which you should familiarize yourself with and follow.
If we are to improve teaching and learning and raise standards, then the school environment we provide has to be a secure one, both for students and teachers. It’s vitally important that parents and caregivers should feel that their child is in a safe environment. It’s just as important that all school staff should also feel secure, especially as they can be in vulnerable situations working in isolated parts of the building, often by themselves.
These issues have to be dealt with in school buildings that, in many cases, were not originally designed with security as a major concern. This module is designed to help you develop your understanding of how security relates to facilities management and health and safety issues. It’s not just a tagged-on responsibility – to ensure safety it must be integrated into systematic procedures.
To be effective a school has to develop a "security culture". This can be helped by systematic maintenance of the site and by a willingness to be pro-active in making alterations and additions in order to continually improve security. Moreover, the security culture needs to be adopted by everyone in the school.
Think about the school that you work in. What potential security threats does it have?
What does your school have that some people might want to steal? How are school facilities currently protected? What are the staff’s major concerns over school security? What are the parents’ major concerns? What are the "big" issues? What are the "small" issues?
Record your answers in Student book (13).
Even if your school has a security action plan in place (and a great many schools don’t), it’s quite probable that school employees are largely unaware of it. So even if your school security procedures are sufficient, it’s likely that they’re often not properly and consistently understood and implemented. This is potentially a major problem.
This Activity will help you assess if your current procedures are sufficient. Think about the following questions:
Use Resource 18 to make an initial assessment of current procedures. When you’be completed the form, note down the key issues for attention in Resource 19.
Then answer the questions in your Student book (14).
While we need our schools to be secure places to work and learn in, there needs to be a balance between security and access. All schools aim to welcome visitors and parents and often part of their school distinguishing atmosphere and guiding beliefs is an open-door policy. In some cases this has to be achieved in some very challenging circumstances, and there could be a danger of some schools adopting a mind set of no change. This does not rest easily with a vision of an open, community-orientated center of learning.
Consider how some common school security problems might be solved or reduced in risk. Complete your responses using Resource 20: Security response grid.
Then assess the costs of implementing your proposed security solutions in Resource 21: Security response costs. Refer to Resource 22: Security prompts to support your work in this Activity.
Then answer the questions in your Student book (15).
Workplace violence is on the increase in many countries, and schools are no exception to the problem. According to U.S. CDC's School Associated Violent Death Study, between 1% and 2% of all homicides among school-age children happen on school grounds or on the way to and from school or during a school sponsored event. For more information, visit Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and search for Violence articles. http://www.cdc.gov/
Complete a workplace violence risk assessment, using the grid provided in Resource 23.
Resource 24: Tasks/work prompts will help you with this task. You can also draw on the assessment work you did in Module 2.
Then answer the questions in your Student book (16).
If your school is to be successful, it’s vital that its financial resources are managed efficiently. This task involves you working with your finance manager or director, making security procedure checks to assess how efficiently your school’s finances are managed.
Detailed inspections of how schools manage their financial resources may take place during school audits.
Fill in the details on our financial security checklist (Resource 25). The final checklist will give you a program of what you still have to do and what you already have in place. The questions are not exhaustive but give you a good start.
When you’ve done this, answer the questions in your Student book (17).
Fill in the grid in Resource 26: Financial procedures requiring immediate attention.
Once you have completed the grid, draft what you think should be included in a short statement to the School Board's finance sub-committee, outlining which school financial procedures require immediate attention in order to meet financial standards.
The purpose of this section of the Task is to check that your school’s security procedures are in place. This audit trail will involve you evaluating whether the security procedures, physical and financial, are working efficiently.
Working with your finance manager or director, carry out an audit trail for a particular item from an official school order. Devise a simple form that could be used to complete the work. Look at Resource 27 to see some possible financial procedures. Resource 28 is a sample audit trail form that might help you consider the procedures you need to put in place.
Then answer the questions in your Student book (18).
When you have worked through the Activities and Tasks in this module, please look again at the intended learning outcomes for Module 3.
By the end of this module you should:
In your Student book (19) make a note of the extent to which you have achieved the learning intentions for Module 3 and e-mail your comments to your instructor.
Title A guide to safe practice in art and design
Publisher Department for Education and Skills (DES)
Title Guidance on first aid for schools safety in science education
Publisher Department for Education and Skills (DES)
Title Health and safety: responsibilities and powers
Publisher Department for Education and Skills (DES)
Author Cotts, DG
Title The Facility Management Handbook (1997)
Publisher Amacom, New York
ISBN 0814401171
Author HSC, Education Service Advisory Committee
Title Violence in the education sector (1997)
Publisher HSE Books
ISBN 0717612937
Author O’Sullivan F, Thody, A, Wood, L
Title From Bursar to School Business Manager: Re-engineering Leadership for Resource Management (School Leadership and Management)
Publisher Financial Times Prentice Hall
ISBN 0273643258
Author Rondeau, EP et al.
Title Facility Management (1995)
Publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc, New York
ISBN 0471038067
Title A guide to safe practice in art and design
Publisher Department for Education and Skills (DES)
Title Guidance on first aid for schools safety in science education
Publisher Department for Education and Skills (DES)
Title Health and safety: responsibilities and powers
Publisher Department for Education and Skills (DES)
Title Health and safety: responsibilities and powers
Publisher Department for Education and Skills (DES)
Author Cotts, DG
Title The Facility Management Handbook (1997)
Publisher Amacom, New York
ISBN 0814401171 Author HSC, Education Service Advisory Committee
Title Violence in the education sector (1997)
Publisher HSE Books
ISBN 0717612937
Author O’Sullivan F, Thody, A, Wood, L
Title From Bursar to School Business Manager: Re-engineering Leadership for Resource Management (School Leadership and Management)
Publisher Financial Times Prentice Hall
ISBN 0273643258
Author Rondeau, EP et AL.
Title Facility Management (1995)
Publisher John Wiley & Sons Inc, New York
ISBN 0471038067
Resource 1: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF
Resource 2: School facilities prompts
Resource 3: Job definitions prompts
Here’s one way of defining the roles:
Resource 4: Facilities management
Facilities management tasks include:
Resource 5: Changing roles
Specific tasks given to facility managers will vary with the school organization but may well include the following:
Resource 6: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF
Resource 7: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF
Resource 8: Health and safety at work
Day-to-day responsibility for health and safety in most schools is delegated to the principal, who has to ensure that the school board policy is adhered to.
As employers our main responsibilities are to:
Schools should develop their own policy statements regarding health and safety. These need to be agreed and understood by all the school staff because their effective implementation helps to ensure the duty of care we have towards our students.
Resource 9: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF
Resource 10: Questions to identify training needs
Resource 11: Methods to identify training needs
Resource 12: Who would benefit from training?
Resource 13: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF
Resource 14: Risk assessment prompts
Resource 15: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF
Resource 16: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF
Resource 17: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF
Resource 18: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF
Resource 19: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF
Resource 20: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF
Resource 21: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF
Resource 22: Security prompts
Resource 23: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF
Resource 24: Tasks/work prompts
Potentially risky tasks:
School staff at risk
Some control measures
Resource 25: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF
Resource 26: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD PDF
Resource 27: Financial procedures that need to be considered
Title: A guide to safe practice in art and design
Publisher: Department for Education and Skills (Des)
Title: Guidance on first aid for schools safety in science education
Publisher: Department for Education and Skills (Des)
Title: Health and safety: responsibilities and powers
Publisher: Department for Education and Skills (Des)
Title: Health and safety: responsibilities and powers
Publisher: Department for Education and Skills (Des)
Author: Cots, DG
Title: The Facility Management Handbook (1997)
Publisher: Tacoma, New York
ISBN: 0814401171
BACK TO INDEX
Author: HSC, Education Service Advisory Committee
Title: Violence in the education sector (1997)
Publisher: HSE Books
ISBN: 0717612937
Author: O’Sullivan F, Rhody, A, Wood, L
Title: From Bursar to School Business Manager: Re-engineering Leadership for Resource Management (School Leadership and Management) (19
Publisher: Financial Times Prentice Hall
ISBN: 0273643258
Author: Rondo, EP et AL.
Title: Facility Management (1995)
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc, New York
ISBN: 0471038067
U.S Department of Education
Description: This site lists federal laws and regulations
URL: http://www.ed.gov/
Name: Association of School Business Officials International
Description: International Organization for School Business Managers
URL: http://www.asbointl.org
Name: School Planning and Management
Description: This site addresses current issues in educational facilities
URL: https://spaces4learning.com/Home.aspx
Do an Internet Search for federal and your respective state, county and local regulations and codes. They are updated frequently, so bookmark your sites and check back regularly.