Department of Education

Maine Schools Facility Maintenance Plan (MeSFMP)

(part of the Facilities Management Template)

Draft: 2 December 2002

Introduction

The Facilities Management Template was established in 1998 by LD 2252 and is now authorized by MRSA 20-A Sections 15918 and 4001.7 to encourage schools to better manage their facilities. This plan, in conjunction with other district reporting, also addresses the requirements of MSRA 20-A Section 1055. The Template, as currently designed, consists of two major areas: Capital Asset Management, and Maintenance and Operations. Each of these major area is supported by tools and data displays to assist schools in fulfilling their facilities management and operations responsibilities. The Maine School Facilities Maintenance Plan (MeSFMP) is one of three components of the Template’s Maintenance and Operations area.

The purpose of the MeSFMP is to

Enable districts to comply with the requirement that schools have a Maintenance Plan,
Enable districts to report, electronically, to the Department, annually, on their progress in meeting maintenance standards set by the Department and Bureau of General Services,
Provide the Department with data to support legislation on behalf of school funding,
Provide local districts with data to support facilities budgets,
Provide local districts with standards of care for school facilities,
Provide local districts with a concise and updated list of statutory requirements for facilities issues, and
Provide local districts with current information relevant to best practices, recognized guidelines and background information for school facilities management.

The format of the MeSFMP lends itself to a web hosted application with links to actual Statutes cited in the table, links to Recognized Guidelines, and links to other useful information. Schools will be able to use the table format to easily check on the Statutory/Regulatory requirements with which they must comply while at the same time referencing the corresponding Recognized Guidelines/Best Practices, and Standards established by the Department and Bureau of General Services (BGS).

The MeSFMP can be used by a wide range of individuals and groups for various purposes. It has been designed to provide various levels of information to these users.

Public users will gain an understanding of the complexity of school facility maintenance management and the standards which the State has established.
School Board members will be able to better understand the statutes, rules, recommended guidelines, best practices, and standards which drive the budget demands for facilities care.
Superintendents will have the ability to make sure they are in compliance with applicable statutes, rules, and guidelines. They will also be able to have informed conversations about expectation levels and their associated budget implications with constituent groups.
Facilities Directors will have a clear set of standards and information to assist them with facilities maintenance management. They will also have information to assist them in the request for budget support for their programs.
Maintenance practitioners will have a source of standard to refer to as well as best practice and resource information to assist them in their daily operations.
The Department of Education will have a method of collecting data for use in legislative requests for funding and will have standard format for evaluating the maintenance plans submitted with Major Capital Program and Revolving Renovation Fund applications.

Organization

The Maintenance Plan is divided into five major subsections of school facility maintenance and operations:

Grounds Services
Custodial Services
Maintenance Services
Operations Services
Vehicles Services

These major subsections are defined in the definitions at the end of this document. Each subsection is further divided into areas. The areas list specific tasks or items that are a part of the regular maintenance and operation of a school facility.

Each item or task is then categorized as: 1) Statutory or Regulatory, or 2) Recommended Guideline/Best Practice. In some cases a particular task or item might be included in one, or both categories. For example building ventilation has a statutory requirement and a recognized guideline/ best practice.

Following the category descriptors is the Maine Standard that has been established by the Department and BGS according to MRSA 20-A Section 4001. Following the Standard is a measurement tool that will allow each district to determine, record, and report their compliance with each of the standards of care in their schools.

Operations Services

Statute/ Recognized Guideline Maine

Area/Item/Task Regulation or Best Practice Standard Measure

Capital Renewal Plan
10 Year Capital Renewal Plan	MSRA 20-A Section	Use VFA.facility for capital asset management and reporting	Update the district 10 year capital plan by Jan 31 st each year.	___ Exceeds the standard ___ Meets the standard ___ Partially meets standard ___ Does not meet standard
Maintenance Plan
Maintain Facilities Maintenance Plan	MSRA 20-A Section	Use MeSFMP	Achieve at least an Acceptable Level of Maintenance	___ Exceeds the standard ___ Meets the standard ___ Partially meets standard ___ Does not meet standard
Report on Facilities Maintenance Plan Progress	MSRA 20-A Section	Use the MeSFMP	Report annual on each school’s progress by Jan. 31 st.	___ Exceeds the standard ___ Meets the standard ___ Partially meets standard ___ Does not meet standard

Measurements

There are two measurement aspects of the MeSFMP. The first is the measurement each school will make against the associated Maine Standard for each item or task in each service area. This measurement takes advantage of school administrators’ familiarity with the Maine Learning Results measurement tool. The definitions of each measurement choice can be found in the definitions section at the end of this document.

Measurements Against Standards

Exceeds the standard – performance on this aspect of the MeSFMP is consistently at or better than the established standard.
Meets the standard – performance on this aspect of the MeSFMP is at or better than the established standard more than 90% of the time.
Partially meets (the) standard – performance on this aspect of the MeSFMP is at or better than the established standard more than70% of the time.
Does not meet (the) standard – performance on this aspect of the MeSFMP is less than the established standard 70%, or less, of the time.

Levels of Care

The second measurement, Level of Care, is an aggregate measure of the progress each school is making toward meeting all statutory/regulation and recognized guideline/best practice standards. By aggregating the measurement for each item in the MeSFMP into a set of defined levels (similar to those used by APPA [Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers] for Grounds and Custodial standards) we can promote conversations about cost of compliance within a framework of established and well understood levels of facilities care and operations.

Level 1 – Exemplary Facilities. Meets or exceeds all Statutory requirements, and exceeds or meets all Recognized Guidelines/Best Practices.
Level 2 – High Level Maintenance. Meets or exceeds all Statutory requirements, and meets at least 90% of Recognized Guidelines/Best Practices.
Level 3 – Acceptable Maintenance. Meets or exceeds all Statutory requirements, and exceeds or meets at least 80% of Recognized Guidelines/Best Practices.
Level 4 – Low Level Maintenance. Meets or exceeds all Statutory requirements, and exceeds or meets at least 70% of Recognized Guidelines/Best Practices.
Level 5 – Unacceptable Maintenance. Does not meet all Statutory requirements, and/or meets less than 70% of Recognized Guidelines/Best Practices.

Definitions

Plan Subsections

Custodial Services – those tasks and responsibilities having to do with the cleaning of buildings and other indoor facilities, storage of materials within buildings, and trash handling.

Operations Services – those tasks and responsibilities having to do with the energy use and conservation, event management, security, safety, and inspections.

Grounds Services – those tasks and responsibilities having to do with the repair, upkeep and maintenance of site and outdoor facilities such as snow clearing, lawn and field care, care of pavement and walks, and landscaping.

Vehicle Services – those tasks and responsibilities having to do with the care, maintenance, and operation of pupil transportation and other vehicles. For the purposes of the MeSFMP, a vehicle is defined as motorized equipment designed to be ridden upon.

Maintenance Services – those tasks and responsibilities having to do with the regular (scheduled and unscheduled) repair and upkeep of buildings and other indoor facilities such as repairing broken or worn building components and equipment, preventative maintenance work, and other tasks which help achieve the design life expectancy of building components and equipment.

Table Headings

Area/Item/Task – Sub area titles within subsections. Items and tasks necessary to operate and maintain school facilities. For example: “Grounds Services” is a subsection of the MeSFMP, “Lawn Care” is an Area, and “mow lawns” is a item or task.

Statute/Regulations – Those Areas, Items, and Tasks prescribed in federal and/or state law or rules. For example: Ventilation in school buildings is covered under MSRA 20-A Section 6302.

Recognized Guideline/ Best Practice – Guidelines recommended by recognized authorities that inform important maintenance and operations practices. For example: American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRE) ventilation standard (15 CFM) is recognized as the common guideline for air exchange in buildings. Manufacturer’s maintenance recommendations are considered to be Recognized Guidelines.

Maine Standard – The Standard is the maintenance and operations benchmark established by the Department and BGS to be met by schools.

Measures – intended to be used as a mechanism for self-grading and reporting progress on each school’s plan to the Department.

Plan Updating and Editing

A group of three people representing DOE, BGS, and field practitioners will meet three times in 2003, twice in 2004 and annually thereafter to consider suggestions made by MeSFMP users and State agencies. These suggestions can be sent at any time to School Facilities Services at the DOE. Suggestion should include possible additions to a section of the plan, movement of items from one section to another, alteration of standards, additional links to be included in any section, or any other modification to the MeSFMP. Suggestions will be actively solicited via communication from the DOE.

The editing group will make changes to the plan so that the revised plan will be available at least a month before schools are required to submit that year’s plan to the DOE.

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