The Facilities Maintenance Departments consist of:
- Architectural (Carpentry, Millwork, Roofing, Locksmith and Flooring)
- Painting
- Mechanical (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning, Plumbing and Shop Equipment)
- Electrical (Power Distribution, Lighting and Security Systems)
- Grounds and Logistics (Trucking)
What is Maintenance?
- Maintenance, by definition, applies exclusively to existing assets or equipment.
- Its goal is to prolong the life of the asset.
- It does not include enhancements, additions or upgrades.
What is covered under the SD38 Annual Operating Budget are:
- Grounds Maintenance Services - groundskeeping, landscape maintenance, trucking services.
- Preventive Maintenance - scheduled work performed on operational equipment or building systems to ensure uninterrupted, continued and efficient operation.
- Predictive Maintenance - non-invasive monitoring and analysis to determine the condition of operating equipment and systems without disrupting normal service. Used to identify the optimum range of controllable maintenance activity that will extend the life of the equipment at the lowest net cost.
- Corrective/Breakdown Maintenance - restoring the operation of equipment or systems that have failed or are not performing properly. Examples are responding to trouble calls (lack of heat, roof leak, etc.) and are dealt with as promptly as possible). This category accounts for close to 90% of all user-generated service requests. It is the most time consuming and expensive method of maintenance.
- Minor Portable Relocations – maximum one single unit move per year within 2km, required as a last resort due to enrolment pressures.
What is not covered under the Annual Operating Budget are:
- Replacement of equipment, systems, or other building components when the item has reached the end of its useful life or when repairs are no longer cost effective (funded by AFG or other Ministry Capital, or Local Capital)
- Renovations - the activities of rehabilitation, modernization and remodelling which alter the basic building or its components to provide room for expansion or to accommodate a new function (funded by Local Capital, Ministry Capital, Grants or Users)
- Improvements - renovations to enhance the operation of a building. Includes whiteboards, lighting, accessibility, etc. (funded by AFG, Local Capital, Ministry Capital, Grants or Users)
- Upgrades - added services for electrical; energy conservation retrofits; mechanical ventilation retrofits; paint colour changes or whole room re-paints; changes mandated by standards or codes (funded by AFG, Local Capital, Ministry Capital, Grants or Users)
- Additions - additions to infrastructure, such as playgrounds, outdoor classrooms, garden sheds, scoreboards, bottle filling stations, classroom sinks, new portable classrooms or relocation of more than one unit (funded by Local Capital, Ministry Capital, Grants or Users)
- User-Funded Requests - service requests made by Users (building administrators, district departments) which are not covered under any maintenance category.
Examples include: moving, supply and/or installation of furniture, fixtures and equipment (including playground equipment); minor renovations; additional outlets; servicing of school-purchased equipment (i.e. portable tools, appliances, kitchen equipment, sewing machines, blinds, blade sharpening), and other special requests.
User-Funded Requests:
- Our FTE compliment of trades covered under the annual maintenance budget is only 58, looking after over 275,000 square metres of building and 157 hectares of land spread over 61 sites. With an operation running as lean as we are, our focus (both fiscally and operationally) must be on maintenance first.
- Additional trades and contractors are brought on as-and-when required to handle the services not covered under the annual maintenance operating budget. Sometimes these trades respond to maintenance trouble calls if they are in proximity to the call, and sometimes maintenance staff respond to User-Funded Requests - but the charges typically balance out.
Click here for the full presentation made to the School Business Advisory Committee November 2021
Click here for the latest Facilities Renewal Program list of projects