The words, “Kung hei fat choi” mean congratulations and be prosperous in Cantonese.  The SFM maintenance team at Father Ryan High School did not initially feel that blessing when they were tasked with finding a way to mount this dragon for display. The 20-foot dragon was purchased by the FRHS Foreign Language Department

Armed with little more than an instruction book written in Chinese, Phil Ferrara, and his crew rose to the challenge.  It was very important to the teacher that the dragon not be permanently attached to the wall.  The solution needed to be safe and stable for the occupants of the room, allow for varying distances from the wall for the head, tail, and body as well as offer the ability to easily take it on and off the wall.  The manufacturer's recommendation was to use bamboo poles drilled into a center pole, much like a hall tree.  Then wrap the dragon around the center pole.  The SFM team decided instead to use sturdier broom-sticks and horizontal flag pole holders to mount the dragon to the wall and display it across the span of the room.  Tyler Blystone FRHS Site-Based Technician noted it was a solution that pleased the classroom teacher.   

Quick!  What’s the largest single item on your balance sheet?  If you said “physical plant and equipment, “you're like most of your peers.  Ironically most institutions don’t manage their plant and equipment, their largest asset, with the same level of care and expertise that is devoted to  lesser assets, such as invested reserves and endowments.  This is how Bill Keslar, CEO of Building Solutions, started a recent article in NetAssets, the magazine for independent school business officers.  He went on to say,  If you are like most campuses, you are throwing money down the drain.  Institutions often put significant thought, planning, and resources into managing their endowments, but short-change management of their most valuable asset - the facility.  The annual return from an institution’s endowment is a small percentage of the money that can be saved each year by properly maintaining and strategically planning for facility improvements.  Recently Keslar spoke to the Nashville Area Independent School Business Officers (NAISBO) at their quarterly luncheon.  He stated to the business officers that institutional leaders readily support the cost of professional financial management for their endowments, but balk at the cost of professional facility management, yet the savings from proper facility management eclipses returns from endowments.  He reminded participants about the need to manage facilities as carefully as their endowment.

Keslar also wrote in NetAssets, in order to effectively manage campus building and equipment assets, institutions need to create a solid management plan.  Keslar recommends a four-part framework.  First, set institutional goals and create a long-term master plan for facilities. The result of this step gives institutions a picture of the financial costs moving into the future.  Secondly, create benchmarks for measuring your progress towards your goals and the ongoing operational cost for achieving them.  Third, get in the habit of making facility decisions based on long-term costs and progress towards institutional goals.   Lastly, review and update planning based on new data.

In addition to planning for the future, current decisions about ongoing operations and processes have significant implications for long-term maintenance costs.  Keslar quotes a study by Stanford University that found that for every dollar of deferred maintenance ultimately costs, on average,  four times more when performed at a later date.  A philosophical approach to maintenance that allows systems or equipment to languish until the last possible moment may ultimately cost you more than a well-planned preventative maintenance and planned replacement plan.  For example, failing to systematically evaluate roofing systems may leave a problem undiscovered, which may result in higher cost for repairs than it would have for regular, on-going maintenance. It is important to include your facility manager in long-term facility planning and to discuss preventative maintenance and operational goals for the campus.

Keslar says, “you reap tomorrow what you sow today”.  Think carefully about how you manage your largest asset.  Day to day spending choices and long-term planning may infact save you more money than your endowment will ever generate.