Executive Housekeeping Today - February 2009 - (Page 17)

Taylor discusses his number-one challege with Associate Superintendent Dr. Ric Frataccia and Superintendent Mike Berta during a recent budget meeting. to buy some new equipment and machinery,” says Taylor. “For example, we purchased some larger walk-behind scrubbers so we could cover more square footage with fewer people, and that has been a lot more cost-effective for us.” In addition, Taylor worked with a gentleman by the name of Steve Turner, who was a Physical Plant Operator at a school system that Taylor had previously worked at and is currently the Vice Chancellor of Purdue University—North Central, to establish staffing guidelines based on APPA standards. Taylor and Turner went through every building in the Portage school system and measured the cleanable square footage, applied the APPA standards to them, and came up with a fairly accurate staffing alignment plan. “The custodians have been very happy about this from the standpoint that they feel like they are being treated fairly in terms of the kinds of areas and square footage that they are cleaning,” says Taylor. Finally, Taylor incorporated the custodial department’s union, the United Steel Workers union, in a lot of the processes and procedures to make sure that they were working with them instead of against them. For example, when they did the staffing study, the union was a little hesitant at first, but as they got involved in it and received all the information about the study in the APPA publications they were using to read and review, they actually came back with some very good suggestions on how to implement. “I think we’ve really strengthened our relationship with the custodial union because of how we handled this,” says Taylor. Challenges Of course, with all of these positive improvements, there must be challenges as well. According to Taylor, the biggest challenge is budget. “I think we’re constantly trying to do more things with less in public schools, and frankly, I think public schools do a good job of that,” says Taylor. “You have to make some really good decisions, and that’s where we go back to trying to weigh the efficiency of cleaning techniques, the efficiency of using the right equipment and machinery, and making sure that people are trained properly so they can move quickly and efficiently through their areas.” The second challenge that Taylor has is finding good people for the job. “Our mantra here is that we expect you to show up everyday, show up on time, and work to the best of your ability; and sometimes it’s difficult to find people who want to do that,” says Taylor. “It’s critical that you have good people, and good people in this business need to show up everyday, show up on time, and work. Being a custodian can be a difficult job. It can be hard, heavy, dirty work, so it’s important that we find the right people.” As you can see from the list of improvements above, Taylor has overcome these challenges to be successful in straightening out the custodial department, as he was asked do to when hired three years ago. “I would like to personally thank IEHA for affording our custodial department the opportunity to grow professionally. It’s been important for us,” says Taylor. “Sometimes when I use the words ‘act as a professional’ with my staff, it’s difficult to define when you don’t have the background knowledge to do that. The information that we get through IEHA and our Chapter through the networking that we’ve done has been important for us to understand professionalism in the industry.” u Tom Taylor is the Assistant Superintendent for Adult and Student Policy for Portage Township Schools in Portage, IN. He may be reached at ttaylor@ portage.k12.in.us. February 2009/Executive Housekeeping Today 7

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Executive Housekeeping Today - February 2009

Executive Housekeeping Today - February 2009 Contents Executive Corner Putting a Stop to Restroom Complaints Clean Soap Dispensers are Good for Business Frugal Housekeeper Executive Profile Spartan Scholarship Award Winner USGBC Tip The Green Scene 2008 IEHA Audit Report The Un-Comfort Zone with Robert Wilson 2009 Salary Survey Inside the Industry Product Highlights New Members Joint IEHA/ISSA Members Advertisers’ Index Calendar of Events Inside IEHA What IEHA Has Done For Me

Executive Housekeeping Today - February 2009

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