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M-DCPS SHOWS IMPROVEMENT IN MAINTENANCE OPERATIONS, NEW REPORT TO SCHOOL BOARD SHOWS MIAMI – Less than a year after a major reorganization, Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ Maintenance Department has improved its performance significantly and is poised to make even greater strides in coming years, a report to the School Board shows. In 2004-2005, Maintenance cut its longstanding backlog of work orders by 24 percent, dropping the pending projects to 20,322 work orders. Awards for capital maintenance projects more than doubled in the same year, up to nearly $40 million from less than $20 million the year before. In terms of the most visible work, 37 schools were painted inside and out last year, compared to only three the previous year. Sixty-four schools had roofs replaced, compared to 55 the year before. The School Board approved a restructuring of the Maintenance Department in October 2004 as part of a reorganization of the District’s central administration. The changes in Maintenance organized the department in a structure that parallels the regions into which schools are grouped, allowing the work force to be aligned more closely with schools, flatten the bureaucracy, and reduce travel time to work sites. Through its capital planning at the start of 2005, the District identified needs at every school in the county. Maintenance staff has been able to create detailed plans to address the deficiencies they are responsible for addressing. In two weeks, the School Board will receive the first of regular quarterly status reports on the department’s success in carrying out these school-by-school maintenance plans. This increased accountability is being translated down to the level of individual workers through an employee tracking system that uses Global Positioning System technology to determine workers’ locations and to allow them to punch in and out from remote location and receive work orders from the field. The Maintenance Department has been able to make these strides despite an extremely tight labor market for skilled tradespeople capable of doing the work. Since February, the department has been able to hire 18 skilled tradespeople and seven new grounds workers. At the same time, the department is working to build the skills of current employees. It trained all custodians in the District – who are not supervised by Maintenance administrators – on proper techniques for cleaning restrooms. # # # 005-LJG/055 |
