38th Annual Maintenance & Operations Cost Study for Schools
Apr 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Joe Agron (jagron@asumag.com)
Despite the worst economic environment in generations, spending by K-12 institutions on maintenance and operations (M&O) held its own — defying historical trends that have shown M&O spending among the most affected in times of budget tightening.
According to data collected for American School & University's 38th annual Maintenance & Operations Cost Study, the median school district allocated 9.57 percent of total district expenditures (TDE) to M&O in the 2008-09 school year. This is an increase over last year, and much better than the abnormally low percentages reported earlier in the decade.
Whether a reflection of when data was collected (data reported is for the 2008-09 school year and reflects budgets passed prior to the escalation of the economic crisis) or that M&O budgets have suffered so much over the years that most operations already are “bare bones” and further reductions would cause crippling results, only time will tell.
However, school district operations remain under pressure. For example, although energy expenditures saw some relief, custodial staff is being tasked with more responsibility. With a median of 32,100 square feet maintained per full-time custodian (an almost 20 percent increase over last year's amount), facility directors must look continually for ways to improve productivity so that staff can work smarter, safer and more efficiently.
The following pages include data from the latest M&O Cost Study that can help you in benchmarking expenditures at your institution. Data provided reflect actual spending by school districts on M&O and are not intended to be “ideal” amounts. Numerous factors — age and overall condition of buildings, the labor market in your area, climate, etc. — also will affect your costs when compared with the national medians.
For those looking for additional data, select the links below the Web Exclusive icon that will direct you to exclusive data not found in the print version on M&O expenditures and operations at our nation's school districts.
Agron, editor-in-chief, can be reached at JAgron@ASUmag.com. Research conducted by Elinor Rice, senior research manager, Penton Media.
Data from the 38th Annual Maintenance & Operations Cost Study for Schools
- Methodology
- Total number of buildings in district
- Maintenance & Operations Costs per FTE student or per square foot
- Total gross area of buildings maintained
- Total gross area of grounds maintained
- Total maintenance and operations expenditures
- How the M&O budget is split
- Percentage of school districts contracting out M&O services
- Green Cleaning in Schools
- Median amount of square feet and acreage maintained
- M&O expenditures over the past 20 years
- Amount spent annually on transportation
- Salary data for custodial and maintenance personnel
- Number of full-time maintenance, custodial and grounds staff
- More Schools M&O data
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