BUILDINGS, GROUNDS, AND EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT		CL (R)
PROCEDURES	The Superintendent shall establish procedures to: 1. Provide accurate information regarding the nature, condition, location, and value of all school property. 2. Safeguard property against loss, damage, or undue deprecia-tion. 3. Recover, replace, or restore to usefulness property which may be lost, stolen, or damaged. 4. Take any necessary action to ensure the proper maintenance and safekeeping of school property. Guidelines and procedures applicable to maintenance and custodial employees shall be found in the "Policies and Procedures for Custodial Personnel Handbook," which has been approved by the Board. The "Handbook" shall serve as a supplement to adopted Board policies and approved administrative regulations, and shall have no force or effect if in conflict with those policies, regulations, or administrative directives.
DESIGNATED PERSONS	The Superintendent shall designate a person at each school building, warehouse, stadium, and administration building to be responsible for all properties belonging to or located on those premises. Teachers and other employees shall be held responsible for the care of properties located within their assigned areas.
USE OF INSTRUCTIONAL FACILITIES	It is the Board’s intent to operate school buildings in a prudent and fiscally sound manner. It subscribes to the concepts of the neighborhood elementary school, whenever possible, and equalization of all secondary schools. The Superintendent will regularly conduct an analysis of facilities with respect to enrollments, capacities, programs, staff members, and costs. When a school(s) is identified as being over- or under-utilized, a solution from the following considerations will be addressed: 1. Change boundaries. 2. Change grade level organization. 3. Special program use. 4. Increase present capacity. 5. Build new school. 6. Close facility. If a satisfactory solution cannot be reached utilizing one of the first five considerations, the Superintendent shall institute a school consolidation study when any one of the following conditions exists: 1. An elementary school’s enrollment falls below that level which justifies two full-ratio teaching stations for grades K-5, and is projected to remain below that level for three years if no boundary adjustments are made. 2. A secondary school’s enrollment falls substantially under capacity for a three-year period and is projected to remain so. "Substantially under capacity" is the difference between classroom capacity and student membership to the extent that students in that grouping could be housed in one less school. 3. The operating cost per student at a school has substantially exceeded the districtwide average for schools of a similar level for a three-year period and is budgeted to exceed that average in the current year. 4. A school is a candidate for a major renovation. A school which meets any one of the appropriate conditions described above shall be grouped with a cluster of nearby schools for the consolidation study. The Superintendent shall appoint a districtwide advisory committee to include representatives from affected communities. This committee will study the following information about each school in the cluster. 1. A five-year enrollment and capacity history. 2. A five-year projection of enrollment and capacity. 3. Description of instructional program and staffing: a. Standard core curriculum. b. Standard extracurricular electives. c. Student/teacher ratios. 4. Community activities using school and/or site. 5. Description of the physical plant including floor plan. 6. Renovation history, needs, and cost estimates. 7. Comparative student aptitude and achievement data. 8. All special education and other extended instructional uses of the school. 9. Per-student costs before and after change. 10.Alternative uses of school facilities. 11.Student and staff development. 12.Other data as related to the cluster. Upon examination and analysis of all data and appropriate factors, the committee will make recommendations to the Superintendent.
SPECIAL EVENT SCHEDULING	In scheduling use of school facilities the most effective and energy efficient areas should be used for special events. Factors to be considered are the group to be served, the numbers participating and the overall needs of that group. To schedule a special event the Weekly Special Event Schedule must be submitted in advance to the Office of Energy Management. This applies to all activities scheduled on a school’s in-house calendar that will involve use of lighting, heating, or air conditioning.
FACILITY USE BY CONTRACT	Requests for functions requiring a contract for facility usage will be handled through the Maintenance Office. These types of activities need not be included in the special event request to the Office of Energy Management.
ENERGY CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT	Individual employees shall be responsible for implementing this regulation in their respective areas. The principal will be held responsible for the total energy usage of his/her building. The Energy Manager will provide the principal information reflecting the energy consumption for their building monthly. Any exception or change to this regulation must be approved by the Energy Manager and/or the Associate Superintendent of Operations.
PROCEDURES FOR OPERATING LIGHTS	The following conservation procedures shall be observed at all times: 1. Refrain from turning lights on unless they are definitely needed. In rooms with dual light switches, only those lights shall be used that are needed for the tasks to be performed. 2. Lights shall be turned OFF anytime an employee leaves an area that is to remain unoccupied for more than just a few minutes. The one exception shall be gyms that have lights requiring a warm-up period. These shall be turned OFF anytime the area is to be unoccupied for more than 20 minutes. Consider assigning a student to help turn off lights as the class leaves the room each time. 3. Lights shall not be flipped ON/OFF as this will greatly reduce the life expectancy of the bulbs and the switches. 4. Take full advantage of natural lighting. Many hallways have skylights that give more than enough light for safe passage without having to use the hall lights all the time. 5. In an area that has a large number of lights such as a gym, an auditorium, a media center, or a cafeteria, ONLY the sections of lights that are needed for the tasks to be performed shall be used. 6. Security lights and outside activities lights are not always the same lights. Activity lights, which may be used during school activities, include: parking lot lights, marquee lights, entrance lights, and decorative lights. Their need shall be determined by the building principal who shall authorize their use. 7. Head custodians shall be responsible for insuring that all timer controlled lights are calibrated to correspond to the hours needed. These should be reset each month to allow for the constant changes in the hours of darkness. 8. Custodians shall use lights only as needed in the specific area in which they are working. 9. When fluorescent lamps are removed from a fixture for the purpose of conserving energy, the ballast must also be disconnected. Do not discard the ballast as it can be used as a replacement ballast. When a ballast is to be replaced or removed, a work order shall be placed with the maintenance department. 10.During the hours that school is not in session and no activities are taking place, the school building should appear to be in an energy conservation mode. The only lights being used at this time should be those needed in individually occupied rooms and those needed for safe and secure passage through the building. Teachers who work early and/or late need to be instructed as to the location of hall light switches to turn them on/off as needed to get to and from their rooms. 11.Coaches and teachers who have student activities scheduled before and after school should inform students that the main building shall be dark before and after school and, therefore, should insist that the students use predesignated entrances and limit their access to the main building. This will conserve energy, reduce interference with custodial cleaning, and reduce problems resulting from unsupervised students in the building.
PROCEDURES FOR OPERATING HEATING AND AIR CONDITIONING EQUIPMENT	Temperature levels for air conditioning of 75 to 78 degrees and for heating of 68 to 72 degrees are considered by industry standards to be adequate for comfort. These shall serve as a standard for the district. The following energy conservation procedures shall be observed in all phases of heating and air conditioning use.
I NDIVIDUAL ROOM HEAT AND AIR UNITS	Buildings having individual heating and air conditioning units shall be controlled by the person using the room as follows: 1. Thermostats shall be set NO LOWER than 75 degrees when using air conditioning and NO HIGHER than 72 degrees when using heat. If these thermostat settings do not appear to keep the room at the proper temperatures, contact the head custodian. The head custodian shall be responsible for contacting maintenance for repairs or the Energy Manager for adjustments to the thermostat settings. 2. Teachers shall be responsible for turning the room air conditioner ON when they arrive at school in the morning and shall turn the unit OFF when they leave. 3. Teachers shall be responsible for turning the heat back up in the morning and shall set their thermostats BACK to 55 degrees when they leave at the end of the day. On extremely cold days, custodians shall set elementary classroom thermostats up as they open the building in the morning. 4. The head custodian shall be responsible for controlling the thermostats in areas other than the classrooms. 5. The kitchen manager shall be responsible for controlling the thermostats in the kitchens. 6. Under NO circumstances shall air conditioning be used in the evenings, on weekends, or in the summer except for APPROVED school functions. Custodians shall be expected to open doors and windows and to use fans to circulate the air and provide the necessary ventilation needed on days that school is not in session. 7. The night custodians shall be responsible for making sure each thermostat has been properly adjusted for the night settings. Since they do not get to some of the rooms until the end of their shift it is very important that each teacher has already readjusted the thermostat to the proper night setting.
CHILLER AND BOILER SYSTEMS	Some buildings are heated by large hot water boilers and cooled by one or more large chillers. This type of system must be carefully calibrated and controlled by trained HVAC personnel only. 1. Each thermostat shall be marked with a sticker that indicates that it is a PNEUMATIC THERMOSTAT and shall NOT be adjusted by teachers, administrators, custodians, or office personnel. 2. When the temperature in the room does not appear to fit the guidelines, this shall be reported to the principal’s office. Due to the complexity of this type of system, it is very important that maintenance is made aware of all areas that are not comfortable. 3. In most of the buildings that have this type of system, the units are set to operate by timer controls. The system shall be set to come on at a certain time in the morning and to go off at a preset time every afternoon. If properly set the system will not operate on weekends or holidays. It is extremely important that any activity that requires heat or air conditioning during these "OFF" hours be scheduled in advance through the office of the Energy Manager and/or the Maintenance Office.
AUDITORIUMS	Due to the size of most auditoriums, it is very important to refrain from heating and cooling these areas when they are not being used. Since it takes several hours to heat or cool this size area, it is extremely important that the custodian or in some instances, maintenance, be notified well ahead of time.
VESTIBULE DOORS	Due to the size of most auditoriums, it is very important to refrain from heating and cooling these areas when they are not being used. Since it takes several hours to heat or cool this size area, it is extremely important that the custodian or in some instances, maintenance, be notified well ahead of time.
OUTSIDE DOORS AND WINDOWS	Outside doors and windows shall NOT be used to regulate building temperatures at the same time the heat or air condition-ing is running.
CLASSROOM DOORS	Many buildings have halls that are not air conditioned or heated and in most cases no attempt is made to keep the halls as comfortable as the classrooms and offices. The units that control each room are normally designed to operate independently and are greatly effected by leaving classroom doors open. Individual classroom and office doors shall be kept closed when the heating or air conditioning is running.
AREAS WITH NO AIR CONDITIONING	In areas that have no air conditioning, such as gyms, shops, and mechanical rooms, the doors leading to the main building shall be kept shut at all times.
SPACE HEATERS	Portable electric heaters shall no longer be used in the district. This type of heater is very expensive to operate and is extremely dangerous to use.
ROLE OF THE PRINCIPAL	The principal shall assume a major role in energy conservation in supervision of all staff members. They shall be responsible for the following: 1. Use energy management audits as an administrative tool in correcting day-to-day energy usage habits. 2. Use the monthly energy report to gauge usage and improve- ment. Comparisons of schools will vary because of style and age of buildings, age and type of HVAC equipment, and the amount each school is used. Year to year comparisons of the school shall be made taking into account any change in the amount of usage. 3. Be aware of energy usage as programs are implemented and consent to the use the building is given. 4. Reproduce the information "Role Of The Teacher" and give to each teacher. 5. Use faculty meetings to emphasize the importance of wise energy use. 6. Make energy management a regular part of day-to-day observations regarding the building. 7. Encourage teachers to appoint students to assist in shutting doors and turning lights on/off. This can be an effective teaching tool. 8. Encourage teachers to include wise energy use as part of their curriculum. 9. Reproduce the information "Role Of The Custodian" and provide each custodian with a copy. 10.Emphasize the importance of custodians following the guidelines provided for energy management. 11.Make a special effort to emphasize to the custodians that they should constantly be aware of and checking general use of areas such as outside doors, vestibule doors, cafeteria lights, windows, etc. 12.Remind the custodians to turn off the lights in their own room when they are not using it. 13.Make energy management a regular part of principal observa- tions of the custodians.
ROLE OF THE TEACHER	Teachers shall be responsible for the energy usage within their rooms and any other area used in performance of their jobs. Teachers should teach students the importance of wise energy use through direction and curriculum, remembering that a good example is a great teaching tool. Some specific roles for the teacher in energy management shall include: 1. Make sure all windows and doors to the room are shut when the building is being heated or cooled. This is very important to the air flow of the unit. Also, it prevents heating and cooling the hallways. 2. Do not obstruct the air output or the return air by the stacking of materials or by the location of boxes in front of room ventila- tors. 3. Keep room thermostat at a reasonable temperature. Raising or lowering the thermostat greatly will not increase the temperature output. A thermostat is an on/off switch based on room temperature. In a multi-zone area, a large change in room temperature can adversely affect other rooms. If the thermo- stat does not keep the temperature at the desired level, report this to the principal. 4. Keep blinds and curtains closed if direct sun shines in during peak summer hours. 5. Keep blinds and curtains closed after hours to retain heating and cooling. 6. Turn out all lights when no one is in the room. (The only exception is a gym with high density lights.) 7. Make sure all vestibule doors and outside doors are shut when taking a class outside the building. 8. Report any energy problems to the principal. 9. Appoint students to assist in shutting doors and turning lights on/off. This can be used as a teaching tool.
ROLES OF THE CUSTODIAN EARLY IN THE MORNING              DURING THE DAY       AFTER STUDENTS LEAVE	The custodian shall report any energy problems to the principal immediately. The custodian has a variety of roles within the work day which include 1. Make sure all outside lights are off. 2. Close any vestibule doors that were opened for security. 3. Turn on lights in the halls just before teachers arrive and not when first getting to the school. 4. If the building does not have EMS or a clock-control of HVAC equipment, make good judgment of the time when the system must be turned on. It should be ready at 8:15, not 7:00. 5. Keep outside doors and vestibule doors closed. 6. Turn off lights in all unused rooms including cafeteria and gym. 7. Turn off the light to the custodial room when no one is in it. 8. Turn out all hallway lights leaving only enough light for teachers to get down the hallway (many schools have night lights or skylights). Also turn out all bathroom lights and exhaust fans. 9. Turn on only the hall lights when working in that hall and only the classroom lights when working in that room. Turn the lights off when leaving an area. 10.Turn off any air-conditioning or heating at dismissal or sooner if at all possible. This will vary by campus and activity schedules. (Non-EMS Schools). The building will maintain heat/cool for a long time. 11.Implement and maintain a complete night, weekend, and holiday shutdown schedule.

ISSUE DATE: 7/21/98