{"id":8010,"date":"2018-07-06T11:45:03","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T15:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=8010"},"modified":"2018-11-05T16:10:45","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T21:10:45","slug":"vbcps-school-plant-team-is-busy-getting-schools-ready-for-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/vbcps-school-plant-team-is-busy-getting-schools-ready-for-september\/","title":{"rendered":"VBCPS School Plant team is busy getting schools ready for September"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Monday after school was out, School Plant\u2019s 166 craftsman descended across the division\u2019s schools to start work on a multitude of remodeling and replacement projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re painting entire buildings. We\u2019re doing lighting projects. We\u2019re doing pipe lining projects as well as flipping school libraries<\/a>,\u201d said Eric Woodhouse, director of School Plant Services, the school division\u2019s maintenance office which is responsible for the upkeep and care of more than 11 million square feet of building space.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe try not to interrupt the educational process so the best time to do it is in the summer \u2013 right when schools close from June 18 to our deadline date, which is Aug. 15,\u201d according to Woodhouse.<\/p>\n

Underway right now or about to begin soon are at least 80 projects \u2013 most of which are done by School Plant with some specialized work\u00a0completed by contractors.<\/p>\n

School Plant\u2019s craftsmen include plumbers; electricians; carpenters; heating, ventilation and air conditioning technicians; painters; filter specialists; roofers; and general maintenance craftsman who do doors, windows and flooring.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Woodhouse, \u201cMany of them are master plumbers, master electricians, master HVAC specialists, master carpenters and specialists within each of the trades. We have people with a lot of good experience and qualifications.\u201d<\/p>\n

Projects are determined in a variety of ways. In addition to the items that are nearing the end of their life cycle which School Plant tracks, building administrators also submit annual requests for summer projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe send out an annual request for maintenance or upgrade of building and grounds to building administrators. This gives the administrators an opportunity to say what they would like to be done in their building,\u201d Woodhouse explained. This is all in addition to the regular maintenance work that takes place during the school year since School Plant staff walk the inside and outside of schools and administrative offices monthly.<\/p>\n

In addition, School Plant recently began a \u201cBuilding Managers\u201d program, which addresses maintenance concerns quickly in the schools and takes much of the responsibility of maintaining the buildings from the administrators. Woodhouse also said that it\u2019s helpful because the building managers might be able find maintenance issues early which could prevent costly repairs. School Plant staff can easily identify issues because they are trained to spot maintenance items.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are getting ahead of things that might actually cost a few hundred dollars before they become a $10,000 or $20,000 repair,\u201d Woodhouse said. \u201cYou have to do preventative maintenance to make sure that things stay in working order and from the mechanical side it is also about making sure everything is running efficiently to save on utility costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as crews are completing this year\u2019s work, they are also identifying projects for next summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a feel for what we need to do for next summer already.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why is the work important?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people walk into a building, if it looks well-maintained most likely it is,\u201d Woodhouse notes. \u201cWe want people to walk up to a building and say that here at Virginia Beach City Public Schools we take care of our buildings.”<\/p>\n

He also added that School Plant staff, which is sporting new red shirts this year so that they can easily be identified when they are\u00a0in a school building, take immense pride in their work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey care about the work they do,\u201d Woodhouse added. \u201cThey have passion and want to do a good job and when you look at Virginia Beach having all schools accredited, I like to think that School Plant played a role in it by making sure that for the most part schools were clean, well-conditioned and well maintained so students and teaching staff can focus on helping students.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Monday after school was out, School Plant\u2019s 166 craftsman descended across the division\u2019s schools to start work on a multitude of remodeling and replacement projects. \u201cWe\u2019re painting entire buildings. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":8008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[178],"class_list":["post-8010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-school-plant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8010"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8033,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8010\/revisions\/8033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}