The goal of educational institutions has always been to create an optimal environment for learning. With the list of needs often exceeding the capital budget’s available balance, achieving that goal can seem impossible. Many facility managers are forced to find quick solutions to everyday issues just to keep things running. As a result, they are rarely able to get ahead of major building issues. At Henderson Engineers, we understand the importance of keeping systems running and getting ahead of poor-performing environments. That’s why we work through master planning with our clients.

Master planning is a step-by-step strategy to improve and manage building systems performance. Our team has helped school districts and college campuses across the nation understand, prioritize, and implement master planning solutions. The following four-step process can help you maximize your capital improvement budget and deliver building systems performance.

Evaluate

The first step in the process is to get a firm grasp on the current status of the facilities. Reviewing any existing plans and/or reports can often give you a starting point. However, site assessments —actually putting eyes on the systems— can provide a much more accurate understanding of the state of the equipment as well as an opportunity to discover any obvious issues. There are several ways to document observations from a site assessment, but the most important thing is to capture information in a way that provides a holistic understanding of the facility’s condition. The compiled report typically includes an executive summary of pertinent information, as well as a detailed description of the findings and a list of recommendations and solutions.

In addition, interviewing the onsite staff is an extremely important part of the process. They understand the specific issues they face on a daily basis, such as spaces that are consistently hot or cold, humidity issues, or breakers that regularly trip and require resetting. By communicating directly with the zone managers or the building maintenance staff, the team can understand their unique perspective on what issues are truly interrupting the learning environment. This can also help to secure their buy-in for upgrades as they can give input on the most critical and sometimes hidden system deficiencies.

Prioritize

Because upgrading everything at once isn’t feasible, prioritization is a necessity in the master planning process. When prioritizing updates, there are three considerations:

• The age and remaining life expectancy of the equipment. Are there systems that would cause a building-wide shut-down if they failed due to age? Are there no longer parts available for servicing central equipment? If so, these can be prioritized over localized equipment age.
• Safety. Many district or campus facilities undergoing renovation or expansion include existing conditions that may not meet today’s codes or safety standards. Sometimes simply maintaining the equipment isn’t safe for facility staff. These items should also be prioritized in the master planning process.
• The suitability of the system for today’s learning environments. Buildings with poor air quality, thermal discomfort, and inadequate light levels are prime opportunities to make big improvements in student and faculty achievement.

Developing a plan through these lenses will help identify which project needs to be addressed first.

Plan

Once priorities have been established, the next phase of master planning is developing the plan. The key difference between prioritizing and planning is the addition of general estimates for various improvements to bring budgeting into the conversation. In this phase, the design team will come to a consensus on priorities and budget through administration input and buy-in. Project phasing is also a vital part of the planning effort. Not only can it help manage the budget, but it can also ensure continuity in classes and extracurricular functions. This is also a good opportunity to identify desired standards to implement in future improvements and discuss potential technologies that are of interest in upgrades.

Implement

The final step is to implement the plan. As many facility managers know, it’s inevitable that some things may not go according to plan. However, by going through the master planning process, you can be prepared when the administration asks for input on capital budgets or what needs can be addressed as part of a larger funding approach. The master plan can also be implemented in conjunction with newly-developed design and construction efforts that may result in renovation or addition to a facility; by identifying issues during master planning, they can be addressed as design occurs for construction projects.

Benefits

In a traditional setting without master planning, improvements are often an unending cycle of deferred maintenance, temporary-turned-permanent fixes, equipment failure, procurement, and repair, just in time for the next unforeseen issue to arise. However, with master planning, your school or district can take a proactive approach to maintenance to keep you ahead of critical system failures that can disrupt the learning environment. You’re also able to take a proactive approach to budgeting, allowing you to prioritize improvements for constantly-aging infrastructure and set budgets well in advance of equipment replacement. By looking at the necessary upgrades holistically, you can identify inefficiencies and solve them rather than falling into the cyclical issues caused by quick fixes. And finally, by taking the time to master plan, you are able to implement standards for future projects that can ultimately create consistency across your district or campus.

Master planning bridges the gap between everyday operation and long-term operational success. Our four-step process has helped our clients maintain successful building systems performance. Contact our team to learn more and see if master planning is right for you.