SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/56877
Facility&Operations | Mike Tarantino Working with school boards and administrators came about. I have broken this out in to several key headings and subheadings. Communication. GET OVER YOUR >> MIKE TARANTINO, director of maintenance and operations, Poway (CA) School District. T HIS IS A VERY BROAD SUB- JECT and is highly subjective. We all know no two people are alike and this holds true for school board members and administrators. All of us involved with K-12 schools should know that boards' and administrators' number 1 goal is education; what we have to make them understand is that a safe and aesthetically pleasing school is paramount to teachers, students and the community. There has been a lot of research on the correlation of well-maintained schools vs. student achievement that dates as far back as the 1920's. Let's face it, we have come a long way since then, however, one thing remains: schools are the hub of the community and are not just a place for education to occur but also a place for children and adults to play. Did you know that children spend up to 24,000 hours at school (K-12)? With that introduction, I can only relate my relationship with my school board, ad- ministrators and the community and how it FEARS! The school board, administrators and community members are all human be- ings. After all, they hired you to do a job. Do not be hesitant to approach them with an idea that could benefit the school com- munity. Remember that a majority of their time is spent on improving education and your sports fields may be the furthest thing from their mind but remember to relate your idea to how this will enhance the learn- ing quality of the children, improve staff morale and provide a recreation area for the community. Become visible. Attend school board meetings. Yes, these are usually held in the evening, but deal with it and go. Make weekly meetings or do a weekly report to your supervisor, director or superintendent, let them know what you are doing to im- prove the school community. Attend local youth and or adult recreation meetings, offer to present at these meetings and most importantly, listen to their needs. Make sure to follow up with requests from these groups because no one likes being ignored. Visit your school sites and make sure not to ignore anyone. Visit with the coaches, teachers, principals and the children. Every- body's opinion is important and everybody wants their opinion heard. I have learned more from coaches about the little things in the way to prepare their field for their par- ticular team than I have from any book. I like to call communication the art of listen- ing, understanding and then responding; do this and people will begin to recognize you and what you do. Documentation. School boards, admin- istrators and community members are re- sults driven and want documentation or proof. Document your successes to better handle the "what have you done for me lately" syndrome. Take pictures of your proj- ects start through finish, include team work in the pictures, include equipment used owned, rented or borrowed. Finally, write a report to go with the pictures along with costs of the project. Have an end goal in mind. This could be as simple as showing what you can do to improve the school community or as ammunition if you want to purchase a piece of equipment, for exam- ple, document the rental cost vs. purchase. Provide a cost analysis if this is your goal. Show man hour savings and the number of additional projects you could complete with this particular piece of equipment. Here is an example: A 10-acre field will take the 60-inch deck mower approximately 3 hours and 15 min- utes. An 11-foot deck mower will mow the same 10 acres in approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, a 2 man/hour savings per 10 acres. If the operator mows 100 acres the savings will be 20 man hours. Twenty man hours x $480 (20 hrs. x $24.00/ hr.) per 100 acres x 52 weeks equals $24,960 per year. The 11-foot deck mower could pay for itself in approximately 2 years, or a gain of 1,040 man/hours per year. DOCUMENT YOUR FAILURES I know what you're thinking, I can't show my failures. Yes you can, but you need to show and let the school board, administra- tors and the community know what you learned from that mistake. Some of my biggest successes came from failures. Use tools that are available to you, like Visit your school sites and make sure not to ignore anyone. Visit with the coaches, teachers, principals and the children. Everybody's opinion is important and everybody wants their opinion heard. 28 SportsTurf | March 2012 www.sportsturfonline.com By