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The President
Speaks:
CONNIE
WARD
SCSPMA President
RUNNING ON FUMES
As I pull into the gas station to fill’er up for the trip home from the
SCSPMA summer conference, I began
to think about how the price of fuel has affected the way we think and see
normal day to day life.
Fuel costs are up 35-40% since last year. It affects all that is our
world. Many new challenges face school
districts across the country. Working for the largest school district in
South Carolina you can easily see the
ramifications of high fuel prices on school budgets, our children’s
education, and the work force.
I began researching the internet for solutions. As expected, most of the
schools in the U.S. have undergone
drastic changes due to the high cost of fuel.
How about a 4-day school/work week?|
Internet education courses ?
Bus routes reduced or eliminated?
Alternative fuels such as natural gas, ethanol or vegetable oil?
Just
think about the savings upside:
Ø
Energy costs go down
Ø
Employee productivity increases
Ø
Children & adults get more exercise, become
healthier, less absences from school and work
What
about the down side:
Ø
School days with longer hours
Ø
Child care issues
Ø
The safety of our children while walking to and
from school in inclement weather.
Ø
What about children that are on the free and
reduced fee lunch programs ?
(school meals may be the only nutritional meal these
students receive.)
The pros and cons go on and on. But
the question we should ask ourselves is:
What can your School
District do to help reduce costs?
As of July 1, 2008, Greenville County’s HVAC Department has implemented a 10
hour/4 day work week.
Estimated annual savings is $28,000 in fuel savings and overtime cost
reductions.
Here’s a challenge for you...What can
you do, as a South Carolina School District, to help ease some of the cost
increases and save on fuel? You may think “we are too small a number”, but
every little bit helps.
The Association would appreciate hearing from our members on what your district
is doing or planning on doing
in the future to reduce operational costs !
Please Email us and let us know.
God Bless,
Connie Ward
President, SCSPMA
JIM VICAR
SCSPMA Executive Director
Executive Director Update
As Executive
Director of the SCSPMA, it is part of my job description to advise the Board on
matters dealing
with By-Laws, conferences, training, business operations and suggestions for
improvement. With one eye on our
past and the other eye on our future it seems very obvious that we need to
retain that which is beneficial to our
membership but find new ways to attract those who have not yet realized enough
value to join our Association.
I am in the planning stages of a “Managers Only” type seminar. Many Directors,
Superintendents, Purchasing Agents,
Supervisors and Managers no longer attend our Summer Conference. There are many
reasons for this decline in
attendance/membership and my thinking is that a seminar geared to only these
types of positions may result in renewed
interest. Many vendors don’t feel we provide enough decision makers at the
summer conference and therefore vendor
numbers have not grown significantly over the past several years. A decision
makers seminar could be the answer to both problems.
Together with the Board , I
hope to have final plans completed by the middle of September with a possible
seminar date in late
February or early March 2009. I welcome any comments, suggestions or guidance
anyone may wish to submit.
I may be contacted by phone at 803-609-3172 or email at jimvicar@sc.rr.com.
I would also like to mention
that in an effort to move forward we have entered into an agreement with Del
Communications, Inc.
to professionally prepare and publish our official publication, “The
Maintenance Update”. We are moving from a newsletter to a
magazine while at the same time reducing our cost for preparation and
distribution. All members are encouraged to submit note
worthy employees, products and awards to me for possible publication.
ALEX JAMES - SCSPMA AMBASSADOR
Seeking School Improvements
Districts throughout South Carolina often are impacted by the lack of funds to
adequately maintain their
facilities. For those of us who work in districts where budgets provide the
opportunity to have preventive
maintenance programs, we struggle to understand why there is no parity in
funding of capital needs from
the state for those districts in the state that are not so fortunate. All
districts in our state have an ambassador
for their needs in Alex James. Alex continues to meet with State Superintendent
Jim Rex to explore
legislation to correct funding deficiencies and encourage state legislators to
properly fund capitol building
projects for all districts. The national average for the age of school buildings
across the country is over
fifty-five years. With all the improvements in technology in recent years and
the academic models
in place for our schools, it is easy to see that our facilities are outdated.
Providing state of the art schools
for America’s children is crucial and statistics show that students who complete
high school are more likely
to succeed in life.
Identifying maintenance departments
SCSPMA decided to identify two maintenance departments in South Carolina that
would benefit from
attending our summer conference. The Executive Board along with Alex James
,will decide which two
departments would benefit the most from attending the conference, networking
with peers and gaining
valuable information to implement in their district.
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