Board approves FY26 comprehensive maintenance plan for school facilities

The Saint Mary's County Board of Education voted Wednesday to approve the fiscal year 2026 Comprehensive Maintenance Plan for educational facilities. The plan links daily maintenance work to longer-term capital priorities and will be submitted as required to the Interagency Commission on School Construction.

The CMP maps routine and preventive maintenance tasks across the district's inventory and explains how the maintenance department prioritizes work. "The purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of the comprehensive maintenance plan and how it ensures safe, efficient and sustainable facilities for our students and staff," the maintenance presenter said during the meeting.

Why it matters: the CMP is the mechanism the district uses to justify maintenance staffing levels and project recommendations that feed the capital program the school system uses to pursue state funding. Approving the CMP is a routine but required step for the district to remain eligible for state facility programs.

Key details: the presentation said the maintenance department comprises 39.85 employees responsible for 31 school facilities, 65 relocatable units and roughly 2,500,000 square feet of space. Work-order volume rose from just over 10,000 in fiscal 2015 to just over 12,000 in fiscal 2025; the department reported the average backlog fell from 46 days in 2015 to 11 days in 2025. The plan ties preventive maintenance to reduced downtime and longer asset life.

The plan documents that the district implemented a new computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), Asset Essentials (Brightly), going live 06/24/2024. Presenters said the platform helped the department schedule preventive work, prioritize requests and extract the data used to build the CMP. "Brightly is a one-stop shop for what we're able to do," the maintenance presenter told the board.

Staffing and workload: the presentation used industry benchmarks (APPA) to estimate staffing needs and concluded the department remained understaffed by an estimated 4.18 full-time equivalents for FY25. The district reported an average maintenance load of about 75,000 square feet per maintenance staff member versus an APPA-recommended 67,000. Presenters also noted two paid student apprentices participating through the local technical center apprenticeship program.

Board action: a board member moved to approve the FY26 CMP as presented; the motion was seconded and carried. The vote was announced as carried with those voting "aye." The board did not record a roll-call tally in the meeting transcript.

Next steps: with board approval the CMP will be used to make project recommendations to the district's capital planning group and to support required submissions to the Interagency Commission on School Construction. Presenters said the plan's life-cycle charts and inspection results will inform capital project proposals and staffing requests in the district's capital planning cycle.