Kent School District facilities director outlines maintenance priorities, portables plan and FMX work-order roll-out

Gordon Cook, director of facilities for the Kent School District, told the school board the facilities team’s mission is to provide safe, clean and operational buildings for students and staff, and described ongoing strategies to manage a large portfolio of aging buildings and 162 portables.

Cook said the department runs a strand strategy to visit every school in a weekly rotation and uses an aging-report strategy driven by work orders (target timelines: high priority within five days, medium within 15, low within 45). The environmental services team uses task sheets to sequence daily work, and two administrative assistants support operations.

Why it matters: The district balances daily custodial and maintenance needs with deferred-maintenance priorities, emergency responses (vandalism, weather) and long-term capital planning. Portables remain in use for classroom and program needs, but Cook said the district’s goal is to reduce student time in portables where possible.

Key details and numbers - Portables: The district reported 162 portables in service; staff said the goal is to eliminate student use of portables over time and to maintain operational readiness for portables kept in reserve. - FMX system: The district began using FMX in May 2024 to manage work orders and facility use. Cook said the system is still being refined and numbers depend on how work orders are entered. - Work orders (reported by facilities): For the 2024–25 school year to date, staff reported 4,571 closed work orders (approximately 1,170 high, 1,449 medium, 1,950 low). For the first eight weeks of the current year they reported 1,319 closed work orders (roughly 277 high, 91 medium, 951 low). Cook characterized average closure times as roughly 19 days for high, 14 for medium and 70 for low priority items, and said the team is working toward district goals. - Staff and retention: Maintenance and environmental services staff represent diverse backgrounds (17 countries, 17 languages). Retention rates reported were 96% for Environmental Services and 100% for Maintenance in the 2023–24 school year.

Discussion highlights Board members asked whether the district is responsible for electrical transformers at some sites and whether portables that have reached life expectancy are being removed. Cook said larger transformers are ordinarily on the utility provider side but that a few smaller feed transformers might be district responsibility. He said older, dilapidated portables have been removed over the last two years and remaining portables are kept in operational condition.

Cook said outsourcing decisions are made on scope, time and budget; the maintenance team runs a cold-weather monitoring team and an on-call staffer for after-hours emergencies. The department is developing an operations manual and will continue refining FMX use.

Sources: Remarks by Gordon Cook, Director of Facilities; Deputy Superintendent Wade Behringer; public board discussion.