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Buildings director cites staffing shifts, $54,220 in short-term savings and outlines 10-year capital plan
Summary
Buildings & Grounds Director Andy Daniels told the Franklin school board that bringing HVAC and electrical work in-house has produced measurable cost avoidance and that a 10-year capital improvement plan and Fund 46 reserve will guide $96 million in long-range projects; the board discussed unexpected assessments and high-cost turf and generator replacements.
Andy Daniels, the district's buildings and grounds director, told the Franklin Public School District board that recent staffing additions and in-house maintenance have produced measurable cost avoidance and improved response times.
Daniels said hiring an in-house HVAC technician reduced annual preventative-maintenance outsourcing by about $65,000 and produced roughly $84,357 in reactive-maintenance cost avoidance to date. He credited a recently hired electrician with producing roughly $13,555 in cost avoidance per month; Daniels said the electrician’s first four months amounted to about $54,220 in avoided outside costs.
“Bringing those tradespeople in-house has allowed us to respond faster and avoid higher contractor costs,” Daniels said in his presentation.
He reported a districtwide reduction in gas consumption of about 9,000 therms and said LED conversions are nearly complete across buildings, with remaining high-school areas to be finished during ongoing projects.
Daniels reviewed the district’s long-range capital plan, a working list that he described as approximately $96,000,000 at the outset and currently showing about $90,500,000 in known needs. He said the district’s referendum produced $21.3 million for capital projects, of which roughly $17.3 million was assigned to an outside manager (CD Smith). So far the district has spent about $5.5 million on referendum-related projects this fiscal year and is projecting approximately $5.1 million more in near-term commitments, leaving an estimated $7 million for the final two years of the manager’s portion.
Board members pressed Daniels on contingencies and higher-than-expected line items. Daniels flagged a recent, city-initiated sanitary-sewer frontage assessment of about $139,000 that the district was able to cover from Fund 46 (a reserve for capital), saying that planning and reserves are exactly the reason the fund exists.
He also warned that some items—replacement of turf fields, bleachers or complex generator systems—carry much larger one-time costs and may not be fully insurable. Daniels said an upcoming generator replacement estimate came in higher than budgeted and that the district is conservative when budgeting for unknowns.
The board praised the staffing changes and the cost-avoidance figures and asked Daniels to continue refining the 10-year plan for board approval at a future meeting.
The board will revisit the formal 10-year capital improvement plan and take action at the next scheduled meeting.
