Episode 30: State school property maintenance

Today we’re talking about state school property maintenance. School boards, which include the tumuaki, are responsible for overseeing the maintenance of their kura. Good maintenance keeps schools safe, and prevents small problems from escalating into big ones needing expensive repair.

 

My guests are:

• De Thomson, Ministry of Education Infrastructure manager Otago/Southland
• Nick Read, tumuaki of Havelock North Primary School
• Alistair Luke, principal of Whangamata Area School

 

This podcast was produced for the Ministry of Education as part of Te Ara Tīmatanga mō ngā Tumuaki - The Beginning Pathway for Principals.

 

You can learn more about this topic by accessing Te Ara Tīmatanga mō ngā Tumuaki - The Beginning Pathway for Principals e-learning modules on the Education LMS: https://training.education.govt.nz

 

Show notes

Episode themes:

• Your property advisor can come and give you a property 101 presentation. They’re your point of contact for all things property.
• Three main types of maintenance:
  • Regular day-to-day and preventative maintenance, like gutter cleaning, pruning etc. Often done by school caretaker.
  • Cyclical, eg painting
  • Specialist/technical eg servicing of boiler, gas appliances or air conditioning units that needs to be done by qualified tradespeople. If you can’t find a tradesperson for what you need, contact your property advisor who’ll be able to help you find someone.
• Property maintenance paid for by property maintenance grant (PMG), which is based on the size of your site and your assets.
• Responsibility for property can be delegated - some schools have a property manager but they still work closely with the principal.
• Any maintenance job over $100,000 in value needs to go through procurement process.
• Building warrants of fitness or B-WOF needs to be done annually.
• Argest completes compliance checks and B-WOF inspections for all state schools.

 

Additional information

A 10YPP contains:
- a property assessment
- a 10 year maintenance plan for the school (including a cyclical maintenance schedule for things like repainting) and 
- a 10 year capital works plan - split into a current 5YA and a proposed future 5YA.

 

Ministry of Education property portal https://property.education.govt.nz 

 

Facilities and operations https://www.education.govt.nz/education-professionals/schools-year-0-13/facilities-and-operations

 

Planning property maintenance (including maintenance plans) https://www.education.govt.nz/education-professionals/schools-year-0-13/facilities-and-operations/planning-property-maintenance#paragraph-4911  

 

Questions

2:03 [De] When a new tumuaki arrives in a school, what's the best way for them to get their head around property maintenance and what they as part of the board are responsible for?

 

3:00 [De] Can you tell me about the different types of maintenance for school property?

 

4:16 [De] How is school maintenance funded?  

 

5:50 [De] who would normally be doing maintenance in a school. 

 

6:59 [De] For some things, schools need to go through a procurement process for maintenance. Under which circumstances would that need to happen?

 

7:41 [De] Is there a dollar point at which that kicks in? 

 

8:26 [Nick/Alistair] Who looks after the maintenance at your kura?

 

10:56 [Alistair/Nick] What kinds of maintenance has been needed in your school in the last year or so?

 

13:38 [Nick] How big a role do you play as tumuaki in that property maintenance stuff?

 

14:32 [Alistair] You mentioned you have a property manager?

 

16:41 [De] I wanted to ask you about building warrants of fitness. What are they and how often do they have to be done?

 

18:38 [De] What are the risks of not having a building warrant of fitness?

 

19:18 [De] Who does the inspections? Is it Argest?

 

20:08 [Nick/Alistair] How did you get your head around the maintenance that’s required when you first started?

 

22:48 [All] Do you have any other advice for new tumuaki when it comes to property maintenance?

 

27:28 [All] Is there anything we haven’t covered?