VSPMA Newsletters
March 2024
Message from the VSPMA President
Welcome to the late winter/early spring edition of the VSPMA Quarterly Newsletter! Despite the Groundhog’s prediction of an early spring, we are still getting hit with wintry weather! I hope your winter events have been un-eventful.
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So Cool…
Waverly Yowell Elementary School in Madison County Public Schools is in the process of a new chiller install. Spectrum Design in Roanoke is the A and E firm on the project with Waco, Inc. as the installer
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Coming to Fredericksburg City Public Schools
Fredericksburg City Public Schools engaged First Choice Public-Private Partnership to design and
construct a new 1,100 student, approximately 160,000 square foot middle school.
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SAVE THE DATES!
A Custodial Workshop, “Providing the Best Environments for Virginia Schools” will be held on June 7, 2024 at the Chesterfield Technical Center hosted by Chesterfield County Public Schools.
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NEED A GRANT??
Now Open! Grant Funding to Address Indoor Air Pollution at Schools.
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June 2023
Message from the VSPMA President
Welcome to the Late Spring/Early Summer edition of the VSPMA Quarterly Newsletter! The not-so-lazy-days of Summer are here – summer capital projects, big repair projects, annual cleaning … all scheduled within a few months.
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HGSC – Cleaning Self-Assessment Identifies Key Areas of Improvement
When the Wisconsin-based West Allis-West Milwaukee School District first learned about the Healthy Green Schools & Colleges (HGSC) initiative, it was easy to wonder if this was just another idea that sounded good in theory, but would be too costly or take too much time to implement.
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The Uvalde Debrief – Tom Czyz
The Uvalde Debrief helps law enforcement officers, school administrators, and architects learn from the deadly failures in Uvalde. A former student crashed a truck behind Robb Elementary School and then walked through an unsecured back door on May 24, 2022.
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Request for Presentations
The VSPMA board of directors is pleased to issue this Request for Presentations for our VSPMA 2023 Conference Professional Learning Sessions to be held in October of 2023.
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March 2023
Message from the VSPMA President
Welcome to the Late Winter/Early Spring edition of the VSPMA Quarterly Newsletter! In this edition you’ll find fascinating articles from Sara Porter and Heidi Wilcox. You couldn’t find two people more passionate about what they do for schools. I had a chance to see Sara and Heidi in action at last month’s National School Plant Management Association (NSPMA) annual conference and I’m so glad I did – they were among the most popular presenters there!
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Simple Ways to Improve School Indoor Air Quality
Indoor air quality (IAQ) affects everything from health to concentration to test performance, and there are straightforward ways to improve it at your school even with a limited budget.
These three high-impact measures from the Healthy Green Schools & Colleges standard are good starting points.
- Establish an HVAC Maintenance Plan
- Assess Ventilation
- Choose Safer Cleaning Products
Going Green to Save Green
A sustainability initiative at one Colorado school district is anticipated to generate a net savings of $20 million over 20 years while making its buildings more environmentally friendly and improving the learning environment for more than 60,000 students and staff. Cherry Creek School District and Sourcewell awarded supplier Johnson Controls are embarking on the initiative expected to reduce annual carbon emissions by 25% and water usage by 1.8 billion gallons – all while creating a more improved learning environment throughout Colorado’s fourth-largest school district.
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Taking Control of Infection Control
A major challenge in the facility services industry is how to handle infectious outbreaks. We have all seen news reports of this university or that district closed for cleaning and disinfecting due to absences from an infectious outbreak like Covid 19. Unfortunately, the reality is, this is a waste of time and money. You will pay extra to shut the school down and have a service come in to do a deep clean and disinfect. Instead, it’s better to have correct systems in place every day so infectious outbreaks are not an issue. If they happen, the department is ready.
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September 2022
Rocktown High School:
Region 5
Common work zones and spaces are designed throughout to allow for a variety of group sizes for project collaborations. Spaces are designed to be flexible and transformable to support student presentation, performance, and active learning using a diverse spectrum of learning modalities; not just for today’s student-learners, but for those far into the twenty-first century.
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Region 6 News
Safety enhancements are under way in 4 schools via security vestibules. 7 schools have had complete HVAC replacements. Significant HVAC improvements are planned for 22-23 school year, with IAQ in mind.
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June 2022
Loudoun County Public Schools
Loudoun County Public Schools has completed a $4.3-million membrane bioreactor wastewater treatment plant at Lucketts Elementary School in Lucketts, VA. The new plant is replacing a rotary biological trickling sand filter which was part of the original school construction in 1972.
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Sourcewell – Government Partner
To better serve the members of the Virginia School Plant Managers Association, Sourcewell has agreed to partner and fill the position on the Board as a government partner. Sourcewell has served school districts in Virginia since the 90’s through its cooperative purchasing program.
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King George County Schools
Here at King George County Schools our team has been working on the purchase and installation of inclusive ADA Playgrounds at all of our Elementary Schools. Three years ago, we purchase our first ADA playground and we have been working hard to make all of our Elementary Schools equal. The students love to play with the percussion playset, also known as Soprano Quartet Ensemble.
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March 2022
VSPMA Spotlight
Robert Sallee – The combination of my 5 years in the US Navy, education, and hands-on experience in the HVAC/R and electrical trade has been very helpful in my role as a Maintenance Supervisor.
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Region VII News
Region VII’s Lee County Public Schools, like many other school systems throughout the state, have older schools that cost a great amount of money to upgrade their current facilities.
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Poquoson Middle School Renovation
In January 2021, Poquoson City Public Schools broke ground on a major renovation of its only middle school, Poquoson Middle School. The design team was headed by Waller, Todd & Sadler out of Virginia Beach.
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Chesterfield County Public Schools
Chesterfield County Public Schools (CCPS) currently supports over 63,000 students and 7,000 staff members. CCPS occupies 66 school buildings, plus several administrative buildings and trailers with a total footprint exceeding 8 million square feet. T
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