Little Rock School District Planning, Research and Evaluation: Extended Program Evaluations

Exhibit 310A
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LITTLE ROCK SCHOOL DISTRICT PLANNING, RESEARCH AND EVALUATION EXTENDED PROGRAM EVALUATIONS 1994-1995 1 of 2 IN-DEPTH PROGRAM EVALUATION Program Description: Facilities service includes resources to identify, plan and execute maintenance/repair programs equitably so that Little Rock School District students can receive efficient, functional and effective education. Specifically, facilities includes maintenance programs to maintain/repair all District facilities in an equitable condition commensurate with financial resources and District priorities. Purpose: The purpose operation's necessary to critical as management. of the Facilities Program is part of the base costs to maintain the buildings and grounds support the educational mission. This program is it encompasses all aspects of real property Scope and Content: The Facilities Program encompasses the repair of all existing facilities, grounds and other real property, the maintenance thereof, new construction to support academic initiatives, all real estate actions to include leases, purchasing of property, selling of property, easements, grants, rights-of-way and licenses. It is extenqed to include the base operation costs of utility payments covering electric, water, gas, refuse, entomology and any other miscellaneous services. It includes long-range planning, responsibilities with regard to new construction, maintenance, acquisition and closing of facilities. Participants/Beneficiaries: The Facilities Program is a base operations program that supports all persons that work for the Little Rock School District, are educated by its programs, or visit its facilities. Program Goals: To equitably maintain and repair facilities to support academic programs, student enrollment and administrative support, the Little Rock School District is committed to insure for all students equitable educational facilities and schools which are located in lower socio-economic areas shall receive attention and resources at least equal to those in more affluent areas in the District. 1 Evaluation Criteria: The evaluation criteria for the objectives listed in the Facilities Program consists principally of historical records indicating requests and completions of maintenance and repair work. The evaluation criteria is geared .specifically to the objectives as outlined in the Desegregation Plan, Court Orders and OD~ Reports. They do not require a relative measure of success, but merely to report numbers of requests made and completions and the percent thereof. Evaluation Results: There is no measurable scale of success against which the evaluation can be made. The objectives reported in the Facilities Program Budget Document, as stated previously, merely report the percent of completion of requests made of the Facilities Program. There is no set goal that can be equated to measure this quantity. The amount of work completed has too many variables to establish a set percent to be achieved in any given reporting period. This is due to the complexity of the requests, the nature of the requests, the total number and the resources allocated to complete that goal, coupled with the priority. Objective #1: To maintain all school facilities such that they are in a safe, operational condition, and to repair, as necessary, commensurate with resources. Discussion fl: The overall level of success indicates that we have met our objective on all reporting periods. It is to be reasonably expected that the percent completed of the items listed under "Strategies" will vary commensurate with the amount of work and the resources allocated these initiatives. Since there is no measure of success or pre-determined percent which must be completed, one can only assume that all work that could reasonably be accomplished during the reporting period was done so, and all uncompleted work will carry forth to the next reporting period. Objective #2: The capacities of junior high schools will be reviewed in light of needed programs. Such capacities will then be revised as necessary. Discussion #2: This objective was met in 1993 and later evaluated in 1994. It will be recommended that this objective be deleted from the Program Budget Document. Objective #3: Concrete walks and macadam drives will be in good repair. Discussion #3: This is a subjective evaluation. The numbers of requests made, and the numbers completed, are what is reported. It is not possible to establish a desired level of completion because the work is received at various times during the reporting period such that the complexities of scheduling and allocated resources will vary the completion rate. Objective #4: New public address systems and bell systems will be placed in buildings where such items are not repairable. Discussion #4: Almost eighty percent (80%) of the requests made during the last reporting period have been completed. This is a program, like others, which is ongoing and which will be funded commensurate with approved funding levels. Objective #5: Any school which has portable buildings will have these buildings replaced with new units or repaired so that they will be in a condition suitable for use. Discussion #5: Sixty-two percent ( 62%) of the work requested of the Directorate was completed during the last reporting period. Objective #6: All school construction shall be subject to the Court's prior approval and shall promote desegregation. New construction must be approved by the Court. l l Discussion #6: This is an ongoing strategy. There are no requirements pending at this time. There is no need for further evaluation of this objective. Objective #7: Modify building space to increase library capacities at Mitchell and Garland, purge the shelves of outdated, well-worn materials at Mitchell. Books most frequently used by the Four-Year Old Program, Kindergarten, and First Grades could be permanently placed in the individual classrooms since those grades are all housed in structures that are detached from the main building. Discussion #7: The portion of this objective allocated to the Facilities Program was completed in 1992. Objective #8: Franklin: Repair or replace the roof on each level of the building. Replace all ceiling tiles damaged by water leaks. Repaint interior walls as needed. Discussion #8: Most of these repairs have been completed. The ones that have been requested have been attended to. This building is scheduled for painting during School Year '94 - '95. Objective #9: Garland: Determine the feasibility of adding bathrooms on the second floor of the building. Increase the size of the Media Center and relocating the building's main entrance. Discussion #9: This assessment and report was completed and filed in 1992. No further evaluation is needed. Objective #10: Ish: Professionally evaluate the structural condition of the building and correct the many problems caused by the leaking roof. May be necessary to add a new slope roof. Unsightly classroom bathrooms would be repaired at once by those qualified to deal with asbestos. Exterior lighting should be repaired or replaced and the building's trim painted. once the roof no longer leaks, the entire interior should be repainted. Discussion #10: This objective was completed and reported in October of 1992. Objective #11: Mitchell: Correct the drainage problems and then replace the water-damaged carpeting in the GT room. Address the shortage of Media Center space, possibly by adding bookshelves to the second floor hallway near the Librarian's Office which is located in a kiosk area. Also consider adding more shelves to create storage space within existing Media Center. Discussion #11: This requirement requires no further evaluation. It was completed in 1992. Objective #12: Rightsell: Eliminate the moisture problem at the school. Professionals with restoration experience involved to help solve problems of the final Playground should receive major improvements additional age appropriate equipment. Discussion #12: should be building. including This objective does not require further evaluation since it has not been completed. Objective #13: Rockefeller: Install a new heating and cooling system if the effectiveness of the present system is not corrected by the recently-replaced room thermostats. Discussion #13: This assessment was made and the correction was completed in 1992. Objective #14: Stephens: Stephens' objective is to be deleted since the school has been demolished. l Discussion #14: NIA Objective #15: _,. ... ,, All seven (7) incentive schools would benefit aesthetically from the addition of attractive landscaping. Once plantings are installed, the custodial staff should be trained in proper plant care. Many Little Rock School District schools have lost mature plantings to improper and over-zealous pruning by District wo:tkers, or from under-watering in times of summer heat and drought. Discussion #
15: This is an ongoing problem. Guidance has been given the facilities. It will continue to be monitored. There is no level of success against which this objective can be measured. Objective #16: Give the incentive schools priority in the District sequencing of capital improvement projects since doublefunding does not cover capital improvements and maintenance. Buildings must be sound, attractive and well-maintained. Discussion #16: This objective was met when the capital improvements project was prioritized in 1990. Objective #17: The District has stated it would make adjustments to the Omaha Formula to meet the needs of buildings like McClellan that have special needs. Discussion #17: The custodial program is accountable by the Omaha Formula which is used by this District to proportion its custodial resources to its many facilities. This program is evaluated on a periodic basis. Every time there is an addition or change to a major facility structure the custodial structure is re-examined. It was last reexamined in December of 1993. It was submitted to the District and approved. Adjustments were made. The custodial program, at the present time, has sufficient manpower resources to meet its permanent needs. Temporary custodial needs, however, must be addressed by a separate correspondence. Obstacles to Goal Attainment: There is one principal obstacle to the desired goal attainment of an equitable Facilities Program, and that is resources. The Plant Services Directorate is far below the national and regional averages, and as such, falls further behind as its backlog of maintenance and repair increases on a yearly basis. The amount of work identified district-wide to keep our buildings in a good state of repair, and at an educational standard to support our programs, is mounting every year. With level or decreased funding each year, the backlog continues to increase. It is only through a higher funding level that we will be able to maintain our facilities to meet our operational needs. Recommendations: The Facilities Program, as reported under the Program Budget document, provides no guidance nor equitable measure to the Superintendent or Board of Directors on the success of the Facilities Program. This is something that is not measurable. The bulk of the Facilities Program is reacting to requests made by Facility Managers. As those requests are made, they are prioritized and they are funded. The addition of funds and resources would most assuredly allow more work to be accomplished by having it first identified, scheduled, and then completed. Without the resources to further identify additional work, it is not possible to identify how much work could be scheduled, and hence completed, thereby determining additional resources. Many of the items in the Facility Program Budget Document have been completed, and it has been recommended that they be deleted from this program. Recommendation fl: My recommendation would be to restructure the way the School District assesses its facilities. The bottom-line effort of the Little Rock School District is two-fold: 1) To maintain all of its facilities in a safe and orderly fashion to meet the goals of its educational program. 1. l DCE/rlh/pe 2) To insure that the resources allocated the Plant services Director are equitably spent such that no schools are given favoritism for resources over others. The establishment of the priority system, which is in place at the Plant Services Directorate, insures that this happens. It is only through outside pressures and perception of conditions in the past that the Facilities Program of equitable spending is sometimes off-balance. I would recommend that additional resources be given the Plant Services Directorate, such that they approximate at least the regional or national average of the CWE per school district to allow it to maintain its facilities to meet the goals as stated above. A business case is recommended. The overall recommendation is likely to have an increase in budgetary impact. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 1) The program being evaluated as outlined in the desegregation portion of the Program Budget Document specifically identifies items in the Desegregation Plan and Court Orders and ODM Reports that do not give an overall view of the Facilities Program. The Program Budget Document merely responds to specific areas of concern and does not adequately see nor measure the Facilities Program. The Facilities Program is general engineering support to the entire district. As stated on page one of this document, it encompasses all aspects of the engineering program to support the many facilities. It goes far beyond seventeen (17) specific items as outlined in the Budget Document. 2) The data that has been used to analyze this program is simply a tally of work order requests as made by the Facilities' Managers and as recorded by the Plant Services Directorate. All recommendations listed here are considered in the support area. 3) There are no desegregation funds allotted the program under the Little Rock School District budget. This is not a prudent area to be reported, nor commented on for the purposes of monetary programming. DCE/rlh/pe
This project was supported in part by a Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives project grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Council on Library and Information Resources.

<dcterms_creator>Little Rock School District</dcterms_creator>