Approximately 98% of schools lose money on community use of their facilities. Learn how you can identify and reduce the hidden costs of campus events, while lessening the burden on your maintenance and operations team.

1. The Efficient Event
Find Savings with Excellent Event Management

2. Cost Recovery Study
Analysis of 1,000+ school districts, colleges
and private schools, including interviews
Focused on how educational professionals are
coping with
– Demand for community use of school facilities
– Financial burdens on budgets and operating
staffs due to the growing use of school facilities
by the community
– Sentiment that school facilities should be used
more frequently because taxpayers and other
stakeholders have invested billions in these
assets
RECOVERING COSTS FOR THE
COMMUNITY USE OF OUR SCHOOLS:
A White Paper Examining the Successful
Implementation of Cost Recovery
Programs in our Schools.

3. Event Scheduling is Complicated!

4. Is Your Process Efficient?
60% of schools experience time wasted related
to event management coordination and
communication problems.
– Interruptions – phone calls, emails, drop ins
– Paper forms and calendars
– Keeping all parties informed about event
approvals and schedule changes
– Coordinating internal event resource personnel
– Data entry and manually generating invoices

5. It is also very Costly!

6. What does it Cost?

7. Description Minutes Unit Cost # of Events Rough Cost
Check calendar for availability 5 $20/hour 3300 $5,300
Coordinating with staff to support
event, approving, getting other
approvals
15 $20/hour 3300 $16,500
Coordinating and creating invoices 10 $20/hour 1500 $4,800
Checking Schedule and Doing EMS
Overrides per event
5 $20/hour 3000 $4,800
Custodial time - setup, breakdown,
clean up, lock/unlock and other
services)
60 $20/hour 2000 $40,000
Energy/Utilities $25,000-$60,000/year 2000 $25,000
Wear & Tear, reduced life of building
components, capital impacts
$5,000-$35,000 3300 $10,000
IT – internet access, projectors, AV
carts
??? ??? $???
Supplies – paper towels, soap ??? ??? $???
OTHER??? ??? ??? $???
Behind the scenes: a 3,000 student institution

8. What measures are schools taking to
offset the impact of rising costs?
• Implementing energy conservation measures
• Restructuring transportation programs such as bus
routing or cutting back on student and staff trips
• Cutting supply and textbook purchases
• Hiring freezes or eliminating positions
• Eliminating or modifying athletic events and offerings
Source: AASA Survey

9. Community Use getting press…
Newspaper Publisher’s opinion:
“While many are making the argument that the school district is
robbing Peter to pay Paul, we believe it is fairer to charge those
actually using the facilities more than to spread the increasing cost
of facility use across the community through taxation.
With teachers having to pay out-of-pocket for classroom supplies,
schools not having enough money to purchase necessary books and
the school district more heavily relying on the fundraising efforts, it
is no longer feasible for groups not affiliated with the schools to use
district facilities without paying enough.
We do encourage the school district to be sensitive to community
groups' needs and just recover the costs of facility use, not make a
profit.”

10. Good News!
Excellence In Event Management is Achievable

11. Best Practices
1. Identify an Advocate
2. Identify Potential Risks
3. Create a Policy
4. Start Small and Gain Buy-in
5. Automate Processes
6. Recover Your Costs
Source: Recovering Costs for the Community Use of Our Schools
© Copyright 2008 SchoolDude.com, Inc. All rights reserved.

12. Advocate: A Lot To Think About
• Is your building policy up to date?
• Is your building policy working?
• Are you recovering the costs of events?
• Are the correct people involved?
• What is your relationship with the community?
• Are events a drain on your already limited
resources?

13. Identify Potential Risks
Public Relations
– Inconsistent practices/procedures/policies
– Double booking
– Failure to notify school staff of event
– Canceling an event due to maintenance issue
– Making it difficult to use school facilities
– Failing to communicate expectations
– Not knowing who is in the buildings

14. Identify Potential Risks
Personal Injury
– Activity not appropriate for area being used
– Inadequate supervision
– Equipment / area poorly maintained
– Infrequent inspection of areas

15. Identify Potential Risks
Property Damage
– Activity not appropriate for area being used
– Inadequate supervision
– Equipment / area in poor condition
– Infrequent inspection of areas
– Knowing when the damage occurred
– Inadequate insurance coverage

16. What is Your Policy
Sample from: http://www.schooldude.com/resources/
• Community groups may be permitted to use School District
facilities for educational, cultural, civic or athletic purposes
when such use will not interfere with school programs and is
not dangerous or detrimental to the public welfare.
• A facility user or rental fee, approved by the Business
Manager of School District, will be charged to help defray the
cost of using School District facilities and to preserve the
education budget.
• The priority of building use is set forth below with Group A
having first priority and Group D having last priority.

17. Start Small – Gain Buy In
• How do you get started?
• Build support with Site Contacts – How do you
do it? Which site do you start with?
• Distribute Event Management – balance
between what can be centralized and distributed
• Establish Presence at event – Do you do that
now? Why do it?

18. Automate Requests
Who can make a
request?
• Internal Users
– Faculty/
Admins.
– Teachers/
Professors
– Athletics
• External Users
– Community
Groups (via
CommunityUse)

19. Automating BMS Settings
• Automatically
set rooms to
occupied
status
• No longer
have to
gather a
calendar and
do overrides!

20. Identify Potential Risks
1. Identify an Advocate
2. Identify Potential Risks
3. Create a Policy
4. Start Small and Gain Buy-in
5. Automate Processes
6. Recover Your Costs
Source: Recovering Costs for the Community Use of Our Schools
© Copyright 2008 SchoolDude.com, Inc. All rights reserved.

21. Recovering Your Costs
Source: Recovering Costs for the Community Use of Our Schools
© Copyright 2008 SchoolDude.com, Inc. All rights reserved.

22. Develop Tiered Fee Structures
Establish a simple
fee structure:
–What type of
group? (Non-profit vs.
For-profit?)
–What type of area?
(Gym vs. softball field?)
–What type of
facility? (Elementary
school vs. arts center?)

23. So what’s the opportunity?
• Average $15.65/student – Cost Recovery
– Top 10% > $28.62
– Bottom 25% < $1.52
$15.65
$0
$50
$100
$150
$200
Invoice/Student (2009)
Total

24. How much $$$ could you be
recovering?

25. Cost Recovery Over Time

26. Organization Size Doesn’t Matter!
Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
• 164,000 students
• 250,000 annual events
• $3.1M recovered costs
Tamalpais Union, CA
• 3,900 students
• 4,000 annual events
• $240K recovered costs

27. The Costs?
A minimum of $106,000
The average 3,000 student
institution would charge less
than $40,000
How would you translate this?
– Equals a cost of over
$50/student
– How many salaries could this
fund?
– How many textbooks could this
have provided?
– What programs or services could
this have saved?

28. • Track events – Who is using your facilities. When and where.
• Improve Communication
• Distribute responsibilities - Get school sites involved
• Streamline work flow
• Improve coordination between departments – Task notifications
• Report on usage, costs and organizations
• Invoice! – Know your costs and recover them
• Involve faculty members - Requesters
• Look good in the eyes of the community
• Save Energy
Good
Better
Best
Best Practices: A Good, Better,
and Best Approach

29. End the debates
• “Politics, politics, politics” --- the public pays taxes and believe
they have access to the buildings
• Taxes are tough on the public, but budget cuts and increases in
energy costs are tough on you
• Your mission is to educate our youth during the school day and
your budgets and funding reflects this --- how much of your
budget and funding is dedicated toward community use?

30. Events: Now You Have a Plan
• Build a team and get them involved
• Identify your risks and keep an eye out
• Update your policy today
• It’s okay to start small and gain traction
• Automate the process
• Cost recovery is key

31. SchoolDude’s Solution Suites
• FSDirect
• FSAutomation
• CommunityUse
• TripDirect
• MaintenanceDirect
• MDWireless
• PMDirect
• InventoryDirect
• PlanningDirect
•CriticalAlarmAutomation
• UtilityDirect
• ConserveDirect
Energy Management
Facility Management Event Management

32. Resources
SchoolDude’s Whitepaper:
Recovering Costs for the Community Use of Our Schools
http://www.schooldude.com/resources/
Don’t miss these webcast archives:
– Roadmap to a Successful Event Management Program
– More Efficiently Manage Community Facility Requests
– Find Savings by Integrating BAS and Facility Event Schedules
Don’t miss these helpful tools:
– Sample facility use fee structures
– Sample bill rate sheets
– Sample facility use agreements / applications

33. Cost Recovery Study
Analysis of 1,000+ school districts, colleges
and private schools, including interviews
Focused on how educational professionals are
coping with
– Demand for community use of school facilities
– Financial burdens on budgets and operating
staffs due to the growing use of school facilities
by the community
– Sentiment that school facilities should be used
more frequently because taxpayers and other
stakeholders have invested billions in these
assets
RECOVERING COSTS FOR THE
COMMUNITY USE OF OUR SCHOOLS:
A White Paper Examining the Successful
Implementation of Cost Recovery
Programs in our Schools.

34. SchoolDude.com Client Services
Lifetime Training and Support!
Office: 877-883-8337
Email: support@schooldude.com
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