Education operations health index 2017

EDUCATION OPERATIONS HEALTH INDEX
In order to improve, it’s important to be able to see where we currently are. Even more important is to listen
to the education professionals who work every day to improve the learning environments of their students.
Gauging the environment for education operations is invaluable to see what the current outlook is and to
have an unbiased approach to improvements. In SchoolDude’s inaugural 2017 Education Operations Health
Index, we used operations data and feedback from Public K-12 schools, four-year universities, two-year
colleges, and private and independent schools to provide an index that is indicative of the current state of the
health of operations across the education industry worldwide.
With this education operations data, every education leader, from Superintendents to Business Officers to
CIOs, will have a benchmark to pinpoint their department’s strengths and areas for improvement – and be
able to make more informed, actionable decisions. Our goal is to provide a health index that truly is a pulse
on how educational operations are performing.
COMPOSITE OPERATIONS INDEX SCORE
The score for the 2017 Education Operations Health Index is 55.6 on a scale
of 1-100, with one being the most pessimistic outlook on the state of school
operations and 100 being the most optimistic outlook and indicator of success
in operations. This score is based on a combination of SchoolDude’s vast data
from educational institutions, created as they use SchoolDude’s solutions to conduct and manage their
daily responsibilities, and a 23-question survey reflecting the sentiments of operations leaders.
The sentiment for this year is not overly optimistic, yet it's not negative, either. Both our data and
survey results show positive trends as well as some negative ones in varying areas across operational
responsibilities, and the rating is reflective of an average of these peaks and valleys. However, the
rating is far from 100 (a perfect score), indicating that we have a lot of work ahead of us to improve
school operations.

SUPPORTING INDICES
PREVENTIVE
MAINTENANCE
With an aging infrastructure, preventive
maintenance (PM) is more valuable than ever.
Organizations that dedicate more than 30 percent
of their time to PM show significant reduction in
catastrophic failures, over-time costs and third –
party expenses. In addition, regularly scheduling
PM can serve as an early identifier for assets
and equipment that are nearing their end of life.
Having regularly scheduled maintenance not
only ensures limited downtime in the classroom
but also enables operations staff to maximize
manpower outside of reactive work. As a result,
62.4 percent of our respondents said that
regularly scheduling PM improves the learning
environment by a “great deal.”
In addition, PM also has a positive effect on
operations efficiency. As reported by Moreno
Valley Unified School District, “Preventive
12017 Education Operations Health Index
REASONINGTOPIC SENTIMENT
Preventive
Maintenance Neutral
Only about half of respondents, 52.7 percent, are doing more
PM than they were last year. While Operations leaders
understand the value, PM to reactive maintenance is still well
below the recommended 30 percent benchmark.
Deferred
Maintenance Negative
Most respondents don’t feel they have the resources to
take on capital upgrades or improvements; 57 percent
have less than three percent of their budget set aside for
these projects.
Community Use Positive
Most (64.8 percent) have not seen high deterioration, and
therefore after-hours events are not contributing
signiﬁcantly to the deferred maintenance backlog.
Safety Neutral
72.6 percent of safety budgets have remained the same,
suggesting schools feel secure with their current efforts.
However, safety is still a major focus for schools.
Energy Slightly Positive
Despite no change in energy use, 82.7 percent have not
increased their energy spend last year thanks to improved
tracking and lower usage costs.
Technology Neutral
Getting connected is easier, and 58 percent say they have
more devices now than last year. But with more assets to
keep track of, plus data security concerns, IT teams feel they
face an uphill battle without enough resources.
SUPPORTING INDICES SNAPSHOT
“Preventive maintenance has resulted in
a 30 percent decrease in reactive work
orders across the district, and increased
productivity.”
–Moreno Valley Unified School District

maintenance has resulted in a 30 percent
decrease in reactive work orders across the
district, and increased productivity.”
While concerns over aging infrastructure and
budget constraints persist, the data from our
survey suggests
a positive trend of
more time being
spent on preventive
maintenance work
each of the last
three years. The
findings in the
health index are
consistent with the
information in our
database. Year over year, the ratio of PM to non-
PM work orders has increased (from 17 percent in
2016 to 19 percent in 2017). However, the ratio still
has room for improvement as it is well below the
recommended benchmark of 30 percent.
DEFERRED
MAINTENANCE
The average life of school buildings, both for
Higher Education and K-12, is 40 years. With aging
infrastructure, deferred maintenance and overdue
capital needs continues to be a concerning trend.
While communities are willing to pass bonds for
new construction, there is still a reluctance to
fund renovations and
renewals for buildings
that should last 50-80
years. Our respondents
reported that board
members have neutral
or middling support of
capital improvements
for existing school
buildings, rating the
likelihood of approval for such upgrades a 3 on a
scale of 1 to 5.
The percentage of funding set aside for deferred
maintenance and capital improvements does
not indicate a positive trend. The recommended
percentage of budget set aside for deferred
maintenance and capital projects is three percent
annually. Only 15.3 percent of those surveyed
allocated a portion of this size, and 57 percent
allocated less than three percent to none. In
addition, a worrying 26 percent are unsure of how
much they have set aside for overdue operations
and capital needs.
According to the “2013 State of Our Schools”
report, deferred maintenance totaled, on average,
$5,450 per student.1
For a high school with an
enrollment of 1,000 students, that’s nearly $5.5
million in deferred maintenance. SchoolDude’s
data indicates that overdue needs have gone
up 18 percent, to $6,462 per student. Studies
show that there is over $500 billion in deferred
maintenance in US schools. This number will
continue to grow if the focus isn’t shifted to
preventive maintenance and decreasing the
backlog of deferred maintenance.
COMMUNITY USE
OF FACILITIES
The utilization of school facilities for community
events continues to be an area of focus for
schools. The average district conducts 1,072
hours of events after operating hours or on the
weekends, which is equivalent to having an event
run from 3:30 PM-midnight every weekend of the
calendar year. SchoolDude estimates schools
incur about $70 in costs per student per event for
energy usage, personnel charges, materials used,
and general wear and tear.
52.37%
% who are doing the same amount
of PM in comparison to last year
57%
Respondents to the survey who
have set aside less than 3% of their
budgets for deferred maintenance
and replacement projects

This year, 64.84
percent of respondents
did not see high
deterioration from
after-hours use of their
facilities. As a result,
third-party usage has
not significantly added
work to deferred
maintenance backlogs.
While it’s clear that
after-hours use of facilities does accelerate
facility and equipment deterioration, our data and
survey responses indicate schools are performing
adequate maintenance on facilities most used
for after-hours events to decrease the rate of
deterioration.
Additionally, cost recovery efforts can help with
slowing deterioration, as schools can put dollars
recovered back into the facilities. According to
our data, schools are recovering more costs
than ever; an estimated 40 percent recover
costs in comparison to 30 percent in 2014. While
community use of facilities has a significant
impact on their operations, facilities and business
professionals are feeling better about how they’re
able to manage this area of business.
TECHNOLOGY
MANAGEMENT
With easier access to devices, the lowering cost
of broadband Internet and the popularity of
smartphones, being connected has never been
easier. Schools are increasingly looking for ways
to leverage the assets at students’ fingertips to
enhance learning in the classroom and remain
connected at home. As such, it’s no surprise that
58.48 percent of respondents say they have more
assets to deploy this year over last.
Expectations continue to rise for network
connectivity and to expand the digital learning
ecosystem in schools. With more responsibilities
comes more challenges. In partnership with
CoSN, the annual IT Leadership Survey found
that the privacy and security of student data is
an increasing concern for IT leaders, with 64
percent saying it is more important than last year.
In addition, nearly 90 percent of respondents
expect their instructional materials to be at least
50 percent digital within the next three years.
On the sentiment
scale, IT teams have
more work on their
plates than before with
more responsibilities,
particularly when it
comes to managing
all of the new
assets, addressing
cybersecurity threats
and optimizing digital learning environments.
This year, budget constraints were ranked as the
top challenge for the third consecutive year, and
only 13 percent of IT leaders say their staffing is
matched to their needs. Furthermore, 52 percent
of school chief technology officers (CTOs) currently
spend more time problem-solving technical issues
instead of working in proactive mode.
ENERGY
Energy conservation is a focus for schools not
only for green initiatives but also to identify cost
savings opportunities. Many organizations, such
as ENERGY STAR and local governments, offer
special subsidies and awards for buildings that
adhere to energy conservation. Perhaps as a
result, the majority of our respondents (82.74
percent) have not seen an increase in their energy
spend from last year.
58.48%
Say they have more assets to deploy
this year compared to last year
64.84%
Of respondents have not seen high
deterioration of their facilities from
after-hours use

In addition, utility
companies are
lowering costs.
Despite stable
usage, our data
shows a slight
decrease in energy
spending over
the last two years.
In 2015, schools
spent $1.23 billion
on utilities, and in 2016 was schools spent $1.07
billion. There is still room for improvement,
however, as energy remains the second largest
expenditure for the facilities budget. While schools
may not be spending more on energy, they may
still be paying more than needed if they are not
regularly tracking utility consumption, which can
determine trends such as usage spikes.
We anticipate that, in the future, we’ll see energy
spend and usage decrease as more schools are
tracking their energy consumption with smart
metering technology and utility bill assessment
tools.
SAFETY
Safety is of the utmost priority for many education
professionals, and schools take extra measures
to ensure that their students, faculty and staff feel
safe. The US Department of Education estimates
that school-aged youths, including Higher Ed
students, are more likely to be victims of a violent
crime than any over age group.2
Furthermore,
students do not have to be the targets of violence
to have negative side effects. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention states that
exposure to school violence can create negative
behaviors, such as drug and alcohol use, and
psychological problems that include depression
and anxiety.3
The majority of our
survey respondents
said that their safety
budgets have stayed
the same since last
year, suggesting
that they generally
feel positive about
the effectiveness of
their current safety
efforts. However, it should be noted that only 2.37
percent of respondents feel less concern about
safety in their schools. Most experience either the
same amount of concern (55.3 percent) or more
(42.6 percent) compared to last year, meaning
that the wellbeing of students both physically and
emotionally is still a primary focus.
In addition, schools are still actively allocating
funds towards safety as they deem necessary.
According to our 2017 Facilities Budget, Staffing
& Operations Survey Results, 79 percent of
education professionals feel that safety has a
major impact on the budget, and only seven
percent say their budgets have decreased.
“At Gresham-Barlow, our average school
is 51 years old….energy usage for school
facilities is about a third of our budget.
It’s paramount. Next to labor, it’s the
number one thing to track.”
–Gresham-Barlow School District
72.62%
Of school safety budgets have
stayed the same
82.74%
Energy budgets that have at least
stayed the same from last year

METHODOLOGY
To create our bi-annual Education Operations
Health Index, we utilized nearly two decades of
operations statistics from SchoolDude’s software
solutions. Our vast database has billions of client
data points as they complete and track their
daily work using our solutions. Our aggregate
data includes work orders, IT tickets, event
management, energy usage and more, collected
from some of the most progressive and innovative
operations, facilities and IT managers in the world.
We combined our data analysis with survey results
from 200 respondents in education operations
from a variety of regions, job titles and school
sizes, including Public K-12 schools, four-year
universities, two-year colleges, and private and
independent schools. The survey was presented
to respondents as a series of 23 questions with
answers internally scored with a positive or
negative sentiment, and calculated into the overall
score. We also included information from our vast
warehouse of shared client knowledge plus input
from subject matter experts and our partnerships
with leading operations and facilities organizations.
This index was calculated using our database
of nearly two decades of education operations
statistics from billions of client data points,
combined with survey responses from all cohorts
of education. With this contextual information,
we have created a framework for the current
state of operations. Our comprehensive index
identifies the most relevant trends, statistics and
observations.
CLOSING STATEMENTS
For 17 years, SchoolDude has served more
than 1.5 million professionals, over 6,000
educational institutions, and 37 million students.
From decision-makers and administrators to
operations professionals and business managers,
we help our clients use data, insights and work
management tools to save time and money.
We have a unique perspective to provide a
comprehensive index on the state and health
of operations for the education industry based
on big data insights from the world’s largest
database of educational institutions: our own.
With a survey mixed with both positive and
negative sentiments, the score comes as no
surprise. Despite being a middle score on a scale
of 1 to 100, indicating neither an overwhelmingly
optimistic or pessimistic outlook on the state
of education operations, it should be noted
that the score can be used to spur positive
change. Although 100 is an ideal score, absolute
perfection is not a realistic goal. Instead, taking
incremental steps toward improving the outlook
on operations is much more effective for future
initiatives.
Our biannual index is meant to track how
operations department change their workflows,
habits and priorities as well as how sentiments
toward operations ebb and flow over the course
of the year. The next installment is set to be
released at the end of 2017.

About Dude Solutions
Dude Solutions, parent company of SchoolDude, FacilityDude and TheWorxHub, is a leading software-
as-a-service (SaaS) provider of operations management solutions to education, government, healthcare,
manufacturing and membership-based organizations. The company combines innovative technology with
operational insight to transform the places people learn, live, heal, work, and play. Today, more than 9,000
organizations are using Dude Solutions’ award-winning software for facilities, energy, safety, IT and a growing
suite of related enterprise applications to increase efficiencies, improve service and save money. For more
information, please visit our website.
SOURCES
1
Center for Green Schools, “2013 State of Our Schools Report.” http://centerforgreenschools.org/sites/default/files/resource-files/2013%20
State%20of%20Our%20Schools%20Report%20FINAL.pdf
2
US Department of Education, “Working to Keep Schools and Communities Safe.” https://www.ed.gov/school-safety
3
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Understanding School Violence Fact Sheet.” https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/
schoolviolence-factsheet.pdf
877.868.3833 | info@dudesolutions.com | dudesolutions.com

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