Solutions and Resources: Beyond the Basics
In the private K-12 environment, administrators, teachers, and parents share in a commitment to an overarching goal – keeping our community safe and our students engaged and thriving. Throughout the last year, there was intense debate over the return to in-person school, we now have significant data and experience to inform a safer reopening plan. But how do the new best practices translate for Private K-12?
UG2 has partnered with private K-12 communities to identify considerations and solutions that go beyond the basics. Plans must be carefully laid out, but also have built-in flexibility to respond to changing conditions.
Cleaning and disinfection remain essential, but other considerations are critical for ensuring a successful year ahead:
Staggered reopening schedules. While many private K-12 school buildings were closed over the past 18 months, other spaces remained open to support residents or faculty living on campus. The upcoming school year (2021-2022) might see continued pressure on space utilization and the ability to stagger residential and/or commuter student schedules so that classrooms and other spaces can be cycled and serviced on different days. How are you perform cleaning and engineering services in spaces that are always populated? How are you communicate complex scheduling requirements to ensure the right rooms are disinfected?
Varying facility types. Student dorms, classrooms, science labs, sports arenas, fitness centers, cafeterias, common areas, libraries, offices, auditoriums, music practice spaces—the list goes on when it comes to the types of spaces on a typical private K-12 campus, many of which traditionally hold large events. How can you tailor your solutions to these different facilities and ensure they are consistently disinfected and made safer, given the complexity and variety of these spaces?
Budget constraints and considerations. Tuition serves as a primary source of revenue for K-12 private schools, but institutions today may face challenges of lower enrollment rates, higher spend on cleaning services, reduced alumni gifts, and potential faculty recruitment struggles. How can you do more when you may have less to spend?
More engagement and interaction. Despite controls like better social distancing in classrooms and dining spaces, students will gravitate toward one another. What about sports teams? Even with spectators socially distanced, players need to be in close proximity, and often can’t wear masks as part of practice and play. How will you handle the potential rise in infection risk that comes with more interaction?
Supporting a strong community. One unique aspect of a K-12 private school is the close-knit community that brings together educators, administrators, parents, students, and staff. Ensuring that all feel supported and safe is crucial, and requires careful communication about what’s being done to keep everyone healthy. Do you have a solid communications plan to help all stakeholders feel confident in your strategies and informed about evolving protocols?
Given these factors, private K-12 reopening for in-person learning requires a unique, well-thought-out approach that addresses complex issues on multiple levels. That leads to the biggest question of all: How can you reopen safely when resources may be limited?
Strategizing with an Experienced Partner
If you work in the private K-12 education industry, now is the time to build capability and resources for reopening. UG2’s deep experience and insights have proven valuable to a range of educational customers. Awareness of the unique needs of a campus environment is just the first of many steps toward creating a cohesive, meaningful plan for reopening, drawn from a very specific understanding of the challenges these programs face. UG2 will go deeper into these issues in our upcoming blog series. We’ll take a detailed look at a proactive approach to facility services, and examine the importance of operations coordination.
Do you have questions about your specific needs as you look toward September? Our UG2 ReNewSM Cleaning4Health and Engineering4HealthSM programs are designed to ensure you have what you need, well before anyone returns to school—and long after they’re back, too.
We’d love to talk through them with you. Contact us today!