The rationale behind a small school district superintendent\u27s decision to hire a facilities manager

This study investigated the rationale behind a district superintendent\u27s decision to hire a facilities manager to perform the facilities management function. Two main research questions guided this study: (a) If hiring a facilities manager is not an option, how can smaller school district superintendents maximize utilization of resources in facilities management? (b) What is the rationale behind a school district superintendent\u27s decision to hire a facilities manager? In order to achieve this purpose, a qualitative approach was utilized to collect opinions and data from smaller school district superintendents. A group of school administrators, ten school district superintendents and one director of facilities planning participated in the interviews. The interviews conducted were a combination of one-on-one and a focus group interview. Triangulation, both data and methodological, was employed to validate raw interview data. All interviews were video and audio taped to record both spoken and non-verbal responses. The findings of the study indicate that the facilities management function or the n----- facilities manager position was viable and was growing into an even more important 0-------~ \u27 ~ function. The need for educating the school board of trustees, the final decision maker in a school district, was clearly expressed by the majority of the superintendents interviewed. The need for more awareness of the facilities management function on the part of the superintendents was also clearly stated. The superintendents recognize the need and the importance of the facilities management function. They also understand the benefits associated with the establishment of a fully integrated facilities management department in the school district. The interview results revealed that for smaller school districts, the school superintendents always think of the facilities manager function to be directly connected only to construction activities, thus, a cyclical need rather than an integral part of a centralized school district operation performing the nine major functional areas of facilities management as outlined by the International Facilities Management Association (IFMA)