“In 2022 St Bede’s College engaged Plan Heaven to develop the school’s Long Term Maintenance Plan (LTMP). Plan Heaven was recommended to me by professionals in the property management industry and our due diligence convinced me that John Bradley and the Plan Heaven team provide an excellent product at a reasonable price.
After being engaged, Plan Heaven undertook a property survey of the school campus, prepared our LTMP, and loaded all the data into their online app. This LMTP was then reviewed by school staff and adopted by our Board. The whole process was unexpectedly easy.
The online app now allows us to maintain and update the LTMP ourselves. It gives us a tool to consider the effect of timing of major maintenance projects on our finances and helps enormously with our long term operational and financial planning.
We have found the Plan Heaven team professional, knowledgeable, and easy to deal with. I’m very pleased that we engaged them, and very happy to recommend them to others. ”Steve Kelsen, General Manager, St Bedes, Christchurch
At Plan Heaven our school plans are specially built for schools.
What difference does this make? It makes a big difference because a school is an unusual beast compared to other property owners.
Most schools have a range of teaching spaces, usually arranged in blocks. The blocks can be old or new, or old but repurposed sometime in the past. In construction teams, they can range from prefabs to older traditional rectangular timber frame boxes with a brick veneer, through to modern multi-level buildings purpose-built for all of the subject options now taught, including the various sciences and technologies and performing and visual arts. Other purpose built blocks include the gym, hall, pool, administration block, caretaker's sheds and the tuck shop. Include and all of the grounds and infrastructure and we find we are preparing an LTMP for what is effectively a small village. This size and complexity make the development of school LTMP quite different from that of all other property types.
At Plan Heaven, we understand that each school typically has its own hierarchy of decision-makers when it comes to long-term maintenance. When carrying out the site inspection and preparing the first draft, we will typically work with the one or two people closest to the action and lead the maintenance programme for the school's property. But we also appreciate that these people typically need sign-off from others so the plan needs to be written with all readers in mind. Additionally, we accept that it's not our LTMP, it's the schools. We operate on the understanding that we are helping the school prepare its own LTMP, using our own experience and judgment but taking the lead from the maintenance team.
2. Cash is limited
Most other property owners typically determine what maintenance needs to be done, and then, with some juggling and negotiating among owners, the money is raised. However, schools typically face limits on how much money they can raise and maintenance planning is constrained by budgets. This means that planning has more of a bottom-up approach than a top-down one, and the maintenance manager and our planners need to be a little more pragmatic.
3. Different planning requirements
Some schools like to have their scheduled maintenance reports separated into different funding streams and different job classes. Some managers also like to plan the replacement of assets because, after all, while your accountant might say replacing carpet is requires different bookkeeping from buying a new piano, for most of the other professionals at your school, they are just things they believe the schools should acquire with the limited cash available.
Summary
Planning long-term maintenance for an integrated or independent school is different from other forms of property. There is a wide range of buildings and infrastructure, and each item's maintenance needs have to be reviewed and considered. Then, when we have established all of the work we would like to have carried out, this needs to be balanced against the funds available.
Ends
If you have any questions and would like to know please contact support@planheaven.co.nz or 0800 109 327
The Plan Heaven team.