Maintaining performance: Understanding the relationship between facility management and academic performance at K-12 schools in the State of Arizona
ISSN: 0263-2772
Article publication date: 16 October 2018
Issue publication date: 17 October 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of K-12 indirect facility maintenance and operation expense spending in Arizona and how the prioritization of work enables academic performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from more than 200 academic districts over a five-year period to measure the correlation between plant maintenance and operations and academic outcomes. A qualitative analysis provided an in-depth understanding of how routine work is prioritized.
Findings
Results of the correlative model indicate that no positive relationship exists between academic performance and facility expense spending within the sample population. The lack of a positive correlation may be a result, in whole or in part, of many variables. The qualitative analysis, however, provided a more in-depth understanding of how academic districts manage educational facilities and how the prioritization of work may factor into a correlation.
Originality/value
This paper addresses the link between academic performance, expressed in terms of a return-on-assets, and facility management. The contribution of this paper is the documentation of facility maintenance and operations organizational structures to include the method of prioritizing routine work and the process of indirect expense spending in support of K-12 public education in the state of Arizona.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions and guidance provided by the districts participating in the study and to those facility directors responsible for the successful maintenance and operations of those districts.
Citation
Beauregard, M.A. and Ayer, S.K. (2018), "Maintaining performance: Understanding the relationship between facility management and academic performance at K-12 schools in the State of Arizona", Facilities, Vol. 36 No. 11/12, pp. 618-634. https://doi.org/10.1108/F-11-2017-0111
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited