Some final thoughts on successfully bidding and keeping a school system is that you need to be flexible while standardizing in every way possible. Remember that you have approximately 180 days of intense activity, which can include tasks related to school functions (before, during and after) that can overwhelm your day crew. It is very important that you have clear communication with the principal and key staff so that you can schedule sufficient workers daily to address not only the basic cleaning tasks, responding to emergencies, etc. but also be able to deal with work that could include ball games, PTA meetings, science fairs, etc. that can require a lot of labor setting up/taking down rooms with little notice.

There should be a pre-approved fee structure in place that helps you to capture this additional labor. Instead of pulling your regular crew from their tasks, it would be wise to schedule one or more utility workers who are adept at set up/take down and other events even though they may not be that good at day to day cleaning. You can either take a best guess or interview the principal regarding how often set up/take downs occur on average. If the worker is not needed that day for such tasks, he/she can either perform assigned project work or go home early, if that is allowed.

The key is to read the contract/specs carefully so that you have not bid yourself into a losing proposition.

Your comments and questions are important. I hope to hear from you soon. Until then, keep it clean...

Mickey Crowe has been involved in the industry for over 35 years. He is a trainer, speaker and consultant. You can reach Mickey at 678-314-2171 or CTCG50@comcast.net


posted on 10/15/2015