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The Challenge:
In 2020, all 115 local public-school districts in North Carolina were required by law to complete a Facility Needs Survey for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. The survey was emailed to district superintendents on July 31, 2020, and the deadline of January 8, 2021 required a quick turnaround.
The survey required compiling information from multiple sources, developing budget estimates and reviewing the report with the school board and county commissioners. The goal of the survey is to determine long-range planning for capital improvement needs in each school district..
Our Work:
Through our experience with this state-mandated report in previous cycles, BAISCA has developed a streamlined process that greatly reduces the time required by overburdened facilities and maintenance departments.
BAISCA partnered with 21 school districts across the state to complete the 2020 Facility Needs Survey and fulfill this requirement for each district. The districts included:
The Outcome:
Our project team not only completed all reports and successfully submitted them to the state, but BAISCA also added incremental value to the process so that the data collected could be easily utilized by school districts for capital planning purposes.
Beyond meeting the report’s requirements, BAISCA:
- provided a prioritized list of upcoming needs with cost estimates and context;
- organized all data in a spreadsheet that provided greater detail on a school-by-school basis;
- delivered an executive summary in a style and format appropriate for review by district leadership;
- provided reliable cost estimates benchmarked by our knowledge and experience with school districts of similar sizes; and
- presented an overview of our findings to the district’s project leader and, in many cases, the Superintendent and elected officials.
What our clients said:
“Mr. LaRowe and his team have completed two NCDPI 5-year Facility Surveys for the Duplin County School District in 2015 and 2020. Each survey was handled in a very professional and very detailed manner. BAISCA took a very in-depth approach in gathering and listing our District’s needs. The process was handled in a very organized, timely and user-friendly manner. I am very satisfied with the services provided and I highly recommend BAISCA to help you with your district survey needs.”
Roger Jones
Facilities, Transportation & Operations
Duplin County Schools