PROBLEM 85 A PROGRAM FOR EQUIPMENT MANAGEMENT Problem: In the city of Canton, N. K., 100,000 population, the Board of Education has set aside 12 per cent of a $2,000,000 school building program for the equipment of a senior and a junior high school which have been planned to be built at this time. The cost of equipping these two buildings involves such a considerable sum that the institution of a better equipment management program has seemed necessary to the responsible officers. The program suggesting a better equipment management plan has been proposed by the superintendent of schools and the assistant superintendent in charge of business affairs. This new management plan, as presented to the Board of Education, calls for: A. A budgeting program for new equipment and for the replacement of the old equipment. B. The development of standard practices and procedures in the purchase of new equipment, and the repair and disposition of old unserviceable equipment. C. A standarized routing for the receipt, delivery, and storage of new equipment, old equipment awaiting repairs, and repaired equipment. D. The accounting of equipment, as to 1. Original costs by schools, department or kind of service rendered, and unit costs in types of equipment. 2. Insurance and depreciation. 3. Desirability, utility, and ultimate cost. 4. Its contribution in determining new standards. 5. Responsibility and accountability as to defacement, destruction and loss. 6. Labor and material costs in repair. 7. A permanent inventory of all equipment, so organized as to be most convenient for periodical checking and budget-making. E. A systematic inspection of all equipment and a properly trained and organized staff for repair of equipment. Some of the management principles which the executive officers have set up are as follows: A. Capital in the form of equipment should be as accurately and thoroughly accounted for as cash itself. B. All equipment should be properly marked with a permanent and fixed label for ready inventory and convenience in record. C. Such equipment record forms should be prepared that in their use the standard practices and procedures can be carried out with the greatest economy of time, labor, and costs. D. Standard specifications should be established and should be continually in the process of further development. The records involved in the accounting of the equipment should be the basis for an intelligent analysis of the facts and for determining standards and specifications. E. Standard written instructions should be carefully prepared for each member of the staff responsible for the management of equipment as well as for members of the instructional staff, janitors, and students as to their individual responsibility and accountability for the equipment used. F. All policies relative to the management of equipment should be initiated by the chief executive officer and his staff and approved by the school board. G. The responsibility and accountability for the management of equipment in a school system should be placed by the Board of Education on its chief executive officer. H. The chief executive officer should have the necessary staff organization responsible to him for the management of the equipment 1. The size and personnel of the staff depending largely on the size of the school system and so organized as to secure maximum efficient service. 2. Except under unavoidable circumstances, the chief executive officer should not be the purchasing agent. Assignment 1. Are you in accord with the principles as outlined? 2. What phase of equipment management has been neglected in these principles? 3. What is the size of staff needed to carry out this program? 4. What are the space facilities needed for storage, repairing, and the like? 5. Estimate the size of the equipment program for this city. Express this estimate in terms of the amounts of articles of equipment which are needed in such a school system. BIBLIOGRAPHY ANDERSON, H. W. The Problem of School Supplies and School Equipment. American School Board Journal, 69:45-47, July, 1924. NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION. Report of the Committee on School House Planning and Construction. National Education Association, Washington, D. C., 1925. DOBBS, E. V. Equipping and Furnishing the Modern School. Proceedings of the National Education Association, 1919, pp. 191-93. National Education Association, Washington, D. C. DONOVAN, J. J. ET AL. School Architecture-Principles and Practices. Macmillan, 1921. DRESSLAR, F. B. Apparatus. In Cyclopedia of Education, edited by P. Monroe I:139 ff. Macmillan, 1913. DUNN, F. W. Educative Equipment and Its Use as Shown in the Rural Experimental School of Teachers College. Teachers College Record, 26:295–310, December, 1924. Educative Equipment for Rural Schools. Teachers College Bulletin, Thirteenth Series, No. 3. Teachers College, Columbia University, October 8, 1921. ENGELHARDT, F. Survey Report of the Public Schools of Superior, Wis., 1924-25. University of Minnesota, 1925. LOOMIS, A. K. School Equipment Costs-A Method of Estimating. In StrayerEngelhardt School Administration Series. Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1927. The Technique of Estimating School Equipment Costs. Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1926. STRAYER, G. D., ENGELHARDT, N. L. ET AL. Report of the Survey of Certain Aspects of the Public School System of Providence, R. I., 1923-24. Division of Field Studies, Institute of Educational Research, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1924. Survey Report of the Public School System of Springfield, Mass., 192324. Division of Field Studies, Institute of Educational Research, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1924. WEET, H. S. The Junior High Schools of Rochester, N. Y. Board of Education Rochester, N. Y., 1923. |