Collaborative Cleaning: Cost Savings and Classroom Support

Wisconsin schools took an opportunity to improve how they cleaned school classrooms while reducing costs

Members of the leadership facilities team in the Menomonee Falls, Wis., schools realized we had an opportunity to improve how we cleaned school classrooms daily while potentially reducing some costs.

This opportunity tied logically to the school district’s strategic goal of maintaining efficient and effective operations. Our average cleaning levels, measured on a quality index developed by the facilities team, were a 3 (on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the best) in 2012. Our goal was to raise the average to a 3.6.

Simultaneously, the facilities leadership team set a goal of reducing $150,000 a year in labor costs from our $2.4 million operating budget in 2012, while maintaining the quality levels at or above 3.6. The team used continuous improvement tools such as the fishbone diagram and an A-3 report (quality tools that aid in root-cause analysis and reporting on progress) to document our strategic plan and goals.

One key strategy was to communicate with the custodial staff and teaching staff before making a change in the cleaning program. We gave them the rationale behind the changes we wanted to adopt and the overriding goal of reducing operational costs to preserve the classroom budget. We worked alongside the custodial staff in training for the new cleaning system, which lowered anxiety issues.

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What we put in place was a collaborative school cleaning plan that includes students and staff in the process. They were asked to help with the sanitizing of touch points (desks and table tops primarily) in the classroom and with collecting large litter off the floors each day. These actions ultimately saved about five minutes of cleaning per room.

We used short-cycle surveys (another continuous improvement tool) to gauge how the new program was working after four weeks. The survey identified some issues at the elementary schools, where we discovered the teachers preferred their floors cleaned every night versus every other night. They were willing to have the students and staff help with the touch points to make up time.

The facilities department agreed to this change at the four elementary schools while holding to the original plan at the middle school and high school. This strategy led to us meeting our quality cleaning level goal, achieving a districtwide 3.65. After factoring in a 3.5 percent cost-of-living increase to staff, we ended up saving $150,000 in labor expenses.

The key to successful change is our team working together using the improvement tools and using proper communication during the rollout.