What is the MSBO Facilities Benchmarking Survey?
About eight years ago, MSBO began conducting an annual Facilities Benchmarking Survey to compile information on school facilities and the costs of maintaining them.
The survey provides statistics that are very valuable to Michigan districts, because they help a district assess its facilites operations costs in relation to other districts statewide.
It is important that we gather this information regularly to ensure that we have current data for comparing costs, and to permit the analysis of trends. With all that is happening now with collaboration/consolidation issues and continuing efforts to understand our costs and efficiencies in facilities it is important to have current information regarding this area of our operations.
Survey data will be published by MSBO in comparison groups, but individual school district information will not be released.
Why should my district participate in the benchmarking survey?
The information obtained will provide you and other school districts with valuable data to assess your operational costs.
This financial benchmarking information is useful for schools to understand and manage their infrastructure resources. While benchmarking data has its limitations, we believe the school community is well served by MSBO taking a progressive role in collecting such data and assisting schools and others to use and interpret it appropriately.
MSBO recently developed a Student Transportation Benchmarking Survey and released those results in August of this year. We intend to alternate between the Transportation Survey and the Facilities Survey. We last captured the facilities information in 2005.
How long will it take to complete the survey?
Depending on the size of your district, this form should take about an hour to complete. The survey also has a calculating tool that allows easy conversion of your district’s information into the same format as the published results, assisting in comparison. This feature will be provided when the results are published.
Take a look at the 6th Annual survey report to get an idea of the type of information that is released.
Who analyzes the information?
We continue to engage the services of Applied Solutions to conduct this survey. Applied Solutions is a Jackson, Michigan based consulting firm that specializes in the area of facilities management. Their fax and phone numbers, along with the street and e-mail addresses you need for asking questions and returning the form are at the bottom of the survey. Please contact them if you have questions about filling out the form.
Download the survey form and instructions. Review the instructions and complete the survey by December 3, 2007. (You can also find the survey links on the homepage of the MSBO Website.) Read below for more information about the survey.
The survey document is an Excel spreadsheet that can be filled out by entering the appropriate figures in the highlighted cells. We recommend printing the blank form to use as a worksheet, then as the source document for entry on to the Excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is protected so only the cells requiring data are writable.
Via E-mail (Preferred Method) - Email the completed spreadsheet to Bob Moles of Applied Solutions as an attachment.
Via Fax – to Applied Solutions at 517-788-6086.
Via Postal Mail - Address your envelope to:
Attn: Bob Moles
P.O. Box 1165
Jackson, MI 49204-1165
We appreciate your assistance in helping assure this survey is completed in a timely fashion by your district.