With rampant inflation and cost of living increases across the country, many states and school districts have passed or budgeted new pay raises for teachers and support staff. These increases, which normally take effect at the beginning of a new fiscal year, may represent the first compensation change for many districts in years.
While pay raises bring smiles to hard working personnel, often overlooked is the impact on costs relating to facility use. Along with increased energy costs for lights and HVAC, increased cost for custodial, security and other support services directly impact and widen the gap between operating costs and recovery revenue when outside organizations rent school facilities.
When new salary increases take effect at the beginning of a fiscal year, it’s important to review your rental program’s service fees in order to cover all employee costs associated with facility use outside of the regular school day. Unlike facility rental fees, employee time and utility costs incurred as a result of events held on campus have an immediate and direct cost to the district. The good news is that making adjustments to direct costs such as these usually don’t require board approval.
In addition to service fee adjustments relating to salary increases, it’s also appropriate to consider whether cost increases for utilities or custodial supplies (including restroom supplies) merit any other fee updates.
How Can Facilitron Help?
If you’re a Facilitron partner, you can contact your account manager to help you adjust your fee schedules. You can provide new hourly rates for each service, or provide the overall percentage increase. Services subject to increases may include: custodial, campus security, site supervisors, theater managers, AV technicians and child nutrition service workers.