Policy 5630

NON-INSTRUCTIONAL OPERATIONS
5630 FACILITIES:  INSPECTION, OPERATION, AND MAINTENANCE

Operation and Maintenance

The Board, through the Superintendent and his or her staff, has the responsibility of protecting the District's facilities through a systematic maintenance program. The program will include periodic preventive maintenance activities, long-range maintenance schedules, and emergency repair procedures. The District will make reasonable attempts to ensure that all maintenance work will be carried out in the least intrusive manner.

Construction and Remodeling of School Facilities

The District will ensure all capital projects and maintenance comply with the requirements of the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code, the Manual of Planning Standards, and the Commissioner's regulations. Relevant documentation regarding all new buildings must be formally submitted to the State Education Department (SED) no matter the size or cost. The SED Office of Facilities Planning has provided an Instruction Guide on its official website. 

Plans and specifications for the erection, enlargement, repair, or remodeling of facilities of the District will be submitted to the Commissioner consistent with applicable law.

Plans and specifications submitted to the Commissioner will bear the signature and seal of an architect or engineer licensed to practice in the State of New York. The architect or engineer who sealed the plans and specifications must also certify that the plans and specifications conform to the standards set forth in the State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code and the State Energy Conservation Construction Code.

For remodeling or construction projects, the District will ensure compliance with the requirements of the State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code and Commissioner's regulations. The District will also retain the services of an architect or engineer licensed to practice in New York State as required by law or regulation, or as necessary given the scope and cost of the project.

Carbon Monoxide Detection Requirements

All new and existing District buildings that have appliances, devices, or systems that may emit carbon monoxide, and all attached garages, must have a means to detect carbon monoxide. Buildings include school buildings, administrative buildings, bus maintenance facilities, concession stands, and field houses. Carbon monoxide may be produced by fuel-fired heating systems (boilers, HVAC units, and makeup air units), emergency or standby electric generation within a building, fuel-fired kitchen equipment (ranges, ovens, steamers, dishwashers, and makeup air units serving hoods), fuel-fired domestic hot water heaters, laboratory/shop equipment (gas outlets, torches, gas-fired kilns, and stationary or portable engines), maintenance and storage areas with fuel-fired equipment, and in garages.

The District may use a self-contained carbon monoxide alarm, a carbon monoxide detection system, or both. The District will comply with all laws and regulations regarding alarms or detectors, including where they must be located, their power sources, and labeling requirements. The District should develop written standard operating procedures to follow when a carbon monoxide detector is activated.

Inspections

The District is mindful of the health and safety of its students, staff, and visitors and, as such, the District administration will cooperate with appropriate officials conducting health, fire, asbestos, bus, and boiler inspections. In addition, the administration will keep the Board informed of the results of these inspections in a timely fashion. 

In accordance with the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA), the District will inform all employees and building occupants (or their legal guardians) at least once each school year about all asbestos inspections, response actions, post-response action activities, as well as triennial re-inspection activities and surveillance activities that are either planned or in progress. The District will provide yearly notification to parent, teacher, and employee organizations on the availability of the District's asbestos management plan and any asbestos-related actions taken or planned in the school.

The District will test potable water for lead contamination from all outlets as required by law. If an outlet exceeds the action level for lead content, the District will prohibit use of the outlet for drinking and cooking purposes, and it will remediate the outlet before allowing these uses. The District will make all required notifications and issue all mandated reports to the public, local health department, or the SED. For ten years following creation, the District will retain all records of test results, lead remediation plans, lead-free building determinations, and waiver requests. The District may seek a waiver from testing requirements from the local health department by demonstrating prior substantial compliance with testing requirements.

To help protect staff, students, and visitors from contracting Legionnaires' disease from Legionella bacteria, the District will register any cooling towers it owns with the New York State Department of Health (DOH), providing the information in any form that the DOH requires. The District will also adhere to the inspection, annual certification, and maintenance program and planning requirements mandated by the DOH. Further, the District will maintain records regarding all inspection results, corrective action, cleaning and disinfection, tests, and certifications for at least three years. The District will keep a copy of its required maintenance program and plan on the premises where the cooling tower is located.

Comprehensive Public School Building Safety Program (RESCUE)

To ensure that all District facilities are properly maintained and preserved and provide suitable educational settings, the Board requires that all occupied school facilities which are owned, operated or leased by the District comply with the provisions of the Comprehensive Public School Building Safety

Program, the Uniform Code of Public School Building Inspections, and the Safety Rating and Monitoring as prescribed in Commissioner's regulations. For this reason, the District will develop a Comprehensive Public School Building Safety Program in accordance with Commissioner's regulations.

The program will be reevaluated and made current at least annually, and will include, at a minimum, the following:

a) A five year capital facilities plan which will include an appraisal of the following: the educational philosophy of the District, with resulting administrative organization and program requirements; present and projected student enrollments; space use and State-rated student capacity of existing facilities; the allocation of instructional space to meet the current and future education program and service needs, and to serve students with disabilities in settings with nondisabled peers; priority of need of maintenance, repair or modernization of existing facilities, including consideration of the obsolescence and retirement of certain facilities; and the provision of additional facilities.
b) A District-wide building inventory, which will include information pertaining to each building including, but not limited to:

1. Type of building, age of building, size of building;
2. Rated capacity, current enrollment;
3. List of energy sources and major systems (lighting, plumbing, electrical, heating); and
4. Summary of triennial Asbestos Inspection reports.

c) A building condition survey will be conducted for all occupied school buildings once every five years by a team that includes at least one licensed architect or engineer.
d) A District-wide monitoring system which includes:

1. Establishing a Health and Safety Committee;
2. Development of detailed plans and a review process of all inspections;
3. Procedures for a response in writing to all inquiries about building health and safety concerns, a copy of which will be sent to the District's Health and Safety Committee for oversight, and a copy kept on permanent file.

e) Procedures to ensure the safety of the building occupants while a construction or renovation project is taking place. These procedures will include:

1. Notification to parents, staff, and the community at least two months in advance of a construction project of $10,000 or more to be conducted in a school building while the building is occupied; provided, however, that in the case of emergency construction projects, notice will be provided as far in advance of the start of construction as is practicable; 
2. A plan to ensure that all contractors comply with all health and safety issues and regulations, and wear photo identification badges;
3. An opportunity for the District's Health and Safety Committee to conduct a walk-through inspection of newly renovated or constructed areas to confirm that the area is ready to be reopened for use; and
4. An emergency plan which will address potential concerns with the capital project including, but not limited to, evacuation procedures, fire drills, and structural failures.


Policy References:
Asbestos Inspection:  40 CFR Part 763, Subpart E
15 USC §§ 2641-2656
Carbon Monoxide Detection:  19 NYCRR § 1228.4
Fire Inspection:  Education Law 807-a
  8 NYCRR § 155.4 
Health and Safety Committee:  8 NYCRR § 155. 4(d)(1)
Lead Testing:  10 NYCRR § 67-4.1, et seq.
Legionella Protection:  10 NYCRR § 4-1.1, et seq.
Plans and Specifications:  Education Law §§ 408, 408-a and 409
  8 NYCRR §§ 155.1 and 155.2
  19 NYCRR §§ 1221-1240
Structural Safety Inspections:  Education Law §§ 409-d, 409-e, 3602 and 3641(4)
  8 NYCRR §§ 155.1, 155.3, and 155.4(b)(1)


Adopted: 6/22/99
Revised: 9/6/22

Policy 5630