How to Set the Right Budget for School Cleaning
It’s that time of the year again — you need to create a budget to maintain the school’s appearance and cleanliness for the following months. Setting a reasonable budget allows schools to receive necessary cleaning to keep every visitor, student, faculty and staff safe and healthy while using the facilities.
When you are preparing your school cleaning budget, there are many costs you’ll need to allocate, including supplies, equipment, emergencies, special projects and hiring cleaning staff. Learn how to set the right budget for your school’s cleaning needs.
School Cleaning Plan
When you need to set a budget, creating a comprehensive school cleaning plan is essential to know what needs cleaning and when. A concrete cleaning plan will help you avoid spending money on unnecessary costs. If you’re starting to create a plan for the first time, follow some tips to help maximize your resources and time.
1. Divide and Conquer
One of the first things you want to do is make sure you count all areas in your plan. Every room and space in the school will require different cleaning procedures, so it’s important you know which areas and rooms ahead of time to help make cleaning easier.
To help you determine what areas will need special cleaning procedures, you can create sections and label which rooms and areas belong in each section. For instance, all classrooms may have one cleaning plan while the hallways have another. When you divide the sections, you have a better way to streamline the process and budget accurately.
2. Create a Schedule
Once you know everything that needs cleaning, creating a schedule can help ensure there’s enough time to clean each area properly. Many rooms and areas will require daily cleaning, but you could set some days aside for deep cleans. The schedule you create depends on your school’s activities and cleaning needs.
3. Disinfect Regularly
On top of regularly cleaning the rooms, it’s essential to frequently disinfect the surfaces and commonly used objects in every room. Disinfection helps kill germs and pathogens on surfaces that regular cleaning missed. You could assign disinfectant times in your routine cleaning schedule to make sure it happens.
Additionally, total building disinfection can be useful every once in a while. Complete disinfection for your school will kill viruses, bacteria, pathogens and other illnesses in common spaces throughout the school, even on the walls and doors.
School Budget Preparation Process
Once you have a general school cleaning plan, you can follow through with the rest of the school budget preparation process. A school budget will ensure you allocate funding properly to meet the school’s priorities and goals. While you plan the budget, setting aside funds to provide cleaning supplies and equipment is vital. If there’s room in the budget, you could also consider hiring custodial personnel.
Professional custodians understand the need for thorough cleaning and help prevent the flu with cleaning services. They will use specific cleaning techniques and products to ensure all surfaces, floors and items receive proper disinfection.
With all the regulations you need to follow, making decisions can be challenging as you prepare the budget. Understanding the contracts you make with custodians and accounting for the possible days there may not be work are critical to staying on top of your budget. If you initially budget for increased need, then you won’t scramble to find room later in the year when an emergency occurs.
Best Practices in School Budgeting
School budgeting can seem challenging, but there are ways to simplify it. Here are some school budgets for dummies tips that can help you keep your school clean while minimizing the costs.
Create an Inventory List
Making a janitorial inventory list can help you keep track of your budget. When you list everything you anticipate needing during the year, you can estimate the annual costs. Account for how many of each product you think you will need to help make the estimates more accurate. If you’re unsure about your calculations, it’s best to overestimate so that you have enough product before the year begins.
Develop a Budget Calendar
As you begin planning the school budget, it’s vital to keep all the information organized so that stakeholders, staff and school board members have a timeline of the developmental process. The calendar can also serve as a breakdown of the proposed budget, like cleaning, security and more.
Review Past Budgets
Looking at past budgets can help you understand the school’s frequent needs and how you can continue supporting them. If you see in previous budgets that the school cleaning budget remains consistent, you can assume the budget for this year may be similar. You can also adjust to account for changing demands based on past years.
Listen to the Custodial Staff
Janitors and custodians understand what your school needs for cleaning best, as they regularly work to upkeep the school’s appearance and cleanliness. As you plan the budget, you can learn about the cleaning equipment and supply needs from the custodians and understand their daily routines. When you listen to the concerns and comments from the custodial staff, you’ll realize why budgeting for cleaning is important for students and faculty health.
Outsource Cleaning Services
Sometimes, school custodians need help cleaning and disinfecting the campus. You could find an affordable school cleaning company that provides general cleaning services to help your school custodians. Together, both teams could manage tasks for sanitizing rooms, cleaning windows, sweeping and mopping floors and vacuuming carpets.
Outsourcing some cleaning services can also help lessen the pressure on the custodial staff by having multiple people working at a time.
Contact Corporate Cleaning & Facility Services Today
When preparing your school’s budget, consider making room for custodial services. The team at Corporate Cleaning & Facility Services would be happy to provide quality cleaning services for your school. We use innovative cleaning methods to make all educational facilities spotless and sanitized. We’ll customize your cleaning and disinfecting services to meet your budget and needs when you work with us.
Enjoy high-quality cleaning services for your school when you hire Corporate Cleaning & Facility Services. Whether you need custodial and janitorial services, total building disinfection or window cleaning completed, we are here to help. Contact us online if you have any questions about our school services or want to request a free quote. We look forward to helping you and exceeding expectations!