How Facility Teams Can Continuously Improve

In a time when school facilities teams are asked to do more with less, effective evaluation can serve as a strategic foundation to help deliver healthier, more efficient, and more sustainable learning environments while also avoiding unnecessary cost or complexity. 

School facilities and cleaning teams are faced with aging infrastructure, shrinking budgets, and workforce retention challenges. Facility cleaning managers are constantly balancing competing priorities. At the same time, teams are asked to not just maintain operations but also make measurable progress and continuously improve institution-level goals and priorities.  

As Healthy Green Schools & Colleges (HGSC) continues to support school facility professionals in creating operationally efficient, healthier, and greener learning environments, evaluation plays a critical role. Evaluation and improvement are key factors in HGSC’s how-to model for enabling transformative change in educational facilities. Evaluation measures progress and ensures facilities teams approach their work with intentional and impactful methods. 

By building evaluation into daily facility planning and operations, school teams have a catalyst for improvement that is aligned with institutional goals related to operational efficiency, enhanced learning, and healthy, green schools. 

Data Tracking Opportunities 

A key first step for school facilities teams is to identify opportunities to use tracking and evaluation in an effort to demonstrate continuous improvement. A common misconception about evaluation processes is that they require sophisticated data systems, long measurement cycles, and significant up-front investments to be meaningful. However, it is possible to begin collecting and evaluating data for opportunities to enhance operations without these drawn-out processes.  

Data, such as work order turnaround time, feedback from facility occupants and building users, indoor air quality indicators, and deferred maintenance backlog information, can all provide a point-in-time perspective. Piloting strategies and collecting information on these parameters can show trends, changes, and improvements that can be scaled up or implemented across additional buildings.  

This approach helps facilities teams understand what is working, what types of activities or changes drive outcomes, and where small shifts could drive measurable impact. By defining a few core, controllable indicators, a baseline for improvement is created, and operational credibility can be built with broader stakeholders. 

Bring Data to Life 

Data and numbers are important and necessary for understanding the nature of issues and ultimately make decisions, but stories often create connections and help leaders remember important information and why it matters. Evaluation becomes more powerful when school facilities teams translate data into human-centered stories that demonstrate impact.  

By pairing data with real-world stories, facilities teams can make outcomes visible and relatable for decision makers; reinforce the connection between facilities work and district priorities; provide leaders with concrete examples they can share with boards, families, and the community; and build long-term trust by demonstrating transparency and results. 

For example, reporting that “air quality improved by X percent along these parameters through the following strategies…” is useful. Tying that to additional outcomes such as, “Teachers have noticed fewer student complaints and improved focus in classrooms,” makes the impact tangible. 

Adding a story that illustrates the data helps leadership understand why facility investments matter and how they connect directly to student outcomes, staff well-being, and operational efficiency. 

Leadership support is often influenced by how clearly initiatives are understood and how tangible their impact appears. Commitment from leaders strengthens when efforts contribute to broader institutional goals, and there is clear evidence to inform decisions. When facilities teams see evaluation and feedback loops resulting in greater commitment and additional resources, it can build momentum for a more consistent and sustained approach to evaluation. 

Connecting evaluation stories to cost savings, health and safety improvements, reduced staff absenteeism, and priority outcomes—including sustainability and learning—is generally a good place to start. This alignment strengthens the team’s voice within leadership and reinforces the role of facilities in supporting academic success and community well-being. 

School facilities teams are uniquely positioned to drive meaningful change across their institutions. This requires the ability to demonstrate what works and why it matters. By focusing on practical metrics and telling the story behind data, cleaning managers can elevate evaluation from a cumbersome reporting task to a strategic opportunity for continuous improvement and leadership buy-in. 

Sara Porter has worked with Healthy Schools Campaign for more than 15 years. She currently serves as director of Healthy Green Schools & Colleges, a program that helps K12 and higher education institutions identify and implement low- and no-cost measures that improve indoor air quality, among other initiatives. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from DePaul University.