Preventative vs. Reactive Maintenance in Schools

The Problem with Purely Reactive Maintenance

If your school facility management purely relies on "if it breaks, fix it," you are losing money on every single repair job. Putting out small fires as they arrive is stressful on staff, incredibly disruptive to teaching, and always triggers a hefty "emergency call-out" fee from your suppliers.

Setting Up a Preventative Schedule

A preventative schedule assumes that certain assets will eventually degrade. It covers:

• HVAC and air-conditioner servicing (checking filters, running coolant diagnostics).
• Roof inspections before heavy rain seasons.
• Fire safety compliance and extinguisher checks.

Balancing the Budget

There is a harsh mathematical reality: A routine commercial HVAC inspection might cost $200. A blown HVAC module from overworking an undetected clogged filter requires an emergency replacement that can easily exceed $6,000.

Using Software to Automate Reminders

You cannot execute preventative maintenance effectively inside a calendar app. Modern facilities need software that automatically generates new maintenance requests based on dates.