Outsourcing Considerations for Douglas County School District

Abstract

Due to inefficiencies in staffing and response rates to work order requests, including providing the appropriate preventative maintenance for facilities and equipment, Douglas County School District is seeking ways to shift some of the operational responsibilities to third-party vendors through supplemental service agreements, otherwise known as outsourcing.

This project looks at the costs and effectiveness of performing facility management functions for the Douglas County School District with third-party vendors, by contracting for as-needed services through an outsourcing vendor. Actual data for the Douglas County School District is obtained for the fiscal year ending 2022, including financial and data related to the responsibilities of the Douglas County School District facilities management department.

The custodial services, grounds services, and operation/maintenance disciplines, which comprise the larger facilities management department, were analyzed and used for this project. The project found that outsourcing comes in many different models. Each organization must custom-fit these models to accommodate their needs, which could be customer service related, the availability of funds, or other reasons.